Ubuntu – Do donations go to Canonical or to the Ubuntu Foundation

donation

In the downloads page, you can contribute to Ubuntu by donating money. I recall someone saying that this money goes to for-profit Canonical to do as they please, and not to the not-for-profit Ubuntu Foundation. Can anyone find a source for this assertion?

Best Answer

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Foundation

The Ubuntu Foundation is a purpose trust founded by Mark Shuttleworth and Canonical Ltd. to ensure the long-term maintenance of the Ubuntu Linux distribution independently of the commercial activities of Canonical Ltd. Its initial funding commitment is $10M. Its current advisory board is made up of chairman Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical Ltd., and representatives of the Ubuntu Community Council and the Ubuntu Technical Board.

Although it was originally announced that the Ubuntu Foundation would employ core members of the Ubuntu community[2] as of 2008, the Foundation remains dormant. Mark Shuttleworth describes it as an "emergency fund" in the event that Canonical's involvement in the Ubuntu project ends.

I think you'll need to contact Canonical's legal staff for a full answer of how the money is managed and allocated in relation to Ubuntu, and to ask for that clarification to be included on the donation page of the site as well. However, given the dormancy of Ubuntu Foundation, one can infer that the money is handled by Canonical and is allocated to activities pertinent to Ubuntu.