Governance

The Foundation runs on a set of public documents. Each document can only be changed through the rules defined inside it. Some parts of these documents cannot be changed at all — not by any vote, not by any future trustee, not by any commercial licensee.

Two-entity architecture

The Foundation is organized as two distinct legal entities working in concert. The split resolves a structural tension that a single-entity 501(c)(3) cannot resolve: the IRS dissolution rules for an exempt operating charity require operating assets to be distributed to another exempt organization or government, while the Charter's anti-capture defense requires the trademarks and the custodial governance authority to be held under terms that cannot be lost in a dissolution scenario.

The two entities are connected by a trademark license agreement between the Trust (licensor) and the Foundation (licensee). The license is conditioned on the Foundation continuing to operate consistent with its stated charitable purposes and immutable governance provisions. The Trust may revoke the license through the procedure specified in its organizational documents. Revocation is the structural anti-capture defense: it ensures the trademark is administered in trust for the mission and is not subordinated to any operational decision of the Foundation that would deviate from the immutable provisions.

Trust trademark licensing and the flow of mark-derived revenue

The Trust's licensing posture is integrity-protective rather than revenue-maximizing. Licenses to commercial third parties are conditioned on the licensee's compliance with the methodology specifications and the Foundation's published quality thresholds. Licensing fees, where charged, are set at cost-recovery rates intended to fund the Trust's administrative costs of mark stewardship (trademark registration and renewal, legal defense of the marks against dilutive or deceptive use, and modest administrative expense for the trustees acting in their custodial capacity).

The Foundation acknowledges that the value of the marks is created and enhanced by the Foundation's research and educational work, and the Foundation-Trust revenue architecture is structured accordingly. Net licensing revenue received by the Trust, after the Trust's bona fide administrative costs of mark stewardship, is paid to the Foundation as charitable grants or otherwise applied by the Trust to activities that further the charitable purposes the marks represent (cross-traditional convenings, open-access publication of Foundation research, support for the Foundation's certification program). The Trust does not retain accumulated net commercial licensing revenue for distribution to its trustees or to the founder personally; trustee compensation is limited to reasonable reimbursement and modest fixed administrative honoraria, with no performance-based or revenue-share component.

The Trust's "reversion-to-Author" dissolution clause does not encompass accumulated commercial licensing revenue derived from value created by the Foundation's research and educational work. On dissolution of the Trust, any such accumulated revenue is directed to a successor charitable organization that qualifies as exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. This carve-out from the reversion-to-Author clause will be made explicit in the Trust's organizational documents at the time of the Trust's constitution.

Lobbying and political-campaign activity

The Foundation does not and will not engage in any substantial lobbying activity within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3), and does not and will not participate or intervene in any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office. This representation is consistent with the activity-limitation clause of Article IV §3 of the Articles of Incorporation, which adopts the Internal Revenue Service Publication 557 model language verbatim.

Filed and incorporation documents

Governance documents