Organizations#

An Organization keeps its money in its own bank account, has its own legal status, and carries out its own administration. If you opt to be an Organization, you can still use Open Collective to manage your finances and accept contributions, but you will not receive the support of a Fiscal Host.

You should consider registering as an Organization if:

You already have a bank account that you can use to hold your Organization's money
You have your own legal status e.g. LLC incorporated, 501c3 charity status etc.
You are able to take full responsibility for accounting, taxes, liability, payments and financial administration
You are able to set up a Stripe and/or Wise account to manage payments (we recommend using our automation features)
You want to have complete control over your Organization’s activities and the ability to set your own policies and procedures.

If you want to host more than one Organization, it may be better to set up your own Fiscal Host.

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If you decide to be an Organization, it will be up to you to manage your funds, and handle your own accounting, legal status, and compliance.

You may seek support from the Open Collective team on issues related to the platform, but we will not offer advice on the administration of your Organization. While Open Collective acts as a transparent virtual ledger for your Organization, it is not a bank account or fully-featured accounting software.

If you are in any doubt about your ability to manage your funds and admin effectively, we strongly recommend applying to a Fiscal Host instead.
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Converting back to a Collective#

If you no longer want to manage money as an Organization, you can convert your account back to a Collective from Dashboard > Settings > Advanced. You must first deactivate money management and fiscal hosting, and bring your balance to zero.

See Creating an Organization for the full steps and requirements.

Find out more#

creating-an-organization

Find out how to set up an Organization from scratch, convert an existing Collective, or move away from a Fiscal Host

managing-organization-finances.md

Learn the basics about managing money on the Open Collective platform

Organizations#

You should consider registering as an Organization if:

You already have a bank account that you can use to hold your Organization's money

You have your own legal status e.g. LLC incorporated, 501c3 charity status etc.

You are able to take full responsibility for accounting, taxes, liability, payments and financial administration

You are able to set up a Stripe and/or Wise account to manage payments (we recommend using our automation features)

You want to have complete control over your Organization’s activities and the ability to set your own policies and procedures.