# Is OSC Right For My Project?

If managing the financial or legal aspects of your open-source project is consuming too much time, fiscal hosting can help. The Open Source Collective (OSC) helps take care of the financial, legal, and administrative work, allowing you to focus on your project. 

Fiscal hosting isn't right for every project, though. If you don't need help managing money or legal agreements yet, OSC's structure might introduce more process than you need at this stage. 

Continue reading to see when OSC suits your project, when it doesn't, and what other fundraising tools are available if fiscal hosting isn't the right fit. 

## When We Might Be a Good Fit

<table><thead><tr><th width="290.1197509765625">OSC Might Be a Good Fit If You:</th><th>Why:</th><th data-hidden></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Don't want to manage finances</td><td>OSC handles accounting, taxes, and compliance</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Receive corporate or institutional funding</td><td>OSC is registered as an approved vendor and can facilitate payments from organizations</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Prefer not to hold project funds</td><td>Funds are securely held by OSC, so you're not personally liable — except for taxes on payments made to you</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Need to pay multiple contributors</td><td>Easily distribute payments to your team in different countries</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Want financial transparency</td><td>We use the Open Collective platform, which provides a transparent ledger</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Make regular payments to people or companies</td><td>Simplifies financial workflows for ongoing expenses</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Want to offer employment and benefits</td><td>OSC supports employment contracts, payroll, and benefits</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Need help with contracts that will involve funds that OSC hold</td><td>OSC can review and sign agreements for you, as long as they are contracts that we have the ability to oversee</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Have international contributors who receive payments</td><td>OSC can distribute funds globally</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Will be receiving general contributions to support your project's open source work, rather than business transactions that do not benefit the open source aspect of your project</td><td>OSC is designed to support open source sustainability by handling funds that benefit open source. We are not structured to process business income intended for individual benefit or specific client transactions.</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

If this sounds like you, review our [Ready to Apply? page](https://docs.oscollective.org/how-to-apply) and then apply [here](https://opencollective.com/opensource/apply).

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## When We Might Not Be a Good Fit

<table><thead><tr><th>OSC May Not Be a Good Fit If You:</th><th>Why:</th><th data-hidden></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Are the only person handling finances and don't need transparency</td><td>OSC is designed for collaborative projects that benefit from financial transparency</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>You only need to pay one person (including yourself)</td><td>Fiscal hosting is better suited for projects with multiple contributors that require payment</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Expect to receive less than $600 USD in donations annually</td><td>Smaller projects may find other platforms more suitable</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Don't use an open source license</td><td>We only host projects with active licenses</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Don't want to share or open up ownership of your project</td><td>OSC does not host projects that are tied to an individual's personal repository. To be eligible, projects must be organized under organizational repositories, to ensure shared ownership</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Want to hold funds in a currency other than USD</td><td>As a U.S. nonprofit, we only hold funds in USD. The Open Collective platform will convert payments automatically from other currencies into USD.</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Need payments sent to a country under sanctions</td><td>As a U.S., organization, we cannot process payments to sanctioned countries</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Are looking to accept funds for services or business transactions that directly benefit an individual or customer, rather than general contributions to support open source work.</td><td>OSC is structured to facilitate funding for supporting open source, not to function as a payment processor for business income when it benefits an individual rather than the broader project or open source ecosystem.</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

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## Alternative Fundraising Platforms

Every project has unique needs, and if fiscal hosting feels unnecessary, you may want to explore fundraising platforms better suited for individuals to collect contributions directly, such as:

* [Github Sponsors](https://github.com/sponsors)
* [Liberapay](https://en.liberapay.com/)
* [Ko-Fi](https://ko-fi.com/)
* [Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/)