Launching the Handmade Software Foundation

Summary

Hello Handmade Network, and happy new year! 2025 was a relatively quiet year for us where we focused on just running our jams and building relationships across the Handmade community. But we’ve got lots of plans for 2026 and we’ve already been at work kicking them off! TL;DR: We are finally launching the Handmade Software Foundation and using it to support the development of more Handmade software We’re planning an in-person gathering for this spring, more details forthcoming We’ll be doing two jams as usual, dates TBD based on other events Launching the Handmade Software Foundation A few years ago we announced that we were creating a nonprofit to support the development of Handmade software. Well, it took some time, but I am pleased to announce that the Handmade Software Foundation is now officially a 501(c)(6) nonprofit corporation. What does this mean? It means we are a nonprofit under the category carved out for business leagues, chambers of commerce, etc. In other words, we have a nonprofit category that allows us to work towards improving business conditions in the software industry. This is perfect for us, because the software industry desperately needs fixing, and by supporting Handmade software we can make more programmers aware of how powerful computers are, while also providing direct benefit to Foundation members. And the nonprofit status exempts us from income tax, meaning that 100% of donations will go directly to the nonprofit, not the government. The 501(c)(6) differs from the more familiar 501(c)(3) designation in that we are not a charity. The 501(c)(3) is explicitly designed for charitable organizations, and confers the additional benefit of donations being tax-deductible. Over time, though, the definition of a 501(c)(3) has become extremely distorted, especially in the software space, since companies were able to convince the IRS that making open-source software is a charitable/scientific activity. The result is that large companies were able to ...