Re: [Fenfire-dev] non-profit association vs. co-operative

[Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho]

On 20040611T001946+0300, Benja Fallenstein wrote:
> | Certain "IRS"-cerified charities can take donations that are
> | tax-deductible to the donor.
> 
> That's the part I was interested in. I guess that the qualification is
> the same you talk about below with regard to the association paying
> taxes on donations it receives (the association must be "charitable")?

Actually, no.  The requirements for this are more stringent and
the association needs to get itself on an "IRS"-maintained
list.

To get on that list, the association's purpose needs to be preservation
of Finnish cultural heritage or the support of science or art.  I doubt
a Fenfire association would qualify.

> |    1) Its sole motivation on all its operations is direct common good
> |       materially, spiritually ("henkisessä mielessä"), educationally
> |       ("siveellisessä mielessä") or socially ("yhteiskunnallisessa
> |       mielessä"). [Translations are rough where the original phrase is
> |       indicated.]
> 
> Which one would we fit into here?

All of them.  Of course, the stated purpose of the organization needs to
be a little more broad than just "production of Fenfire".  Compare to
SPI, which is Debian's legal arm, but it's stated purpose is something
like advancement of free software ideology :)  Production of
Fenfire/Debian is just the chosen means to that end.

> |    2) Its activities are not limited to a particular set of people.
> |       (This means, for example, that membership must be open to anybody
> |       who agrees with the goals, not only to for example people called
> |       Kaijanaho:)
> 
> Do we have any way to kick out or reject membership applications from
> people who we feel are damaging to the project? I.e., can we assure that
> the association isn't taken over by people who want to do something very
> different with it? (Maybe '...who agrees with the goals' can help here?)

Sure.  It's a standard part of any association's bylaws and I have
never heard that being a problem.  Of course, if it can be shown in
court that the association is systematically rejecting applications by,
say, all non-Kaijanaho people...
-- 
Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho                  http://antti-juhani.kaijanaho.info/

     Päiväkohtaisia kirjoituksia - http://antti-juhani.kaijanaho.info/blog/
                            Toys - http://www.cc.jyu.fi/yhd/toys/

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