• Anyone can create an ORCA Contributor Fund, even if they are themselves not running an open source project.
• Identify the people from across the world whose contributions enable or expand revenue to your project.
• You split the dedicated funds among impactful contributors.

Implementation Process

You have complete discretion over assignment of contributor levels, their expiration, and compensation for each level. You also are responsible for honoring any agreements you sign with contributors.

1. Open a contributor fund

   Each quarter, deposit a share of your revenue to split among contributors. Leave any funds left after compensating contributors to roll over to the next quarter.

2. Assess contributions

   Each quarter, determine the impact of recent contributions and assign the corresponding contributors to a contributor level.

   While a contributor's level is subject to expiration, each qualifying contribution can raise that contributor's level or postpone expiration. A contributor's level should be based on work already completed and in production.

   Contributor levels aren't permanent. Impactful changes might raise someone's level for a year or more. Smaller changes might expire sooner. ORCA is for high impact contributors, so it may not be a good fit for everyone that contributes to your project.

3. Pay your contributors

   Calculate compensation amounts for contributors all at once, and provide a copy of the calculations to each contributor along with payment.

A few words from the legal team behind ORCA

The Open Retrospective Compensation Agreement was drafted by a lawyer, but not by your lawyer. Before using any of these forms or structures, you should consult with a lawyer who is qualified to advise on you or your company’s particular jurisdiction and situation. You have permission to copy and distribute modified or unmodified copies of the ORCA form, but if you make any change to the form (other than filling in party names and payment amounts), you must not use the ORCA or Open Retrospective Compensation Agreement name.

Neither Metered nor Mozilla assume responsibility for the contents of, or the consequence of using, any version of the agreement or any other document found on our website. METERED AND MOZILLA DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.