[Foundation-l] Australian chapter (was Re: Wikimania 2006 - host city contest to open onSeptember 1st 20)

Tue Aug 16 15:34:31 UTC 2005

On 8/16/05, Tim Starling <t.starling at physics.unimelb.edu.au> wrote:
> Regarding Wikimedia chapters, I wrote:
> > I have no plans for encouraging the formation of one
> > anywhere near me, unless I see solid evidence that it makes financial sense.
> 
> I'll just add to that that I did a quick review of the tax situation
> with charities in Australia. It seems a Wikimedia chapter in Australia
> may qualify as a charity but would not qualify as a "deductible gift
> recipient" (DGR). This means that although it would be exempt from
> paying income tax, donations would not be tax-deductible. So there would
> be very little financial benefit in creating an Australian chapter.

Financial benefit is not the only thing that makes chapters useful. In
Germany the chapter helped a lot in getting more publicity and getting
the community together, and in setting up such fruitful partnerships
like the one with the Deutsche Bibiliothek (national library) or the
one with Directmedia who published the German Wikipedia DVD. I doubt
that this would have happened without a German chapter. Of course we
need money, but to reach our long term goals we'll need more than
that.

-- Arne (akl)