Expense Basics

• We can only process expenses approved by an admin of the project.
• Expenses cannot be paid in advance; invoices must be for completed work, and reimbursements must be for purchases that have already been paid for.
• If a vendor requires a partial payment for a reservation, a written invoice must be submitted that includes the reservation details and clearly defines a reimbursement policy.
• The payment method (Bank or PayPal account) must be in the name of the Payee. Expense submitters can add their “Legal Name” in their profile settings. This field remains private and is only viewable to platform admins.
• Payouts must be detailed and itemized; lump sum payments or future expenses are not allowed.
• We can not process payments for expenses incurred before you received the grant.
• All funds are held in USD. When submitting an expense, the amount can be paid out in your local currency based on the exchange rate and any applicable currency conversion fees may apply.

Things We Can and Cannot Pay For

Eligible Expenses

If an expense directly supports your open source project, it’s usually eligible. Sometimes we may ask for more context, and when we ask for extra details, it’s to ensure the expense meets legal and eligibility requirements.

You can use your grant funds for:

• Payments to contributors for completed work
• Reimbursements for project-related purchases
• Infrastructure costs (e.g. domain, hosting, software subscriptions, servers)

Ineligible Expenses

Funds cannot be used for:

• Personal expenses unrelated to the project (e.g. rent, clothing)
• Work that has not yet been completed
• Transferring funds to a private business
• Expenses that do not align with our mission
• Expenses without a clear connection to the project and it’s open source work
• Giftcards

Not sure if something qualifies?

If you’re unsure whether an expense is eligible, reach out to us before spending. Email us at hello@modding.foundation.

Method of Payment

Payment methods must be owned by the expense payee. We only make payments via:

• Wise (bank transfer)
• PayPal

Permitted Countries, OFAC Checks and Payment Restrictions

• We cannot process payments to OFAC comprehensively sanctioned regions
• Payments may also be restricted in certain other countries subject to OFAC sanctions
• Payments are processed via PayPal and Wise, but some banks may not be supported by their services
  • Paypal’s supported countries can be found here
  • Wise’s supported countries can be found here
• Some bank transfers may require intermediary banks, which may result in additional fees beyond our control.
• Payments to some countries can result in higher fees due to banking infrastructure, the regulatory environment, currency exchange practices and interbank agreements.
  • One country that has such practices is Nigeria, due to this reason, a minimum balance of $30 USD is required for payouts as these fees often exceed $15 USD.

Additional Verification and Policy Compliance

• Some expenses may require additional verification. We will request further documentation if necessary. We may occasionally ask for links, documentation or proof of work to submitted expenses.
• Failure to follow expense policies may result in a project’s page being frozen