How money would move in Topsoil Commons, stated in the open before any money moves. Written October 15, 2026. The ledger that proves every word here is The Funds Ledger.
The state today
As of October 15, 2026, Topsoil Commons has received no funds: no donations, no grants, and no sales revenue. The count of amounts received is zero, and the count of amounts spent is zero. No money is held by the project, and no money is held by its advisor on the project's behalf.
The one channel
When money does move, it moves through one channel only: the fiscal host. Money for the Commons is never received into a personal account, and it is never handled in cash in private. A gift or a grant has somewhere lawful to land that is not a person's own name, and every landing is visible in the funds ledger.
The intended host, not yet appointed
The intended host is Open Source Collective. It is intended, not appointed. An application was submitted to Open Source Collective on October 16, 2026, and is under review. No appointment has been made.
The host's terms, read from its own documentation on October 15, 2026: a fixed host fee of 10 percent of incoming funds, collected when the money arrives, with no setup fees, no minimum balances, and no recurring charges. Payment processors charge their own fees on top of that.
Two open items stand in the open. The host asks that a project live under an organizational repository rather than a personal account, and the Commons' work lives under the topsoilcommons GitHub account; whether the host accepts that account as it stands is the host's call. And the host is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit, so gifts given through it are not tax deductible charitable contributions for United States donors.
What money would be spent on
These are intentions, not promises, and they are the only categories: keeping the tools running and the listings verified; building and checking the layers; making the tools reachable to more people, in more languages and at more reading levels; and community pilots, including participatory budgets whose spending the members decide. Nothing outside the work of the Commons is paid for from Commons funds.
What has not been decided is stated as not decided. When the ecosystem produces revenue beyond the builder's livelihood, the public contribution ledger is the basis for sharing it, and the terms will be published before money moves. The members set those terms.
The reporting rule
Every amount received and every amount spent is entered in The Funds Ledger, with its date, its source or its purpose, and its amount. The ledger is reconciled to the host's own statements, so any stranger can check an entry against the statement it came from.
House rule, set by the builders and open to the members to change: an entry is made within seven days of the host's statement showing the movement. This timing is a house rule, not a line from the charter.
What is never sold
Governance is never sold. Votes are never sold. Credit is never sold, and recognition follows verified contribution only. The framing of the questions the members vote on is never sold. Personal data is never sold. The right to leave, and to carry the work on by forking it, is never sold. A place at the table is lost only for proven unfairness, in the open, and it is never bought back.
The advisor's pay
The advisor is paid nothing from Commons funds. That is the present fact, and it is the rule: it stays true unless and until terms saying otherwise are published in advance in this document. This rule governs Commons funds, the money held for the project. It does not change the published intention that the builder earns his own living from adoption, services, training, and anchor partnerships, earned in the open, with governance never part of the price.
One rule stands over all of it: raise the floor beneath everyone.