This repository will hold examples of constitutions for bootstrapping the legal and economic aspects of associations in various countries, starting with France. Its purpose is to provide the minimum scaffolding necessary to quickly open a bank account for receiving donations and emitting tax-exempt donation receipts, while steering the evolution of the association towards democratic governance in the long run.
The evolution of the association is envisioned to proceed in two phases:
- Bootstrapping Phase
- Evolution Phase
Essentially, the bootstrapping phase concentrates powers in the hands of a few founders to make the administrative procedures go quickly. This enables resources to flow through the association as fast as possible. However, it defines conditions such that beyond a certain level of growth in both members and revenues, the governance switches to an evolution phase, in which the power will be distributed more evenly among all the members. At this point, the constitution should be adapted to the particular circumstances of the people composing the association. The existence of a built-in evolution mechanism should foster trust among the members joining the association during the bootstrapping phase.
Here is the list of constitution examples we currently are working on:
- France: in both French and English