2009/3/23 James Hardy <wikimediauk(a)weeb.biz>iz>:
regarding Registered Charity Status
2009/3/22 Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton(a)gmail.com>
It's not, but getting it soon is. You need an annual income of over
£5000 to register, we're not likely to get that kind of money (or
pledges for it) for several months at least without including
Wikimania sponsorship.
Exactly how strict are the Charities Commission criteria's on this, Do they
actually need to see evidence of cash in the bank? Are pledges to that value
enough? What about evidence to support a reasonable expectation of achieving
greater than that amount?
I think they want firm pledges, but they don't need to see the actual
cash in the bank.
I am wondering if the foundation was to write a letter
stating that:
A) the WMF received donations totalling over £50,000 in sterling last year
[1]
and
B) in future UK residents and taxpayers will be given the option to donate
to WMUK (they may even be able to give an idea of what sort of percentage
have done this when other chapters have gone live)
and therefore
C) WMUK can expect approximately £X (where X is greater than 5000) due to
WMF fund-raising
then might this be enough for them?
That might not be, but WMF could pledge to top up whatever we make
during the fund-raiser to guarantee that it is more than £5000 (there
would be negligible risk to the foundation in doing this, we all know
the fund-raiser will make more than £5000). That would probably be
enough to satisfy the CC.
Unrelated to this, I assume that if I donate now and
make a declaration that
I am a UK Taxpayer, that declaration can be held on to and then the tax can
be claimed back once WMUK is registered. Am I right?
You are correct. (I think we can claim anything from 2 or 3 years
before getting registered, so hopefully there won't be a problem
there!)