Re:Why not a non-profit ASP for nonprofit orgs? (Score 1)

While I can certainly understand the advantages of converting from a nonprofit organization to a for profit corporation, there are quite a few reasons that the nonprofit ASP I work with (pathways-usa.org) has opted not to make the change.

First, your corporate partners realize greater benefit when they work with you. In addition to making a positive impact on the community, there are positive tax implications. Second, it fosters the same sense of community and common purpose that is often present in the open source movement... which means that people with important skills and contacts make themselves available to you simply because they want to be part of the solution to the problem that's being addressed.

Without these positives, it would have been very difficult for Pathways Community Network to build a nationally honored secure data system. And it would have been very hard to break out of the pack and gain national attention.

The only significant down side to the nonprofit ASP model, in my opinion, is that - because traditional nonprofit funders don't want to pay for ongoing operations - licensing costs have to be passed on to the nonprofits that are being served. If the ASP is doing e-commerce applications, this can be a significant barrier.

This is where open source is most valuable, and it's why we at Pathways are convinced that open source is going to make a big difference in the effectiveness of, and quality of care at social services organizations around the world.


-Bill Matson
pathways-usa.org