<p>
SPI (Software in the Public Interest) is a non-profit corporation
registered in the state of New York founded to act as a fiscal sponsor
for organizations that develop open source software and hardware. For
details check here:
<a href="https://www.spi-inc.org/">www.spi-inc.org</a>
</p>

<p>
FFmpeg is an SPI associated project and donations can be collected and
handled by SPI on behalf of FFmpeg. For details about the association
check here:
<a href="https://www.spi-inc.org/projects/ffmpeg/">www.spi-inc.org/projects/ffmpeg/</a>
</p>

<br>

<h4>How to request refunds from SPI:</h4>
<p>
Send a mail to the ffmpeg-devel mailing-list with the [REFUND-REQUEST] tag and a short
description of the refund topic in the subject.
</p>

<p>
In the mail, you also need to provide the amount to be refunded, with
a short description of how the money was spent.
</p>

<p>
There is no need and is not recommeded to send receipts when sending
the refund request on the ffmpeg-devel mailing-list, but they are
usually needed later when the request is approved and the refund
request is sent to SPI:
<a href="https://www.spi-inc.org/treasurer/reimbursement-form/">www.spi-inc.org/treasurer/reimbursement-form</a>
</p>

<br>
<h4>What can be payed by SPI:</h4>
<p>
FFmpeg money collected at SPI can be used for any purpose which is in line with
501(c)3 nonprofit rules, and within our mission (Free & Open Source software).
</p>

<p>
In practice we frequently payed for travel and hardware.
For other refund expenses or sponsorships, it is recommended to
discuss them beforehand on ffmpeg-devel. If there is a community
agreement on their approval, the current FFmpeg liaison will followup
to get an approval on the SPI side.
</p>


<br>
<h4>Funding active development by SPI:</h4>
<p>
The texts below have been taken from multiple replies FFmpeg has
received from SPI, they have been edited
so that "I" was replaced by "SPI" in some cases.)
</p>
<p>
Paying for development *does* require substantial
additional paperwork, but it is not prohibited.
</p>
<p>
Several SPI projects pay contractors for development
efforts.  SPI needs a contract in place which describes the work to be
done.  There are also various things SPI needs to check about the potential
contractors (e.g. are they a US person or not, as with GSoC mentor payments;
are they really a contractor and not a employee).
</p>
<p>
SPI can't deal with employment at the moment because that involves a
lot of work, like health insurance, tax withholding, etc.  Contractors
are easier because they have to take care of that themselves; Whether
someone is a contractor vs employee depends on various factors (that
of course are different in every country) and can be disputed (see
e.g. the debate about whether Uber drivers are employees); SPI has a
questionnaire about their circumstances.
</p>
<p>
Unfortunately, there's no one-size-fits-all when dealing with
contractors, especially without knowing the contributor's country.
</p>
<p>
SPI does have some contract templates which depends on the contractors
country. In case of US, Australia, France and a couple others
countries, SPI can easily provide them, otherwise SPI would need to
ask their attorney to draft one, which would take some time.
</p>
<p>
Also, SPI has two models, Master Service Agreements (which transfers ownership)
and Continued Service Agreements (which grants a license instead). SPI usually
sends the MSA (it's better for most purposes), but for development purposes,
some projects prefer that the contractor retains ownership rights.
</p>

<br>
<h4>Invoicing SPI:</h4>
<p>
If you did some work for SPI or STF, and need to send SPI an invoice.
The way this works is to mail the treasurer of spi which opens a ticket at SPI.
In this initial mail CC jonatas, kassia, stefano and anyone else you deem
needed. Also provide in that mail or invoice any report(s) or anything
needed to verify your work.
</p>
<p>
SPI will verify your work and may have questions. Once its verfied and approved
it will be entered into the payment que by the treassurer. Expect it to stay in the
payment que for up to 1 month before you receive the payment.
</p>




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