Organization

If you want to change the culture, you will have to start by changing the organization.

Mary Douglas

SPEC is organized as an open collective, a collaborative group that has a shared mission, which raises and spends funds transparently to achieve its goals. SPEC is hosted on Open Collective, which is an online funding platform that provides tools to raise and share its finances in full transparency. The platform enables groups to collect and disburse fundings, and makes all contributions and expenses 100% visible to the public. SPEC's budget and expenses can be found on its Open Collective page.

SPEC is fiscally sponsored by the Open Collective Foundation 501(c)(3) (OCF), which allows SPEC to operate without legally incorporating, and accept tax deductible donations, and pay its contributors. OCF's mission is to empower impact-focused groups working on increasing access to educational resources and training, creating a positive social impact, and fostering civic participation within cities and communities.

Currently, SPEC is entirely funded by individual donors including its co-founders, steering committee, and community members. SPEC's team is 100% distributed and composed of part-time contributors and volunteers. SPEC's co-founders and steering committee work entirely on a volunteer basis, have no financial stake in the collective, and do not receive compensation in any form.