On Fri, Nov 28, 2008 at 12:40 AM, Aphaia aphaia@gmail.com wrote:
On Fri, Nov 28, 2008 at 6:40 AM, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com wrote:
And, in fact, wikimediafoundation.org says "nonprofit charitable organization". I don't know why people generally say "non-profit" instead of "charity", then - charity would be more precise and would probably be better perceived.
I'm afraid I disagree with you here. Non-profit vs for-profit is a distinction in taxation and precise.
Not in the US it isn't. Non-profit vs for-profit is a distinction in state corporation law. Not all non-profit organizations receive an exemption from taxation. Tax exemption (at least under federal law, but most states follow the federal) is governed by section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC).
Charity vs not being charity may 1) no legal distinction in some cases
and 2) Wikimedia Foundation could be no charity in some definition of non-US jurisdiction (and at worse it may be taken as deceitful).
Well, the term "charity" is less specific. The WMF was granted an exemption from taxation under 501(c)(3) of the IRC, which exempts "Corporations, and any community chest, fund, or foundation, organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, testing for public safety, literary, or educational purposes... [cutting out other relevant details]" It is my understanding that the WMF applied for exemption under the category of "educational purposes", not "charitable purposes", however, the IRS refers to 501(c)(3) organizations in general as "charitable organizations". They also make a distinction between "private foundations" and "public charities" based on section 509 of the IRC. (See http://www.irs.gov/charities/charitable/article/0,,id=136459,00.html for more information on these last two sentences.)
That said, outside the United States I understand these terms are used much differently. I've witnessed a lot of misunderstandings over this seemingly US-specific (and maybe even IRS-specific?) terminology.
I am for adding "charitable" etc. but against replacing "charity" etc.
with "non-profit".
I personally don't care one bit, but at least in the US, "non-profit" is not very specific.