Re: [lp-ca-on] Incorporating LibrePlanet ON (was Re: Fwd: Software developers applications for T1 NETFILE)

[Blaise Alleyne]

On 29/06/16 10:30 PM, Bob Jonkman wrote:
> [...] And if we're planning on formalizing LibrePlanet Ontario we should
> probably find out what the FSF recommends.

Wouldn't hurt, but not sure if their recommendation will be particular relevant,
especially since there's a difference between American 501(c)(3) organization
versus Canadian charitable or non-charitable not-for-profit organizations --
it's not quite the same.

> One thing for sure, we
> don't want to become a Charitable organization. That prevents us from
> engaging in political activity, which would restrict us from lobbying
> government on Free Software issues, Net Neutrality, copyright law, &c.
> 

I have mixed feelings here. I'm a board member of both a charity and a 
non-profit.

A charitable organization can devote up to ~10% of it's revenue towards
political activities, but only on a policy level, not in a partisan way. A
charity can tell people to support/oppose a particular piece of legislation, or
to contact their MP, etc. But a charity can never use its resources to tell
people to support/oppose a candidate for public office, or a political party, 
etc.

On the plus side, charities can issue tax receipts for gifts, and have other
avenues open for fundraising for aren't available to non-charities. Though, any
spending can only go towards the organizations charitable objects as defined, so
you have to be careful how to set it up to not limit yourself from spending
money on useful things in the future.


I feel like even just incorporating LibrePlanet ON at this point is overkill.
We'd probably need a board, a by-laws, maybe a bank account, or an AGM, etc. But
at some point, it may make sense. (GTALUG is an incorporated non-profit, I 
think?)

I think there's value in considering the option of a software freedom charity in
Canada, but I feel like there would be more of a case for, say, an FSF Canada as
a charity rather than worrying about operating a charity just with an Ontario 
focus.

I wouldn't rule out charitable status entirely, but I'd agree for LibrePlanet
Ontario specifically, we probably don't want/need the overhead or extra
obligations of charitable status -- the obligations of simply incorporating as a
non-profit would already be enough!

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