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

[Daniel Mayer]

--- Delphine Ménard <notafishz at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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).

There is currently a built-in expectation by donors that the money they give
will benefit the projects in the realm of buying servers, paying for hosting,
and the other things we mention in fund drive letters and our budget. 

So far this has not be a serious issue and thus the foundation has not needed
to ask the German Chapter, for example, to buy us anything. But this issue will
start to affect the budget as donations to more chapters become tax deductible.
We need to work out how to make that work for us instead of against us.
 
> 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.

The laws of different nations will of course determine how each chapter can
help Wikimedia meet its goals. Once we know this for each nation that has a
chapter, we will need to tell donors that money given to the chapter in their
nation may have limited use outside their nation. 

In the worst cases, a chapter may not be able to buy anything for the
foundation and only support activities in that chapter's nation. Let's hope
that is rare. 

Looking at how the Red Cross works would be very interesting in this regard.
They are composed of one parent organization based in Switzerland and many
national organizations in various countries. All the ones I'm aware of work
internationally. 

-- Daniel Mayer (aka mav)

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