The Document Foundation
| Company type | Nonprofit organization |
|---|---|
| Industry | Free and open-source software |
| Founded | 2010 |
| Headquarters | Berlin , Germany |
Key people | Florian Effenberger (Executive Director), Eliane Domingos (Chair of Board of Directors) |
| Products | LibreOffice |
Number of employees | 14 |
| Website | www |
The Document Foundation (TDF) is a nonprofit entity dedicated to supporting the advancement of LibreOffice, a free and open-source office software suite. Created in 2010 by contributors from the OpenOffice.org community, TDF offers a vendor-neutral environment emphasizing the OpenDocument standard. It is legally registered as a Stiftung (foundation) under German jurisdiction.
TDF emerged due to apprehensions that Oracle Corporation, which had acquired Sun Microsystems—the original sponsor of OpenOffice.org—might restrict or cease its development, similar to the fate of OpenSolaris.
Organization
The governance of The Document Foundation consists of three principal entities:
- the Board of Directors, responsible for daily management and representing the foundation externally
- the Membership Committee, overseeing elections and approving new members
- the Board of Trustees, which elects both the Board of Directors and the Membership Committee
This merit-based framework mandates that Board of Trustees members have made notable contributions for at least three months and pledge ongoing involvement. Entry requires an application process and committee endorsement. As of April 2025, there are 139 individuals serving on the Board of Trustees.
Board of directors and team
The Board of Directors includes seven members elected every two years, with up to three alternates drawn from election runners-up ready to assume positions if needed. After the May 2024 election, the Board is composed of:
- Eliane Domingos (Chair)
- Simon Phipps (Deputy Chair)
- Sophie Gautier
- László Németh
- Italo Vignoli
- Björn Michaelsen
- Eike Rathke
- Osvaldo Gervasi (alternate)
- Mike Saunders (alternate)
- Paolo Vecchi (alternate)
Executive director Florian Effenberger manages daily operations alongside a staff team of 14 employees.
Advisory board
Formed in June 2011, TDF’s Advisory Board serves as a platform where organizations providing significant financial or strategic support can interact with the Board of Directors. This body offers guidance, submits proposals, and delivers feedback to help maintain both the foundation and the LibreOffice project.
As of 2025, members on the Advisory Board include: Adfinis, CAGE Technologies, Collabora, Free Software Foundation Europe, GNOME, KDE e.V., Open Source Business Alliance, and Software in the Public Interest.
Original participants comprised: Freies Office Deutschland e.V., Free Software Foundation, Google, Red Hat, Software in the Public Interest, and SUSE (then part of The Attachmate Group).
Past members consist of allotropia software, AMD, BPM Conseil, Canonical, CIB Software, the City of Munich, CloudOn, Free Software Foundation, Google, Hypra, Intel, ITOMIG, King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), Kopano b.v., Lanedo, MIMO, Red Hat, RusBITech-Astra, Studio Storti, and the UK Government Digital Service.
Creation
The Document Foundation was publicly introduced on 28 September 2010 under an initial "Steering Committee" leadership. This announcement gained backing from firms such as Novell, Red Hat, Canonical, and Google. In December 2010, the BrOffice Centre of Excellence for Free Software, responsible for BrOffice, became part of the Foundation.
The Foundation launched a rebranded fork derived from OpenOffice.org version 3.3 incorporating patches from the Go-oo fork. There was an expectation that Oracle would join The Document Foundation and transfer ownership of the OpenOffice.org brand. Nevertheless, Oracle requested that individuals linked with The Document Foundation resign from the OpenOffice.org Community Council, which consequently consisted solely of Oracle staff.
Jacqueline Rahemipour, Co-Lead of the OpenOffice.org Board, stated:
Initially without formal legal status, the Steering Committee selected Germany as its incorporation location. A fundraising campaign conducted on 16 February 2011 successfully collected €50,000 within eight days to establish the foundation. After fulfilling all legal prerequisites, The Document Foundation was officially registered on 17 February 2012.
Community Response
In October 2010, author Ryan Cartwright expressed strong criticism toward Oracle's management of OpenOffice.org, arguing that it fragmented what had been a cohesive free software community and overlooked several chances to dominate the market with the leading free office suite. He contended that Oracle’s strategy alienated its supporter base and missed out on significant commercial opportunities.
During the same period, Bruce Byfield of Linux Magazine observed that The Document Foundation was effectively a rebranded continuation of the Go-oo project, established as a reaction to Oracle’s perceived restrictive governance. Byfield cautioned that this split could lead to duplicated efforts and divert developer focus toward internal disputes instead of advancing innovation. Additionally, he anticipated Oracle might adopt a proprietary development model as a protective measure.
In April 2011, Oracle declared its intention to convert OpenOffice.org into a fully community-driven initiative and ceased development of its commercial variant, Oracle Open Office. While some interpreted this move as a response to the formation of The Document Foundation, former Sun executive Simon Phipps clarified that the foundation's establishment did not negatively impact Oracle’s business interests or contributions. Rather, Oracle’s decision was based on a strategic assessment that operating two commercial office suites was not economically sustainable.
By June 2011, Oracle had relicensed OpenOffice.org under the Apache License 2.0 and transferred all related assets and trademarks to the Apache Software Foundation, marking a transition toward open community stewardship.
Introduction of the Document Liberation Project
On 2 April 2014, The Document Foundation initiated its second major program, the Document Liberation Project, designed to combat vendor lock-in by empowering developers dedicated to enabling content freedom for users.
Conferences
Starting in 2011, The Document Foundation has organized the annual LibreOffice Conference to foster collaboration among community members and industry participants:
- 2011 – Paris, France – 12–15 October
- 2012 – Berlin, Germany – 17–19 October
- 2013 – Milan, Italy – 24–27 September
- 2014 – Bern, Switzerland – 3–5 September
- 2015 – Aarhus, Denmark – 23–25 September
- 2016 – Brno, Czech Republic – 7–9 September
- 2017 – Rome, Italy – 11–13 October
- 2018 – Tirana, Albania – 26–28 September
- 2019 – Almería, Spain – 11–13 September
- 2020 – Online event – 15–17 October
- 2021 – Online event – 23–25 September
- 2022 – Milan, Italy & virtual (hybrid) – 28 September–1 October
- 2023 – Bucharest, Romania – 20–23 September
- 2024 – Luxembourg, Luxembourg – 10–12 October
- 2025 – Budapest, Hungary – 4–6 September (announced)