I saw that.
Why do they need €50k for? That's retardedly huge. All the developers have everything they need. They don't need an office since everybody works from home. In short: why 50k?
If it's some silly German law, why not setup in a cheaper country. I'm sure you can pay 1/50th that in a developing country. If this is how they spend money then it seems silly to donate to them.
The Steering Committee has set itself a deadline for collecting the required funds, which will be March 21st, 2011. If, by that date, we do not have enough money through actual donations or firm pledges by sponsors, the foundation will not be formed in Germany and - instead - we will opt for a legal entity in the United Kingdom.
Nonetheless, after careful consideration of all the possibilities, we are convinced that a German-based solution provides more advantages than any other country. We are calling on all users, adopters, and - notably - enterprises and corporations to support our efforts and help us form The Document Foundation: with your support, we can make it happen!
Let me get this straight. They decided that Germany (which requires €50k upfront) is the best choice... Followed by the UK. Seriously?? The UK? wtf. The land of the most restrictive IP laws, censorship, mandatory internet blacklist, worst libel laws in all of Europe?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_the_United_Kingdom