[Wikipedia-l] Interstate charitable solicitations

Tue Oct 7 02:16:30 UTC 2003

From: "Delirium" <delirium at rufus.d2g.com>

> Just a question relating to all this: what subjects someone to these
> registration requirements?  Are they only a condition of making
> donations tax-deductible, or are they a blanket requirement?  There's

It has nothing to do with the status of the donations, that is covered
by federal law, not state law.  It is to patrol the organizations
and make sure they are legitimate. It is more of an internal thing
that has to do with the Attorney General oversight power that
states have in their laws relating to charitable organizations.

If the organization closes down, the assets of the organization
are required by law to be distributed to another organization
with a similar purpose  (it is also necessary to recite this in
the corporate papers in order to get the exemption from the
IRS)  the organization's income cannot inure to the benefit of
any person. Also most state laws regarding NPOs and charitable
trusts have some provision that allows the AG to step in and
take steps to preserve the organization. They did that here in
NY with the Apollo Theater, that was in all the papers for a while.
It is a pretty rare thing though.

> dozens of organizations that accept donations (including lots of
> websites), of which I'm guessing very very few have registered in even
> one state.

If they have not registered, they are either not-for-profit (and the
word "donation" may be a misnomer) or they are not making enough
money to register.

Believe me any organization that has an accountant or administrator
will know about the registration requirements. They are minimal and
most NPOs do it as a matter of course at least in their own state.
Remember that the not-for-profit sector of the economy is very
large, Americans give more money to charitable causes than
the citizens of any other nation (this does not include government
contributions in socialist countries).

> What about things like Brion's notebook fund-- is he
>  supposed to register that in all 50 states too?  The whole thing seems a
> bit ridiculous, which is probably why most people just ignore it.

It does not apply to "people" only to trusts and not-for-profit
corporations. People like Brian are either receiving a gift or
are declaring it as income and paying tax on it (it does not seem
right that Brian should have to do that, perhaps Wikimedia can
bring the notebook fund under it's umbrella).

Alex756