When you donate to the FSF as an associate member, you support the essential freedoms for all computer users, with a sustaining contribution.
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Join with over 5,000 active members in 76 countries, representing a diverse membership of computer users, artists, software engineers, hackers, students, and activists.
When you donate as an associate member, you are part of an informed society working together to make a better world: respectful of individual freedom, social solidarity, personal privacy, and democracy — built on free software.
The Free Software Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, so your member donation is tax-deductible in the US.
“I've long been a supporter of the ideas of the FSF and the whole free software movement. Today, I wanted to make a tangible contribution to the FSF, as well as openly declaring my support for the key advocate and defender of software freedom.”
— Cathal McGinley, member #5886
Why donate as an associate member?
- As a software developer, free software lets you build and improve on the work of others, as part of a social community — built on the principles of sharing.
- As an artist, you can do things with free software that proprietary software does not allow. All free software allows you to use it for any purpose.
- As a user, free software removes you from the power struggle of proprietary software, where you are able to help yourself and are not dependent on a single developer or company to help you.
- As a student, you can study and modify the software you use, learning from and enhancing the tools that you use for education.
What kinds of associate memberships are there?
There are two classes of associate membership: the full associate membership that receives all of the member benefits, and the friends associate membership that allows you to contribute to the FSF at a reduced rate.
Both memberships are associate memberships. For the sake of simplicity, we just call the former associate membership and the latter friends membership.