[Foundation-l] Chapters, deductibility and donation profiles (was Wikimania 2006 - host city contest to open onSeptember 1st 20)

Tue Aug 16 22:02:29 UTC 2005

On 8/16/05, Paweł 'Ausir' Dembowski <fallout at lexx.eu.org> wrote:
> > There is the problem that people may donate to the local chapter
> > (everything but DB servers) *rather than* the Wikimedia Foundation in
> > Florida (DB servers). One would want to make sure that a country's
> > donations going to the chapter rather than the WMF would not leave a hole
> > in the budget.

> Well, there are many people who would donate to a local chapter but
> not to some distant Foundation in Florida, so I would imagine this
> would bring more money, not less. And can't the chapters themselves
> donate to the Foundation if it is short on money?

If local chapters "donate to the foundation" as such, it may be
conceived by some national legislations as a way for the Foundation to
take advantage of tax deductibility in the chapter's country and make
the chapter just a "proxy" for the Foundation to receive money from
everywhere.
In this, it may not be the best way, but we are trying to find out
what is the best way to make sure money coming in through local
chapter is used "for all the projects, everywhere" (ie. including on
servers and bandwidth, wherever they may be).

Different legislations imply different ways of doing it, but in the
long run, I am pretty sure this will clear itself and happen in a
smooth way.

Best,

Delphine
-- 
~notafish