Alison,
I wish you had said something then:
Our charity's bye-laws allow us to support education projects like Wikipedia and it is very likely we could have received the funds and given them to you without deductions. This would give us the legal responsibility for ensuring the funds are spent as advertised etc but we would have been able to manage that. The charity world isn't quite like the business world. For example we have an international policy always to help and train other NGOs with aligned aims (unlike say Shell, who don't teach BP how they find oil)...we give a lot of training in the field to all sorts of people we have to compete with in fundraising. Even more bizarre we are one of the guarantor members of UNICEF UK, despite waving different cans in the high street.
I agree WMUK has very considerable fund-raising potential. And as I have said we are happy to help. I am too conflicted to be a board member but look forward to helping whoever we elect.
Andrew
On Fri, Sep 19, 2008 at 11:21 AM, Alison Wheeler wikimedia@alisonwheeler.com wrote:
On Fri, September 19, 2008 09:46, Delphine Ménard wrote:
My experience is that people are always much happier to give "home" (ie. in the UK) because it's easier/cheaper/cooler. So while the lack of tax-deductibility status might hinder the first year, I am convinced that Wikimedia UK will start off with a lot of money. Actually, you should be ready for it and start thinkng about cool projects to channel donations asap.
This.
We we were just starting to get WMUK going a year or two back we were approached by the Charities Aid Foundation completely out of the blue. They act as intermediaries between donors small and large and the organisations the donors want to give to. Though we were given no details at all of what might be on offer to us we tried very hard to get the bank to be in a position to cash their cheque we couldn't and, in the end, I believe the WMF got involved instead and I heard no more about it.
I've talked with more than a few business leader types about what they could do for/with WMUK. Just don't think small ...
Alison
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