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Contractors

3 min read

Engaging an independent contractor or consultant

When a contract is required

A contract is required whenever any of the following is true: 1) the consultant is one of the project leads, 2 the consultant will receive $5,000 or more in a calendar year, and/or 3) the contract is for $5,000 or more. We also encourage it in all cases! But can honor informal agreements when these conditions are not met.

Process

The process is as follows:

  1. Collect and/or develop the required information for the contract (see below)
  2. Ensure that the governing body of the project (either the Project Lead or the Project Committee) unanimously supports this contract1, down to the details of the pay rate, pay structure, and scope of work
  3. Use this form to request a contractor/consulting agreement
  4. Raft will review the information, and if there are no questions or concerns, send it out for signature
  5. After it is signed, Raft will forward a copy to all project leaders to let them know it has been signed
  6. The consultant may invoice the project on Open Collective, as described in the contract

Please contact us with any questions.

Required information

This is the information needed to submit the form to request:

  • Your own name and the project name (we already have your email!)
  • The name of the person sign the contract on behalf of the project (must be a Project Lead or Project Committee Member)
  • The consultant’s name
  • If applicable, the name of the legal entity with which the contract will be signed (i.e., if they have an LLC or other business entity they use)- The individual or entity’s contact email address (phone number optional)
  • The legal address of the individual or entity
  • The name of the signer at the consulting entity, and email if different from contact email
  • The start date (if not ASAP)
  • When the contract will end (on a day, after a number of months, after a milestone is done, or indefinitely)
  • A scope of work2
  • The payment scheme (hourly, monthly, single lump sum fee, fixed fee in two installments, or milestone based fee)
  • The details of the fee structure (the amount per hour/month/installment/milestone, with details per milestone3 where applicable)
  • Yes/no for whether or not they should be eligible to have their expenses reimbursed by the project4

Footnotes

  1. If it is not unanimous, please contact us. ↩

  2. A scope of work should include a detailed list of services – for deliverables required by a certain date, specify the date and the deliverable in sufficient detail to be able to determine compliance. ↩

  3. You must know the number of milestones, and provide title, completion criteria, anticipated completion date, and amount earned upon completion for each. ↩

  4. If they feel internal to the project, say “yes,” if they feel external (and perhaps have their own company to submit receipts to), say “no.” Or say “not sure” and contact us to talk it through. ↩

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