Their skill lies in jettisoning devoted volunteers when they ask serious and professional questions. “Couchsurfing and its ‘team’ or ‘board’ or whatever they have constructed now have never kept a promise, certainly not the one repeated for 5 years that “WE WILL NEVER BE A FOR-PROFIT CORPORATION”. to resell it to travellers against verification payment or optional premium services, but in one of the other more democratic communities organised as non-profit organisations, such as or WarmShowers.” Most will continue to offer their couch, just not for Couchsurfing International Inc. Reality could hardly be any further from the offical Couchsurfing claim to “create a better world”…. For those who had seen how volunteers had been used and abused for years by Couchsurfing, how safety measures such as credit card “verification” have been misrepresented, how management covered up repeated sexual misconduct with volunteers by one of its own or how rarely promises were kept none of this should come as a surprise. “Many people were surprised by this move as CS had always prided itself for being a non-profit organization which wanted to be a charity. Though very few people post comments to blog posts here, there were two lengthy and thoughtful posts by avid Couchsurfing (CS) aficionados challenging the change in legal structure. While the petition didn’t garner the 1600+ signatures it proposed, 882 supporters did sign as a show of dissatisfaction.Īt Innov8Social, we caught scent of this too. We believe these changes betray the relationship the organization had with its network of volunteers and members, the relationship that shaped Couchsurfing into what it is today, and are concerned that its values will not persist.” We believe that these gifts belong to the community that created them. (12) We find it difficult to believe that the verification income was insufficient to operate a travel website and disagree that these gifts should be sold to investors. Community volunteers freely donated volunteer labor, time and talent which created much of the network’s current value. Since its inception, the organization received >US $6,000,000 in member donations and verification fees. It was dissolved and its assets were acquired by a newly-created for-profit C-Corporation with the name “Better World Through Travel Inc” in Delaware in August 2011. was established as a non-profit corporation in April 2003 and registered with the state of New Hampshire as a public charity in 2007. We found meaningful work and global connections to each other through our commitment to the ideals of CS as a non-profit organization.Ĭouchsurfing Intl. “We represent thousands of Couchsurfing (CS) members, donors and volunteers. In fact, this petition was launched on Septemprotesting the change in legal structure. Additionally, reports indicated that October 2013 also saw layoffs of 40% of Couchsurfing staff. Under his watch, it is said that registered users more-than-doubled to 7M, but many of the existing and new users were not actively engaging on the platform. Over the course of four years, there has been a impactful decline in engagement along with some major internal restructuring– which at first led to the hiring of new Apple and MTV Alum, Tony Espinoza, as CEO. In August 2011, the newly-formed company initially raised nearly $8M in venture funding from Omidyar Network and Benchmark Capital before it informed its member base of over 3M users worldwide about its shift. Couchsurfing Goes From Nonprofit to Certified B Corp Where 37 US states have passed some form of marriage equality act, the single decision of the Supreme Court on a summer day at the end of June 2015, powerfully set precedence that supersedes state law on the subject.īy the numbers, there are reportedly well over 250,000 married same-sex couples in the United States.īack in 2011, we wrote about the re-incorporation of Couchsurfing from a nonprofit to a for-profit B corporation. Hodges, but indeed the Justices overturned and created law with their opinion. Supreme Court’s deference to pass on a case, is overwhelmingly common-and they are known to hear upwards of 100 cases, of over 7000 petitioned each year)įast forward nearly a half-century, and the Supreme Court not only agreed to hear the landmark case of Obergefell v. (Note: denial of a ‘writ of certiorari’, i.e. The case there actually did reach the inboxes of Supreme Court Justices via appeal, but at that time the Justices chose not hear the case for lack of a substantial federal question. In fact, in the early 1970’s then-students Richard Baker and James McConnell used the the legal system to dispute the denial of a marriage license in Minnesota because both spouses-to-be were both men. The journey for marriage equality can easily be traced back decades, and perhaps longer. Final paragraph of Justice Kennedy’s majority opinionlegalizing same-sex marriage
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