I'm wondering why the donation drive was stopped early, before the enough money was collected to cover the Foundation's Q3 budget of $198,000. After our discussion in August about the German chapter, I thought it was fairly clear that those funds could not be used for the general operating expenses of the Florida Foundation.
So the fundraising drive raised $220,849 - $36,866 = $183,983 towards the operating costs of the Foundation. This leaves a shortfall of $198,000 - $184,983 = $14,017.
The Verein has nominated a few things that they would like to spend money on, such as hardware within Germany, and that's all very well, I'm sure it will help with our general mission. But those costs are not part of the Florida Q3 budget, they are part of the Verein budget. So the shortfall still remains.
This is really just an accounting error. What needs to be done now is the Florida budget needs to be revised downwards, by cutting out items that might instead be purchased by the Verein. Then the Verein needs to produce their own budget. Only then will we have a consisent story to tell to our generous donors.
-- Tim Starling
I understood that this foundation drive was going to last until it's end date (sept. 9th) even in case of an earlier achievement of our goal. Did I miss something?
Roberto Frangi (Snowdog)
Da: Tim Starling t.starling@physics.unimelb.edu.au Data: Tue, 06 Sep 2005 16:41:22 +1000 A: foundation-l@wikimedia.org Oggetto: [Foundation-l] Donation drive stopped early with insufficient funds collected
I'm wondering why the donation drive was stopped early, before the enough money was collected to cover the Foundation's Q3 budget of $198,000. After our discussion in August about the German chapter, I thought it was fairly clear that those funds could not be used for the general operating expenses of the Florida Foundation.
So the fundraising drive raised $220,849 - $36,866 = $183,983 towards the operating costs of the Foundation. This leaves a shortfall of $198,000 - $184,983 = $14,017.
The Verein has nominated a few things that they would like to spend money on, such as hardware within Germany, and that's all very well, I'm sure it will help with our general mission. But those costs are not part of the Florida Q3 budget, they are part of the Verein budget. So the shortfall still remains.
This is really just an accounting error. What needs to be done now is the Florida budget needs to be revised downwards, by cutting out items that might instead be purchased by the Verein. Then the Verein needs to produce their own budget. Only then will we have a consisent story to tell to our generous donors.
-- Tim Starling
_______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
rfrangi@coopetition.it wrote:
I understood that this foundation drive was going to last until it's end date (sept. 9th) even in case of an earlier achievement of our goal. Did I miss something?
The site notice, at least on en, states that the fundraising drive is complete, and no longer provides a link to the donation page.
| You did it! Over US$220,000 has been raised. Thank you for your | generosity! | | "Celebrate by purchasing Wikipedia merchandise or fulfilling a | year-old article request."
-- Tim Starling
On 9/6/05, Tim Starling t.starling@physics.unimelb.edu.au wrote:
I'm wondering why the donation drive was stopped early, before the enough money was collected to cover the Foundation's Q3 budget of $198,000. After our discussion in August about the German chapter, I thought it was fairly clear that those funds could not be used for the general operating expenses of the Florida Foundation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Revert
I expect the people editing the sitenotice were unaware that the drive was meant to be a "21-day" one rather than one which would end when the initial goal was met, as it was last time.
Angela.
Dear Angela,
I wanted to contact you since sometimes now but was hinder to do so and couldn't found the way to do so. Thats why I am using that mail to tell you about the problem.
It is about a site, english, called Talk Bogdanovs affair"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:213.237.21.6
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Bogdanov_Affair
For about 2 weeks ago, one of the user, YBM, begin to deleet all my edit on this site and hindered me to can say anything on that site. I had discovered some pretty annoying informations about that personns and its real reasons to be opposed to the Bogdanovs. Pretending that the problem was scientifics inaccuracies, he was in fact, during 2 whole years, attacking the Bogdanovs and their books based on an ideologie called "postsituationism" and which rules are to create a falsh assuption that something is wrong and to get as many "idiots" (as they call them in their web site) to follow them. The higher the idiot are, the beter: here it will be scientists, and they fooled some! They use all kind of tricks, fordgery of documents put at disposition on line, falsh identity, write letters to the employer of the people they attack, insult the people, accuse them of being uneducated, to disposed of those having the necessary scientific bagground to dismantle their accusations, and denial. The found I made was done through earlier victims from that group, and essentially of YBM, who contacted me, and told me about what happened to them 2 years ago, prior to this Bogdanovs affair. They are writers, one of them a cooking book, and they became victims of the savage attacks of YBM, and this postsituationists organisation, which costed them their job. YBM stopped when he saw a chance at getting even bigger and more international with the Bogdanovs story. A paper was edited against their thesis in a scientific journal, but a dementie was given 4 days later. Nonetheless, YBm begin his home made story who has now put much discredit on the Bogdanovs brothers and their thesis and their book, and has involved thousands of people and known scientists. It was therefor very important that I came out with this vital information about hte truth of the all story, the bluff it all was. YBM tried to hinder me doing so by removíng my edit as many times as I put it on, and using the revert function which I didn't knew about at that time. I wrote to César (Céréal@killer) from the equivalent french site about it, but he was busy at that time and couldn't do much to help me. I was suddendly bannished from the site, as YBM had accused me of being the one vandalizing the site, and convinced an admi of it. I tried subsequently to explain the other users and the admi that it wasn't so, and explecitly asked for the course of action to take in case of security flaw in form of a user accusing another user of vandalism when this user was in fact the one performing it. I didn't received any answer, but a threat and was accused by the dmi to have deleeted her answer??!!! Of course I didn't have, but was banished for a week! I was very angry at the turn of event, and during the time I was banished, this sudden appearing admi did deleete all my posts and delleeted all the entire site (!) up to the 2nd of september! This site was opened in march this year so you can imagine all the informations who went out. This include the scientificals proove from the doctors Igor and Grichka Bogdanov, evidences against all the points of attack made by their detractors. All the important links are also gone. This has been doen from an admi who had never been on this site and never interested herself for this affair and didn't knew about the past of people like YBM. For exemple on the french wiki about this subject, but also all over the web, and his forums where he attack the Bogdanovs based on their physical appearences and age... He has on this site also given the title "GARBAGE" to 2 of my edit, among them this revelation about his true motives, which I changed to "VERY IMPORTANT STATEMENT" that he changed again for garbage and accused me of vandalisme on my own articles!! Which was taken as serious by the admi who banished me subsequently from the site! Without noticing that he also had deleeted my texts, and also that he was using and abusing of the revert function every night, reverting the site up to 7 times per hours. No warning nor punishment was given to this YBM about that, and he wasn't even accused of havin´g done so, but I was!!! On the top of that, the first time I was banish, for 24 hours, it was without warning at all, without explainations, and the name of the admi having banished me was Cereal@killer, whom I was in constant contact with, and whom i was refering of the sabotage I was victim of by YBM, each and every night, often several times by night. He couldn't do a thing has he didn't knew any admi from the english site...and I didn't knew enough about the wiki communications system, and there was no admi name on my site, so I didn't knew who else to contact. It was very frustrationg to be put the hand on the mouth for more than a week and not able to do anything or contact anybody about it, as the criminal was accusing me of sabotaging the site, at the same time. I think that it is about time to gather people together and to decide what to do about this YBM, and about the conduct of this admi who deleeted all the site. out of 8 users, 5 are against the changes that the admi have performed and don't feel free to express themselves as she always take side on YBM and blame any attempts made to contradict him. On the 3 other users, one is YBM and I am not in touch with the others, but one of them must be julien who used to send me private mail as to ask for my mening and in fact insulted me many times. Until I very seriously convinced him to stop mailing me. It occur one week before YBM begin to deleete all my articles on the site. This YBM is engeneer in informatic and could have done many things, among it put the name of cereal killer as the admi having banished me, thought it wasn't César who did it. The admi of this site who have sabotage all the site is Bishonen, a girl, and the admi who is looking at it for César since yesterday is Sam Hocevar. But.. as most of the site, 95 to 99 %, has been deleeted by the grace of Bishonen, it remain difficult for someone to conduct an enquiry on this affair now. I was banished a week, finishing today, and what i come back to is a dead zone. Bishonen removed all the day after she had taken care to displace me on an isolated place where I could shout loud and be heard by nobody. I couldn't either visit any of the other site of wiki during this banishing period, nor write an email to the administrator of the site,or any other administrators. She pretended that if i had any proove of her wrongness she will upheave this banishment immediatly, but in fact she never aswered my questions but answered once about something all apart from the subject. She also accused me on the site of having abused of the revert function, knowing it was impossible as I had first known about it after she had banished me once for a day, and that YBM tried again to remove my articles, and I replaced it using that function. From that time he stopped to remove my articles, as it will have been much easier for me to replace them, but i was banished for a week the day after, on the accusation that I had deleeted the answer of Bishonen on the site. I had done nothing of the kind, and asked for her to remove her accusations from the site: she had even put it as a title of her answer, with my name on it... I do not like to see this stalinistic censorship governing on wiki, not do i like to see those machiavelics methods used by unpunished users, nor the threatening methods used by this admi to keep all the other users dancing on her key note, without a word against the outrageous sabotage who is taking place on the site.
I would like you to take a look at it and to have a discussion with the creator of Wiki, about what to do to inforce security and prevent that a user performing sabotages use of wiki security system against such to report his victims as being those vandalazing the site or his own articles? What can i do as a user when a admi make error or deliberatly take side with this kind of person, and threaten all others? I have been told goodnight stories and now I would like to see som real facts, actions taking place. Can wiki tolerate this kind of behaviour without reacting? Whom can a user contact directly when this kind of thing occur, wihtout having to wait 2 weeks like here, and before the whole site is destroyed beyond recognition, and in a way who will seriously handicapped any enquiry. Many times I felt like if I had to do the job of the admi as this one wasn't anywhere to be seen. And now that he is not asked for he is there all the time and bloking everybody to intervene except for YBM. How can the replacement of my own texts and title be considered as vandalism, and how can the guy who did it be left in peace and protected?
I have been seriously hurted by this chain of event and by the unjustice who continue to dominate this affair. I don't think it is allright to just look the other way and let this be asit is "until next time". I ask for justice and i am in the right to do so. This Bishonen admi made laugh at the first amendment, I replied to her by asking her, " well, where would you be without it, and what wiki? It will also be a good idea to look at the communication site of this Bishonen where she is talking with some of her friends admi?, and this YBM, agree with him about that my IP signature is anonymous (!!) and decide to banish me for a week. I always signed with Sophie XAL followed by my ip adress who appear by pushing on the signature button. I think that this is too much and that this story against the Bogdanovs has to end. I founded the piece of evidence to stop all those speculations, after only 3 weeks following this affair, and it was so important that YBM was ready to go all that way to hinder me to show it as all the people who had followed him until now will see who he really was, and what were his real motives all along: manipulations on line. An experiment, in virtual reality, as some philosophers made thought experiments. And now the best, how to manipulate an admi on wiki, and get all the mountain of evidences to diseappear in 48 hours.
I hope that YOU will be able to act decisively and that YOU are the one that I should have contacted from the beginning.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:213.237.21.6
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Bogdanov_Affair
Best regards,
Sophie Petterka sophie@nostromo.dk 0045 35 82 31 39 Copenhaguen Danmark
----- Original Message ----- From: "Angela" beesley@gmail.com To: "Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List" foundation-l@wikimedia.org Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2005 12:01 PM Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Donation drive stopped early with insufficientfunds collected
On 9/6/05, Tim Starling t.starling@physics.unimelb.edu.au wrote:
I'm wondering why the donation drive was stopped early, before the enough money was collected to cover the Foundation's Q3 budget of $198,000. After our discussion in August about the German chapter, I thought it was fairly clear that those funds could not be used for the general operating expenses of the Florida Foundation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Revert
I expect the people editing the sitenotice were unaware that the drive was meant to be a "21-day" one rather than one which would end when the initial goal was met, as it was last time.
Angela. _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Tim Starling wrote:
I'm wondering why the donation drive was stopped early, before the enough money was collected to cover the Foundation's Q3 budget of $198,000. After our discussion in August about the German chapter, I thought it was fairly clear that those funds could not be used for the general operating expenses of the Florida Foundation.
So the fundraising drive raised $220,849 - $36,866 = $183,983 towards the operating costs of the Foundation. This leaves a shortfall of $198,000 - $184,983 = $14,017.
The Verein has nominated a few things that they would like to spend money on, such as hardware within Germany, and that's all very well, I'm sure it will help with our general mission. But those costs are not part of the Florida Q3 budget, they are part of the Verein budget. So the shortfall still remains.
This is really just an accounting error. What needs to be done now is the Florida budget needs to be revised downwards, by cutting out items that might instead be purchased by the Verein. Then the Verein needs to produce their own budget. Only then will we have a consisent story to tell to our generous donors.
-- Tim Starling
I spill it ?
Right, I spill it.
This is a flood issue.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_talk:Sitenotice#Time_to_replace_the_s... will clarify things probably.
Anthere
--- Tim Starling t.starling@physics.unimelb.edu.au wrote:
I'm wondering why the donation drive was stopped early, before the enough money was collected to cover the Foundation's Q3 budget of $198,000.
Er - the drive did not stop. I dont recall the sitewide message going down.
After our discussion in August about the German chapter, I thought it was fairly clear that those funds could not be used for the general operating expenses of the Florida Foundation.\
That is a technical issue, not a policy one. My suggestion is for the German chapter to act on one of their hosting offers, buy a bunch of servers to use as squids and then we can work out the ownership issues later.
So the fundraising drive raised $220,849 - $36,866 = $183,983 towards the operating costs of the Foundation. This leaves a shortfall of $198,000 - $184,983 = $14,017.
Not a shortfall. A squid in Germany will negate the need for buying one in Florida. The budget is based on needs; it is even likely that if the Yahoo! servers go online this quarter, then that will negate the need for buying a whole bunch of servers. The money saved would then roll-over into the next quarters budget.
This is really just an accounting error. What needs to be done now is the Florida budget needs to be revised downwards, by cutting out items that might instead be purchased by the Verein. Then the Verein needs to produce their own budget. Only then will we have a consisent story to tell to our generous donors.
If we dont spend as much as we thought wed need, then the left-over amount simply rolls over into the next quarters budget. Alternatively, the board could pass a supplementary budget for special projects that the un-spent money can be used on. It is my understanding that this is what was going to happen for everything collected above the $198,000 budget.
So yeah, the budgeting is a bit weird. But that is necessary due to the fact that we have global needs and more than one organization collecting money.
-- Daniel Mayer (aka mav)
______________________________________________________ Click here to donate to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. http://store.yahoo.com/redcross-donate3/
Daniel Mayer wrote:
That is a technical issue, not a policy one. My suggestion is for the German chapter to act on one of their hosting offers, buy a bunch of servers to use as squids and then we can work out the ownership issues later.
My recommendation is that the German chapter continue to work closely with the Foundation and NOT go out and randomly accept a hosting offer and buy random servers.
The building of a coherent global network is a significant technical and organizational challenge that many good people are working hard on, and I do not think it is wise to give advice like this.
--Jimbo
--- Jimmy Wales jwales@wikia.com wrote:
My recommendation is that the German chapter continue to work closely with the Foundation and NOT go out and randomly accept a hosting offer and buy random servers.
I did not suggest that they randomly accept a hosting offer or buy random servers. Of course they need to work closely with the foundation and developers on these issues. But, weve all been in the *exact* same situation since our first co-organized fund drive in October 2004.
The building of a coherent global network is a significant technical and organizational challenge that many good people are working hard on,
The German chapter has been in limbo for almost a year now as to how they can help globally. It has been my observation that the trustees of that chapter want to help globally but the issues relating to what can and cant be done with that money outside of Germany has been a major reason why little has been done with that money outside that nation. Please correct me if Im wrong.
So I simply suggested that everybody consider setting aside the issues that have been stopping action for nearly a year. I did *not* suggest that any rash decisions be made or that things get decided unilaterally or randomly. But I did suggest that issues relating to legal ownership (a major bottleneck - in my observation - so far) can be worked out in due time. As is, the great majority of the money is just sitting there.
I do not think it is wise to give advice like this.
Then can you suggest a way for the process to be moved along?
Either the German chapter can help us with global issues, or their fundraising page needs to be changed to tell exactly what money donated to the German chapter can be used on and what it cant. So far, everything seems to give the impression that money donated to the German chapter can be used to help with global needs. *That* is why Ive been drafting budgets and coordinating fund drives that include the German chapter as a means to help us attain global goals. So I merely suggested a way that that could be done.
As more and more chapters get tax exempt status, this will be more and more of an issue. This issue needs to be worked out ASAP, before over half the money generated in fund drives goes to chapters instead of directly to the foundation.
-- mav
__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Daniel Mayer wrote:
--- Jimmy Wales jwales@wikia.com wrote:
My recommendation is that the German chapter continue to work closely with the Foundation and NOT go out and randomly accept a hosting offer and buy random servers.
I did not suggest that they randomly accept a hosting offer or buy random servers. Of course they need to work closely with the foundation and developers on these issues. But, we’ve all been in the *exact* same situation since our first co-organized fund drive in October 2004.
I agree that ill-considered hosting arrangements could compromise the credibility of the entire project, or that poorly chosen equipment could be incompatible with what already exists. At the same time it is reasonable to expect that what funds are raised in Germany should be spent in Germany.
The building of a coherent global network is a significant technical and organizational challenge that many good people are working hard on,
The German chapter has been in limbo for almost a year now as to how they can help globally. It has been my observation that the trustees of that chapter want to help globally but the issues relating to what can and can’t be done with that money outside of Germany has been a major reason why little has been done with that money outside that nation. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
So I simply suggested that everybody consider setting aside the issues that have been stopping action for nearly a year. I did *not* suggest that any rash decisions be made or that things get decided unilaterally or randomly. But I did suggest that issues relating to legal ownership (a major bottleneck - in my observation - so far) can be worked out in due time. As is, the great majority of the money is just sitting there.
Admittedly, I have not followed what happens to funds very closely. I have no technical knowledge about servers so I don't participate in those discussions, and I'm not in Germany so that puts me further from what happens with their funds. As long as Wikipedia could operate with two servers in San Diego there was not much to worry about in the ownership of the servers. The size of the recent fund drive, however, makes it clear that we are not far away from a million dollar annual budget. AFAIK there are no models for a wiki with that size of budget.
I think that the wikification of budgets will seem even stranger than the wikification of an encyclopedia. It comes as no surprise when a lot of people who have embraced the wiki way are oblivious to issues of accounting and finance. I did notice that there was an item in the budget to pay for external auditors, but before we get to that we need to deal with internal audits. This could perhaps be through an audit committee of Wikipedians who are independent of the money management, and who are given full access to all the information that they need including acess to receipts, cancelled checks, bank records and whatever else they may find relevant.
I believe in a dispersed ownership where each national organization has fiscal autonomy, and full ownership rights in whatever equipment it purchases. A German organization should be accountable to the broader membership as a condition of having the right to use our trademarks, but it should be in such a way that it has no obligation or effect on the reporting requirements of the parent organization to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.
If any national organization gets into legal trouble of any remotely imaginable kind the organization should be such that no other national organization is affected. This holds especially true for the organization in the litigious climate of the United States where you don't need to do something wrong to get sued.
I do not think it is wise to give advice like this.
Then can you suggest a way for the process to be moved along?
Either the German chapter can help us with global issues, or their fundraising page needs to be changed to tell exactly what money donated to the German chapter can be used on and what it can’t. So far, everything seems to give the impression that money donated to the German chapter can be used to help with global needs. *That* is why I’ve been drafting budgets and coordinating fund drives that include the German chapter as a means to help us attain global goals. So I merely suggested a way that that could be done.
What are our understandings on this? Co-ordinated fund-raising makes sense. It is also understandable that there would be global needs, but there still needs to be a definition of what needs are global.
As more and more chapters get tax exempt status, this will be more and more of an issue. This issue needs to be worked out ASAP, before over half the money generated in fund drives goes to chapters instead of directly to the foundation.
In some countries tax exempt status depends on the funds so collected being spent for needs in that country.
Mav, I know that you are working very hard at this, and that you are approaching the task in an autonomous and independent manner, though at times I do wonder whether you're in over your head. I would have loved to have heard you views on this in Frankfurt, and was very disappointed that you could not be there.
Ec
Daniel Mayer wrote:
Jimmy Wales wrote:
The building of a coherent global network is a significant technical and organizational challenge that many good people are working hard on,
The German chapter has been in limbo for almost a year now as to how they can help globally. It has been my observation that the trustees of that chapter want to help globally but the issues relating to what can and can’t be done with that money outside of Germany has been a major reason why little has been done with that money outside that nation. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
So I simply suggested that everybody consider setting aside the issues that have been stopping action for nearly a year. I did *not* suggest that any rash decisions be made or that things get decided unilaterally or randomly. But I did suggest that issues relating to legal ownership (a major bottleneck - in my observation - so far) can be worked out in due time. As is, the great majority of the money is just sitting there.
Contracts between chapters and the foundation can help - something we are unfamiliar with because our community is based on trust but the tax-and-legal network out there is based on written contracts. Contracts beween organisations in different countries are complex anyway.
Greetings, Jakob
P.S: In this message there is a hidden reminder about a contract regarding logo and trademarks usage that Wikimedia Germany is awaiting eagerly every day since weeks.
Jakob Voss wrote:
P.S: In this message there is a hidden reminder about a contract regarding logo and trademarks usage that Wikimedia Germany is awaiting eagerly every day since weeks.
It is currently in the hands of our San Francisco law firm. The person they have on staff who is doing this work, as I understand it, is a German lawyer *and* a US lawyer. So he seems like just the right person to take care of this.
I do not have a time frame for when we will hear back, but I estimate within a week or two.
--Jimbo
Daniel Mayer wrote:
So I simply suggested that everybody consider setting aside the issues that have been stopping action for nearly a year. I did *not* suggest that any rash decisions be made or that things get decided unilaterally or randomly. But I did suggest that issues relating to legal ownership (a major bottleneck - in my observation - so far) can be worked out in due time. As is, the great majority of the money is just sitting there.
Legal ownership isn't really particularly a bottleneck here.
As more and more chapters get tax exempt status, this will be more and more of an issue. This issue needs to be worked out ASAP, before over half the money generated in fund drives goes to chapters instead of directly to the foundation.
An alternative to this, which Soufron is looking into for me (but he warns that it will take some months at least) is to get the foundation itself directly recognized in Europe as having tax exempt status.
--Jimbo
Jimmy Wales wrote:
Daniel Mayer wrote:
So I simply suggested that everybody consider setting aside the issues that have been stopping action for nearly a year. I did *not* suggest that any rash decisions be made or that things get decided unilaterally or randomly. But I did suggest that issues relating to legal ownership (a major bottleneck - in my observation - so far) can be worked out in due time. As is, the great majority of the money is just sitting there.
Legal ownership isn't really particularly a bottleneck here.
As more and more chapters get tax exempt status, this will be more and more of an issue. This issue needs to be worked out ASAP, before over half the money generated in fund drives goes to chapters instead of directly to the foundation.
An alternative to this, which Soufron is looking into for me (but he warns that it will take some months at least) is to get the foundation itself directly recognized in Europe as having tax exempt status.
--Jimbo
Hoi, I have had contact with the Dutch taxoffice in Heerlen about this issue. It is possible for the Wikimedia Foundation to have a tax exempt status in the Netherlands. The Tax office takes a much more severe look at organisations that are not Dutch. Typically only 1% of the requests are honored I was told. It makes no difference if it is a US or a European organisation I was told. When we are to ask for a tax exempt status for a Dutch chapter, we could prepare papers for the WMF at the same time..
Given the great reputation the WMF has in the Netherlands it should be possible to acquire this status. This reputation can be demonstrated in quotes of organisations like Kennisnet who have publicly stated that Wikipedia is important to the Dutch education.
Thanks, Gerard
As more and more chapters get tax exempt status, this will be more and more of an issue. This issue needs to be worked out ASAP, before over half the money generated in fund drives goes to chapters instead of directly to the foundation.
An alternative to this, which Soufron is looking into for me (but he warns that it will take some months at least) is to get the foundation itself directly recognized in Europe as having tax exempt status.
Which is quite difficult from what I can see now.
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org