I'm a career financial manager - I first ran a
business in the 80's, qualified as an ACA, moved to the board of a £multimillion
company as their finance and admin manager, and I've worked as a financial controller
or manager for two PLCs and a number of small businesses since. I'm all for open
source, open knowledge, and building something that'll help others, that's the
attraction for me. Sue Gardner's seen my CV, and my full references back to the
nineties got taken when we talked. Alison's got copies of them all.
Sounds good. It would help if you told us your on wiki identity.
Keeping your identity secret really doesn't go hand in hand with being
a chapter board member...
Where WMUK is, has been a bit of a "chicken and
egg" problem. When I took on the role, I was told it was a problem, but we're
getting there on it. To register as a charity (formally) you need to show actual, first
year of registration, expected income of £5000 or more. That's the Charity Commission
rules for registering any trust, foundation or legal entity, as a charity. Alison has been
trying to address this, and get commitments for that level of income. (Below this level
you can get HMRC tax recognition which does the same thing financially but it's not
actually "registered charity" status. Some people get confused on that.)
Until we have committed income of £5000 or more pledged, which must not be a loan of any
kind, we have a problem under UK banking conventions. Without that status, all that WMUK
is, is a company like any other, and it gets treated as a business by almost every high
street bank or building society - business banking, charges, minimum balance, and so on.
The full works. If WMUK were a trust, club, or any other unincorporated entity, then it
would be easier, but it isn't. That would also be a fundamental change to WMUK's
structure and nobody is inclined to do that if it can be avoided. (If we did, then
migrating back later and legal paperworks would be expensive, and a procedural/legal pain
in the posterior.) Thus in effect, with the present structure, a non-profit bank account
really requires charitable status; charitable status really requires a bank account, and
that circle is what's held it back previously.
According to the HMRC, their tax recognition for small charities
should make everyone treat you as a charity. Do the banks not
subscribe to that? Have we at least got that tax recognition sorted
out so we can accept tax deductable donations? You'll struggle to get
£5000 pledged without that.