Donate

These are the different donation options currently supported by the project. Remember, FreeCAD is Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS), and it will never be required to pay money to use, study, distribute or develop FreeCAD. Donations however help FreeCAD and its developers to dedicate time and resources to make the project grow faster and further.

Donations to the FreeCAD project are received and handled by the FreeCAD project association (FPA). See below for more details.

• FreeCAD has an official PayPal account where you can donate any amount by credit card or your own Paypal account, one time only or recurrently. The PayPal account is managed by the FPA. Paypal is a convenient platform but charges a fee on what FreeCAD receives.

• FreeCAD has an Euro bank account where you can transfer money directly via your own banking application. The IBAN number is BE04 0019 2896 4531, owned by the FPA. The bank agency is BNP Paribas Fortis, address: Rue de la Station 64, 1360 Perwez, Belgium, BIC/SWIFT code: GEBABEBBXXX

• FreeCAD has an official OpenCollective PayPal account where you can donate any amount, one time only or recurrently, via credit card, SEPA transfer or Paypal. The OpenCollective account is managed by the FPA. OpenCollective is a good option as it is independent and used by many open-source projects. OpenCollective is also a 501(c)(6) non-profit organization and can issue donation receipts that may be useful for US taxpayers (though donations are not typically tax-deductible).

• GitHub sponsors is a sponsoring platform offered by GitHub, where the FreeCAD source code is hosted. There you can donate any amount monthly to FreeCAD, via credit card or Paypal. The GitHub sponsors account is managed by the FPA.

• FreeCAD has a Stripe donation account managed by the FPA, where you can make a one-time donation via a credit card.

Sponsoring

We call sponsoring the act of donating money recurrently to the FreeCAD project. You can do that as an individual or as a company or institution, through different channels or platforms, depending on your preferences. You can sponsor FreeCAD via the sponsoring page.

Sponsoring FreeCAD allows its developers to count on a steady flow of income, so it allows the FPA to plan things ahead, and the FreeCAD developers to invest themselves more seriously into FreeCAD.

To encourage persons and companies to sponsor the FreeCAD project, we have created different sponsoring tiers. By donating regularly to the project, you will have the possibility to have your name, company name and/or logo to be featured on the FreeCAD website, depending on the tier you fit into:

• ♥ Normal sponsor: from 1 USD / 1 EUR per month. You will not have your name displayed on the sponsors page, but you will have helped the project a lot anyway. Together, normal sponsors maintain the project on its feet as much as the bigger sponsors.
• 🥉 Bronze sponsor: from 25 USD / 25 EUR per month. Allows you to have your name or company name displayed on the sponsors page.
• 🥈 Silver sponsor: from 100 USD / 100 EUR per month. Allows you to have your name or company name displayed on the sponsors page, with a link to your website, and a one-line description text.
• 🥇 Gold sponsor: from 200 USD / 200 EUR per month. Allows you to have your name or company name and logo displayed on the sponsors page, with a link to your website and a custom description text. Companies that have helped FreeCAD early on will also appear under Gold sponsors.

The FPA has a few ground rules that define types of donation or sponsoring that can be accepted or not.

Instead of donating each month, you might find it more comfortable to make a one-time donation that, when divided by twelve, would give you right to enter a sponsoring tier. Don't hesitate to do so!

The FPA

The FreeCAD project association (FPA) is a non-profit association created in 2022 by FreeCAD's administrators and core developers and seated in Belgium. It is responsible for transparently collecting, handling and distributing the money collected via donations. More details and reports are available on the FPA page.

Tax deductions

The FPA, although it is a non-profit organization, is not a charity organization. People and companies donating to the FPA are therefore not entitled to a tax deduction by Belgian law. Each country, however, has its own rules and laws to decide upon what gives their citizen right to tax reduction or not. You are always advised to consult the laws of your own country.

The FPA can anyway always issue a donation receipt. Mail us with your donation details and we will gladly send you a receipt.