Charity profile · Historical source record

Free Software Foundation

EIN 04-2888848Human and Civil Rights Massachusetts Small

Historical collection: May 2019 · Rating details mostly from 2017. Source & context

The mission

What this organization describes

Fighting for essential freedoms for computer users

The Free Software Foundation (FSF), founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting computer users' rights to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free software, particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants - and free documentation for free software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use of software. Current projects include GPL Version 3; the GPL Compliance Lab; the Free Software Directory; and Savannah, software development services provided to free software developers around the world. Additionally, FSF is committed to furthering the development of the GNU Operating System, providing development systems for GNU software maintainers.

Mission and tagline reproduced from the source record.

Historical scorecard

Three perspectives. One record.

96.66Overall score
out of 100

95.29Financial score
out of 100

100.00Accountability & transparency
out of 100

These are the dataset’s historical numeric fields, not a current rating or a new DonorAPI.com assessment. Read the score context ↗

Financial context

Revenue, expenses, and composition

Total revenue · USD$1,373,574

Total expenses · USD$1,233,394

Program expenses

$1,049,618.29 recorded amount

85.1%

Fundraising expenses

$82,637.40 recorded amount

6.7%

Administrative expenses

$98,671.52 recorded amount

8.0%

Fundraising efficiency: $0.06 spent per $1 raised in donations, as defined in the source.

Expense shares are displayed as percentages. Component amounts in this collection match total expenses multiplied by the source ratios; rounding can leave a small difference from the total. The source does not supply a row-specific fiscal year. Field definitions ↗

Historical leadership record

The leadership information supplied

Recorded leader: John Sullivan
Recorded compensation: $90,785.00
Recorded compensation percentage: 7.36%

These fields do not establish the current officeholder or current compensation. The metadata does not specify the denominator of the leader compensation percentage. Read with context ↗

Inspect all 23 original source fields

Exact source strings are retained below, including numeric precision. A blank value is marked as not reported; zero remains zero.

All 23 original fields for Free Software Foundation
Source field	Original source value
`ascore` Accountability & transparency score	100.0
`category` Category	Human and Civil Rights
`description` Mission & description	The Free Software Foundation (FSF), founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting computer users' rights to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free software, particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants - and free documentation for free software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use of software. Current projects include GPL Version 3; the GPL Compliance Lab; the Free Software Directory; and Savannah, software development services provided to free software developers around the world. Additionally, FSF is committed to furthering the development of the GNU Operating System, providing development systems for GNU software maintainers.
`ein` EIN	04-2888848
`tot_exp` Total expenses	1233394.0
`admin_exp_p` Administrative expense fraction	0.08
`fund_eff` Fundraising efficiency ($ per $1 raised)	0.06
`fund_exp_p` Fundraising expense fraction	0.067
`program_exp_p` Program expense fraction	0.851
`fscore` Financial score	95.29
`leader` Recorded leader	John Sullivan
`leader_comp` Recorded leader compensation	90785.0
`leader_comp_p` Recorded leader compensation fraction	0.0736
`motto` Tagline	Fighting for essential freedoms for computer users
`name` Charity name	Free Software Foundation
`tot_rev` Total revenue	1373574.0
`score` Overall score	96.66
`state` State code	MA
`subcategory` Subcategory	Advocacy and Education
`size` Source size label	small
`program_exp` Program expenses	1049618.294
`fund_exp` Fundraising expenses	82637.398
`admin_exp` Administrative expenses	98671.52

Identity & classification

At a glance

EIN: 04-2888848
Source category: Human and Civil Rights
Source subcategory: Advocacy and Education
Recorded location: Massachusetts (MA)
Expense-based size: Small
Under $3.5M in total expenses · source label: small

Explore alongside

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Linked by source subcategory, prioritizing the same recorded state. Not a recommendation or ranking.

A useful next step

Keep the context.

Check current organizational information separately before making a giving decision. This record does not include an official website, donation URL, or current eligibility field.

Giving research guide ↗

Source: Charity Navigator Scores Expenses Dataset, version 1, attributed to katyjqian on Kaggle. Collection: May 2019; rating details mostly from 2017. Read attribution, scope, and reuse notes.