Impact and Financial Summary

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Filings

  • You can view OSE's Form 990 public filings from 2012 onward at ProPublica - [1]

About

Nonprofit corporations are required to file an annual tax return. From [2]:

  • Smaller nonprofits with gross receipts of less than $50,000 file Form 990-N (e-Postcard)
  • Larger nonprofits with gross receipts of more than $50,000 file Form 990 or 990-EZ
  • If gross is less than $200k, 990-EZ may be used

To fill out, we need the yearly OSE P&L statement, and Monthly Statements.

501(c)3 Details

  • 501(c)3s are further categorized by the source of their revenue, which is describe in section 509(a) [3]. The source of revenue can be the public - (a)(1), or the public and program revenue - (a)(2).
  • According to [4] - the public support test means that at least 1/3 of the organization's revenue comes from the public. This means by donors who give less than 2% of the nonprofit’s overall receipts... For organizations that also get funds from sales of goods or services (this is called program revenue), such revenue counts toward the public support test also.

Procedure

  • Compose P&L by reviewing bank records from the former fiscal year. Starting balance is that from december statement which goes up to 12/31/XX of 2 years ago. That is the start balance. The end balance is 12/31/XX+1 - or last year December statement.
  • Go online -


2025 Fiscal Year Filing

Impact and Financial Summary

In 2025, Open Source Ecology reached several major operational and organizational milestones centered around open-source housing, education, and collaborative design infrastructure.

The most significant outcome of the year was traction on the Builder Crash Course since the first l successful iteration of the builder crash course during the 2020 Summer of Extreme Design & Build, which was discontinued for several years as OSE continued on new prototype iterations. The builder crash course hosted approximately 50 participants in a hands-on construction and training program based around a production-ready open-source home build. During the year, OSE also sold one home — the Seed Eco-Home 6 — to a local customer. A second model, the Seed Eco-Home 4, was completed and placed on the market.

On the documentation and technology front, OSE began the process of externalizing organizational know-how into publicly usable design software and automated workflow documentation. This effort evolved into the initial development of the Iconic CAD platform in 2026, intended as an open collaborative design environment for housing and broader civilization infrastructure.

The organization invested approximately $250k in home construction and infrastructure development during the year. OSE also received more than $500,000 in revenue, including support from a major foundation partner.

OSE significantly expanded its public reach and visibility during the year. OSE engaged in rebranding and clarification of the OSE mission and public image (see OSE Polarity Brand World). The organization’s How I Found True Freedom video reached a 30M+ audience online.

While initial program launch efforts in September faced operational and recruitment challenges, the December 2025 Builder Crash Course demonstrated substantial improvement in participation, and stimulated effort towards scalable organizational readiness across its programs: the Future Builders Academy, Builder Crash Course, and Financial Independence Package . Following the large turnout and infrastructure strain experienced during the December program, OSE began a major infrastructure upgrade effort to support future cohorts and expanded operations.

OSE initiated the Future Builders Academy to develop scalable pathways for training builders and collaborative practitioners. OSE is currently focused on student outreach, systems development, infrastructure expansion, and preparation for the first full training cohort under the Future Builders Academy framework.

3 Program Accomplishments

First Program Service Accomplishment - Education and Builder Training. This year Open Source Ecology expanded its apprenticeship and builder training efforts through development of the Builder Crash Course and Future Builders Academy programs. Initial recruitment efforts in September faced operational and participation challenges, leading the organization to refine its outreach strategy and produce additional public-facing educational and marketing media. A second recruitment effort resulted in a significantly larger turnout for the December 2025 Builder Crash Course, which hosted approximately 50 participants in a hands-on construction and training program centered around production-ready open-source housing. Following the increased participation and infrastructure strain experienced during the December program, OSE continued substantial investments in educational and operational infrastructure to support future cohorts and scalable training operations. This included construction of the new Rapid Learning Facility and construction of a new 10,000 square foot Hangar with multiple bays dedicated to builder training, fabrication, collaborative work, and hands-on technical education. OSE continued development of curriculum, recruitment systems, collaborative training methods, and operational readiness for future cohorts under the Future Builders Academy framework.

Second Program Service Accomplishment — Open Source Housing Development. OSE continued development and demonstration of open-source housing systems through construction, deployment, and market validation of Seed Eco-Home models. During the year, OSE completed construction of its first market-ready production build, the Seed Eco-Home 4, which was placed on the market and entered into a signed sale contract near year-end 2025, though the sale had not yet closed as of the end of the reporting period. OSE also sold one completed Seed Eco-Home 6 residence to a local customer. The purchaser had previously participated in OSE’s workshop and training programs, representing the first completed cycle in which a participant was trained through OSE educational programs and subsequently became a customer of the affordable housing model developed through those same programs. This provided an initial demonstration of real market demand and fulfillment within OSE’s integrated framework of workforce training, open-source housing development, and affordable housing production. These activities support OSE’s exempt educational and charitable mission by developing publicly documented, replicable, and affordable housing models intended for broader public use, workforce education, and scalable community-based housing production. During the year, OSE invested substantially in home construction equipment, facilities infrastructure, construction materials, tools, prototyping, and related operational capacity directly supporting housing production and educational construction activities.

Third Program Service Accomplishment - Open Collaborative Design and Documentation Systems In response to rapidly advancing artificial intelligence capabilities and the increasing feasibility of collaborative design automation, OSE initiated development of open collaborative design and documentation systems intended to make technical knowledge for housing, fabrication, and infrastructure more publicly accessible, reproducible, and scalable. OSE has historically published open-source documentation and technical knowledge as part of its exempt educational mission; however, recent advances in AI-assisted workflow generation, documentation systems, and collaborative design tools substantially lowered the cost and complexity of producing and organizing public technical documentation at scale. During the year, the organization began externalizing internal organizational know-how into publicly usable documentation systems, automated workflows, modular design methodologies, and structured collaborative development processes. This work included early efforts to formalize construction knowledge, design logic, workflow sequencing, and production methods into machine-readable and human-readable systems capable of supporting broader public participation in open-source development. These activities laid the groundwork for the early-stage development of the Iconic CAD platform in 2026, envisioned as an open collaborative design environment for distributed development of housing systems and broader civilization infrastructure. The project is intended to expand public access to open-source technical knowledge, collaborative engineering practices, educational design tools, and interoperable design standards capable of supporting large-scale collaborative problem solving and practical workforce education.

Filing

2024 Fiscal Year Filing

2023 Fiscal Year Filing

2022 Fiscal Year Filing

  • Signed and submitted at 4:25 PM on Sunday May 14, 2023. See File:OSE Form990 2022.pdf. Also, File:Form8453-TE OSE 2022.pdf
  • Filing time - once all P&L summary data is available, filing takes 3:20 hr online.
  • Main learnings - once you fill this out a few times, it becomes easy. form990online is a good venue - has validation for errors. It takes you to the error conveniently so you can correct it.

2021 Fiscal Year Filing

  • Filing requires 2021 P&L
  • Goto https://efile.form990.org/. Schedule A is the explanation of why we are a public charity. Schedule O is also filled out with main categories of revenue and expenses.
  • Final PDF - File:990-2021-OSE.pdf - once accepted.
  • Authenticated, Signed and Filed with form990online.com at around ______ PM CST USA on 5/13/21.

Procedure summary:

  1. Download monthly statements, input debit and credits by month into the P&L
  2. Break down the major categories of Income and Expenses, which would normally be similar percentages each year.
  3. Note that any loans have to be accounted, but they don't appear in P&L as they are not a revenue or expense (outside of charges on loans)
  4. Fill out the form. The main part - validation at end and throughout makes sure you are filling things properly.
  5. Pay fee if needed (free if <$100k receipts)
  6. Do electronic signature
  7. Submit form 8453-TE by emailing to Form990Online at signatureforms@form990.org

2020 Fiscal Year Filing=

It appears that filing is done electronically only from now on. [5]. See note from IRS- [6]

  • Filing requires 2021 P&L
  • Can do Form 990EZ if revenue less than $200k [7]
  • 990 must file electronically at https://www.eftps.com/eftps/login/loginInitial (takes a week to set up, info sent by mail) - or via electronic providers. Such as form990online.com
  • Final PDF - File:990-2020-OSE.pdf
  • Authenticated, Signed and Filed with form990online.com at around 6 PM CST USA on 6/15/21 - but technicality on form990online.com didn't submit until 6/16/21. See [8]

2019 Fiscal Year Filing (Done July 2020)

Note: Received non-filing notice Nov. 4 2020, but talked to Mr. Peterson (ID# 1000-7788-68 at the IRS, 877.829.5500 on Nov 6, 2020 - clarifying that it is likely going to take about 3 more months before they catch up with the mail due to COVID. I received a return-receipt notice from USPS, so we should be good and was instructed to ignore the notice, and if anything is still missing, I will get another letter in the mail.

Fiscal Year 2019 Filing

Given that we have good templates, it's easiest to do Form 990 [9], Schedule A [10], and O [11], print them, ship them to Ogden. The filing is self-explanatory if templates are used. The ProPublica online posting is a good template [12] to work from. You just need the OSE P&L. Done in: 2 hours, with some hiccups figuring out basics such as net assets.

2018 Fiscal Year Filing

  • See online at ProPublica - [13]

2018 Fiscal Year

  • 5:11 PM-7:09 including printing of form w/ schedule a
  • Use schedule a -
  • Use schedule O - additional information - [14]
  • Use Template Form from last year
  • Use Year Profit and Loss Statement. OSE P&L
  • Mail to Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service Center, Ogden, UT, 84201-0027
  • Cancel pdffiller.com account after submitting forms

Mon Sep 30, 2019

  • 2015 filing fee removed - [15]
  • 2017 appears to be outstanding.
    • After long silence, acquiescence on part of IRS

Mon Mar 18, 2019

  • Summary: 2017 and 2015 filings are unresolved.
  • Since I faxed on Mar 9, 2019 for the 2015 case - check back in 4-6 weeks. 6 weeks makes it April 22
  • For the 2017 case - Jan 22 is tracking number and receipt of mailing - [16]
  • Initial communication sent Jan 22, received on Jan 24, 2019 - [17]
  • Followup sent on Feb 6 after calling IRS on Feb 6. On Feb 6, OSE got a 9 week collection hold, which would expire April 10.
  • Not sending followup [18] to OSE's Feb 6 letter. The initial communication has been received, so I will wait on a response because there is no point it resending a pile of documents unless there is another request for them. It is in their court. Silence in law is acquiescence.

Conversation:

  • Form for 2015 - 'Call back in 4-6 weeks from the March 9th date - typically it takes 30 days for a response, but given the government shutdown, they are behind.'
  • OSE got another 9 week collection hold on the 2017 filing

Next Steps:

  • Collection hold of March 18 for 2017 filing is good for 9 weeks. Expires on May 20, 2019. Check in on May 14, 2019.
  • For 2015 filing - check back in in 6 weeks from March 9, or April 22, 2019.

Sat Mar 9, 2019

  • Faxing response re 2015. Continuing within same document - [19]
  • Saved as PDF, faxed via FaxZero.
  • To fax # - 877.792.2864
  • Outstanding: 2015 and 2017 taxes. 2015 above, 2017 in progress. Need to follow up on 2017 (and thus 2015) with a call, as no response on the 2017 yet.

Thu Feb 14, 2019

  • Janie has printout Monday - Aug 15, 2016. Printout on the bill. Taxes done on 15th aren't proof that it was mailed on the 15th.
  • This is not proof. But Janie remembers picking up on Monday.
  • Proof would be a postage receipt from the Post Office. Do I have it?
  • "We waited for me until after 6 PM" thus not sure about when it was mailed.
  • I can say I picked it up and put it in the mailbox, but don't know when it was picked up.
  • Remembers being after 6 PM.
  • Bill was printed on the 15th.
  • Return was printed on the 8th in 2016.
  • I picked up on 15th. Janie Juhl remembers the Monday, as it was the only nonprofit on an extension.
  • Closed in dropbox.
  • Printed on the 8th. Made a copy. Got a printed copy, with a date on it, the receipt was printed on the 15th, and I picked up definitely on the 15th. Judy would also remember this.
  • Proof of payment, could probably be found, on Judy's records. If requested. Not positive, but probably could do it.
  • Janie remembers staying late and being concerned about not being on time.

Fri Feb 9, 2019

Faxed IRS attn EO Accounts stating we're working on resolution of 2015 - [20]

Wed Feb 6, 2019

  1. Called 877.829.5500 x1 x2 x2 - regarding 2017 Form 990 Filing. Copy of conversation uploaded to YouTube for quality control purposes. - [21]
  2. Turns out that there were late filing fines for 2014, 2015, and 2017. 2016 was fine, no pun intended.
  3. Issue - I did not receive notice of fine for 2015 - due to the wrong address. It turns out that H&R block did not use the correct address, but used the old early days PO Box 442 in Maysville.
  4. For 2014, the fine was waived as a late filing form was filled out and the IRS had no evidence of lateness otherwise. Confirmation of removal shall be sent in 10-14 business days. . Check.png- confirmation received in early March.
  5. For 2015, the fine is outstanding and there are 3 options: 1. Proof of timely-filed extension. 2. Statement from H&R block that the the extension was filed properly 3. A mercy letter, where we explain the situation and ask for forgiveness.
  6. For 2017, a 9 week hold has been placed for collection. We should have a response by Mar 6, 2019 regarding the status of this fine - otherwise, we need to contact them again. OSE mailed this in on Jan 22, 2019 - so response should arrive by Feb 22, 2019. Call them if not.
  7. For correspondence, could fax to 877.792.2864 for quicker response (due to gummit shutdown), or mail at IRS, Attn EO Accounts, M-S 6552, Ogden, UT, 84201.
  8. I called H&R block (filing agency) regarding any information on 2015 extension. Janie Juhl will respond back within a week regarding any supporting information that she could find.

Actionable Items:

  1. By Feb 13, 2019 - response from Janie Juhl, and fax response to number provided above requesting removal of fine from 2015.
  2. By Mar 6, 2019 - confirmation that 2014 fine is waived.
  3. By Mar 6, 2019 - response on 2017 fine and further action as required.
  4. Fax a letter stating resolution for 2015 (and 2017) is being sought. Letter on Google Docs - [22]

Mon Jan 21, 2019

(letter draft on Google Docs - [23])

(letter sent by registered mail)

Dear IRS,

Thank you for your Notice CP141L for Tax Period December 31, 2017, dated January 14, 2019. You brought to our attention a penalty imposed for not filing Form 990 before its due date.

I have personally filled out the Form 990, Schedule O, and Schedule A using PDF Filler online (https://www.pdffiller.com/) on October 29, 2018. I also used their physical mailing service for sending the forms to you on the same date, October 29, 2018.

When I received your Notice, I immediate checked my PDF Filler account online. I verified that the 3 forms (Form 990, Shedules O and A) have been filled out and saved on October 29, 2018. I enclose these here for your reference. However, when I looked for proof of mailing, I found none. I contacted PDF Filler support to find out more about the issue. They confirmed that they had no record of physical mailing submitted or paid for from my account. My conclusion is that for some reason that the physical mailing failed. Since I was confident at the time that the mailing did go through, I took no further action. Furthermore, we have had no prior issues with our Form 990 filings in previous years. However, this was the first time that I have used PDF Filler, so that may have contributed to the issue. PDF Filler did bill me for their online form filing service - though it is true that no billing occurred for the physical mailing. In retrospect, I should have clearly followed up with PDF Filler to make sure everything did go through. I do have confirmation from PDF Filler tech support that I have filled out the forms on October 29-30, 2018,hich was still in time for the filing deadline. I am enclosing the audit trail confirming that I have filled out the forms on the said date. I am also enclosing a copy of my conversation with PDF Filler tech support to show my request for an audit trail to confirm my filling date.

Given the above circumstances and with supporting documents attached, Open Source Ecology is kindly requesting for you to waive the Penalty assesses in Notice CP141L. I have tried calling at 877-829-5500 to resolve this issue, but it appears that the current government shutdown is affecting this option. Please let me know if I can provide any further supporting information. You can reach me by email at marcin@opensourceecology.org.

Thank you in advance for your consideration,

Marcin Jakubowski Executive Director for Open Source Ecology EIN 45-4997514

Enclosures: 1. Form 990 2. Schedule A 3. Schedule O 4. Copies of Chat with PDF Filler technical support 5. Copy of bill from PDF Filler

Deadlines

  • Oct 31 for late form
  • May 15 for regular deadline

Resources

  • Online E-filing of form 990, free if under $100k, and $38+ if above. [31]
  • Board of Directors + Addresses - [32]
  • Monthly statements template - [33]
  • OSE P&L
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