Re: [Fsfe-uk] An idea

[Alex Hudson]

On Sat, 2004-04-24 at 10:04, Paul wrote:
> As an idea, would it worthwhile making FSFE a charitable institution?
> It would mean that people could donate (as with any charity) and get
> not only the benefits of giving to support free software, but also to
> write off part of the donation against tax.

FSFE is a charitable institution. One of the reasons it's split into the
various chapters is because there is no such thing Europe-wide (FSFE is
German), and the chapters attempt to be a local charity of sorts.

AFFS looked at charitable status when we first set up; the problem we
encountered was basically how political you can be. Being a charity
doesn't stop you doing political things, but you have to be very careful
about how you go about it (the charities commission do a leaflet about
it) and there are always various things you can't do (like spend money
achieving political goals). 

So, it is potentially more trouble than it's worth, although I think the
German setup is substantially different than what you can achieve in the
UK.

Cheers,

Alex.