It isn't just open source. The whole US non-profit application process is needlessly long and difficult for anyone seeking it, which is generally, you know, the most benevolent people living amoungst us (like, for example, open source software developers). For years, the workaround on the delay has been to partner with a pre-existing non-profit.

In the meantime, if you want to start a for-profit company, why you can pick from one of a half dozen different varieties in any state in the nation by clicking on a few buttons on a website.

The only possible counter-argument to making it easy is worry about fraud. For every other reason, starting a non-profit should be easy, but if fraud's the big one, then for goodness sake, spend some money watching the non-profits.

The government should be, anyway, because most non-profits are doing works for the public good, you know- that stuff that the government used to fund? Maybe it could learn a thing or two? Maybe the government could pro-actively send them funding, instead of them having to wait and wonder whether a grant application will go through?