Yorba Foundation

{{short description|Non-profit organization}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2016}}

{{Infobox organization

| name = Yorba Foundation

| logo = Yorba Foundation logo.svg

| logo_size = 150px

| founder = Adam Dingle

| founded_date = {{Start date and age|2009|February|17}}

| type = Community

| location = San Francisco, United States

| key_people =

| focus = Office software

| products = Shotwell, Geary

| slogan =

| staff = 5

| website = {{URL|http://www.yorba.org}}
{{URL|https://twitter.com/yorba_org}} (Twitter)

| dissolved = {{Start date and age|2015|October|25}}

}}

Yorba Foundation was a non-profit software group based in San Francisco, and founded by Adam Dingle wanting to bring first class software to the open source community. This organization had been created to answer people thinking open source brings hard to use, clunky and low-quality software usable only by hackers.

The company was made of 5 employees: Jim Nelson (coder and executive director), Adam Dingle (founder), Charles Lindsay, Eric Gregory and Nate Lillich (software engineers).

History

In December 2009, Yorba Foundation applied to get the 501(c)(3) status. After some requests for clarification by IRS in June 23, 2010 and September 14, 2010. On May 22, 2014, Yorba's nonprofit status was denied. The IRS explained that the organization makes software that can be used by any person for any purpose, and not just for a specific community. Therefore, Yorba cannot be considered as a charity even though the Apache Foundation, with exactly the same purpose, was considered a nonprofit. Although this status would have helped, according to Jim Nelson, Yorba's existence didn't hinge on it.

On October 31, 2013, Yorba moved from San Francisco's Mission District to its Financial District.{{Cite web|url=http://www.yorba.org:80/about/contact-us/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130325073754/http://www.yorba.org:80/about/contact-us/|archive-date=March 25, 2013|title=Contact Us | Yorba}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.yorba.org:80/about/contact-us/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140217193700/http://www.yorba.org:80/about/contact-us/|archive-date=February 17, 2014|title=Contact Us | Yorba}}{{cite web |url=http://yorba.org/about/donate/ |title=Donate to Yorba |website=yorba.org |access-date=13 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150920025533/http://yorba.org/about/donate/ |archive-date=20 September 2015 |url-status=dead}}

By the end of April 2015, the last Yorba employee, Jim Nelson, left the foundation.

After a direct contact with Adam Dingle The stated reason for the closure is lack of financially sustainability: funding ran out, and donations did not match expenses. Even if Yorba had received the 501(c)(3) status allowing it to be tax exempt, it's not likely to have helped much.

On October 25, 2015, the following message was posted on their webpage without any further explanation:{{blockquote|Yorba was a non-profit free software group based in San Francisco that was active from 2009 until early 2015}}

May 2016 marked the beginning of the formal dissolution of the organization with the complete dissolution happening later that year.

In May 2016, Yorba reassigned the copyright of all their software to the Software Freedom Conservancy except for their California calendar application which will be assigned in the near future due to an oversight on Yorba's part.

Main developments

= Shotwell =

{{Main|Shotwell (software)}}

Shotwell is an image manager for the GNOME 3 desktop, which features:

  • Importing from local storage or a camera.{{Cite web |title=Apps/Shotwell - GNOME Wiki! |url=https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Shotwell |access-date=2023-11-29 |website=wiki.gnome.org}}
  • Uploading images to photo sharing services, such as Flickr and Tumblr.
  • Organization by time, keywords, or folders.

References

{{reflist|30em|refs=

{{cite web|url=http://yorba.org/docs/IRS-determination-letter-final.pdf|title=IRS response to 501(C)(3) Yorba Foundation application|access-date=June 27, 2015}}

{{cite web|url=http://yorba.org/about/donate/ |title=Donate to Yorba |access-date=June 27, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150920025533/http://yorba.org/about/donate/ |archive-date=September 20, 2015 }}

{{cite web|url=https://blogs.gnome.org/jnelson/2012/07/16/yorba-at-guadec-a-coruna/|title=YORBA AT GUADEC, A CORUÑA|access-date=June 27, 2015}}

{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PewB_M64-jk|title=Geary: a beautiful modern open-source email client|website=YouTube|access-date=June 27, 2015}}

{{cite web|url=https://github.com/GNOME/geary/blob/master/AUTHORS|title=AUTHORS|website=GitHub|access-date=June 27, 2015}}

{{cite web|url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/2608304/open-source-software/are-open-source-foundations-nonprofits--the-irs-says-no.html|title=Are open source foundations nonprofits? The IRS says no|date=July 8, 2014|access-date=June 28, 2015}}

{{cite web|url=https://blogs.gnome.org/jnelson/2014/06/30/the-new-501c3-and-the-future-of-free-software-in-the-united-states/|title=THE NEW 501(C)(3) AND THE FUTURE OF FREE SOFTWARE IN THE UNITED STATES|access-date=June 28, 2015}}

{{cite web|url=https://blogs.gnome.org/jnelson/2013/10/31/october-miscellany/|title=OCTOBER MISCELLANY|access-date=June 27, 2015}}

{{cite web|url=https://mail.gnome.org/archives/geary-list/2016-July/msg00002.html|title=Re: Yorba status|date=November 16, 2015|access-date=November 17, 2015}}

{{cite web|url=https://sfconservancy.org/news/2016/may/10/yorba-assigns-copyrights/|title=Yorba Assigns Shotwell and Geary Copyrights to Software Freedom Conservancy|date=May 10, 2016|access-date=June 25, 2016}}

{{cite web|url=https://mail.gnome.org/archives/geary-list/2016-July/msg00004.html|title=Re: Yorba status – Geary article|date=June 26, 2016|access-date=July 5, 2016}}

{{cite web|url=https://mail.gnome.org/archives/geary-list/2016-July/msg00005.html|title=Re: Yorba status – Geary article|date=June 26, 2016|access-date=July 5, 2016}}

}}

{{FOSS}}

Category:Organizations established in 2009

Category:Free software project foundations based in the United States

Category:Non-profit organizations based in San Francisco

Category:2009 establishments in California

Category:Defunct non-profit organizations based in the United States

Category:2015 disestablishments in California

Category:Organizations disestablished in 2015