James Heilman wrote:
The chapter in the UK is incorporated as Wiki UK and operates under the name Wikimedia UK. There are a few reasons for this. One is as already mentioned, if the two organizations were to every have problems, this one would just lose its operating name and would not need to change its legal name. If we use Wikimedia we need documentation from Wikimedia saying we can us the name and this needs to be submitted to the Federal government. One more thing to slow the process of incorporation. The main reason I proposed this however is that in the documents regarding charities states a charity needs to be completely independent and retain complete control over all finances ( with a few exception of which Wikimedia is not one of them ). Being incorporated under a name without ties to another group will decrease the chance of us having problems with applying for charity status.
Getting the necessary permissions to use the name "Wikimedia" should not be a problem in either case, incorporation or d.b.a."
Complete independence and financial control are not problems. This is one point that Chapcom reviews carefully to ensure that a chapter is not regarded as a subsidiary or affiliate. This did come up most recently in reviewing the application for an Estonian chapter.
Revenue Canada regulations do allow for money to be transferred out of the country if a proportional benefit is received. Given that Canada has the highest per capita usage of Wikipedia in the world that criterion is likely achieved, but we would still have the burden of proof. Better would be for Canadian money to be spent in Canada in a way that provides the Wikimedia movement advantages that it would not otherwise have.
Ray