The Portland Hacker Foundation is a 501(c)(3) with a goal to take donations from the community and issue the funds as grants to people or organizations in the community who are building great things, with a strong focus on information security and related fields, especially those aligned with a strong hacker ethos. Grants will specifically target asymmetric impact, where small amounts of money ($1k, $5k, $10k, etc.) will enable significant work in the space. For this reason, early on, the most likely targets will be University research projects.
Funding
As it stands, the current idea is that we would collect tax-deductible donations from the general public and organizations in our community, which will immediately be stored in a treasury consisting of low-risk index funds managed by Vanguard or similar. Maybe strategically across VITAX, VTSAX, VTIVX, etc.
Every year, maybe January 1st, the size of the treasury will be observed, and expenses for the year will be calculated. Up to 5% of the treasury will go towards grants, up to 2% on events, and up to 2% on employee salary. Events and salary budget will likely not be accessed in the first few years of operation until the treasury grows to a sustainable size. Long term, if there are any full-time employees that need to be hired, their salaries will be capped at $100k, possibly pegged to 2025 inflation. The idea is to grow the treasury every year to enable more grants to the community as the treasury continues to grow.
Community Deliverables
Monthly HACKLUNCH to discuss various foundation-related topics. At least in the beginning, these events would be paid for out of pocket by individual attendees rather than using the events budget.
There will be a website for people to submit grant proposals, and at least once a year, a voting ceremony to determine who will receive grants for their projects. There may also be a Discord server, or similar, where people can discuss foundation-related business.
Sponsor Subscriptions
We might include the ability for community sponsor to pay sponsorship subscriptions. Maybe at three levels: $10 a year, $100 a year, and $1,000 a year. When the time comes to vote on grant proposals, maybe sponsors will have the ability to vote on projects they want to fund with a weight of 1, 2, and 3 votes according to their sponsorship level.
Values
At PDXHF we strongly value diversity and inclusion to ensure maximum funding impact. We also support human rights for all humans, education, localism, artistic creativity, and the general Portlandian weirdness that keeps Portland a safe space for the type of creative work we need to build and grow as a leader in the global community.