In the course of editing an article today, I came across these Objects.
THE TRUSTEES SHALL HOLD THE TRUST FUND AND ITS INCOME UPON TRUST TO APPLY THEM FOR SUCH CHARITABLE PURPOSES AS THE TRUSTEES SHALL IN THEIR ABSOLUTE DISCRETION FROM TIME TO TIME THINK FIT.
Wow. Carte blanche.....
Gordo
On 29/04/12 11:20, Gordon Joly wrote:
In the course of editing an article today, I came across these Objects.
THE TRUSTEES SHALL HOLD THE TRUST FUND AND ITS INCOME UPON TRUST TO APPLY THEM FOR SUCH CHARITABLE PURPOSES AS THE TRUSTEES SHALL IN THEIR ABSOLUTE DISCRETION FROM TIME TO TIME THINK FIT.
Wow. Carte blanche.....
Gordo
Which the took me here...
http://opencharities.org/charities/1086806
and here....
http://opencharities.org/charities/1144513
Gordo
Not quite carte blanche. Surely "such charitable purposes" does limit them to spending the money on things that would be deemed charitable in UK law.
WSC
On 29 April 2012 11:20, Gordon Joly gordon.joly@pobox.com wrote:
In the course of editing an article today, I came across these Objects.
THE TRUSTEES SHALL HOLD THE TRUST FUND AND ITS INCOME UPON TRUST TO APPLY THEM FOR SUCH CHARITABLE PURPOSES AS THE TRUSTEES SHALL IN THEIR ABSOLUTE DISCRETION FROM TIME TO TIME THINK FIT.
Wow. Carte blanche.....
Gordo
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Not quite carte blanche. Surely "such charitable purposes" does limit them to spending the money on things that would be deemed charitable in UK law.
Well, quite!
The main purpose of Trustees is to make sure the organisation only spends money in pursuit of its charitable objectives. Which means there are many many things we can't do.
Chris
On 29 April 2012 13:30, Chris Keating chriskeatingwiki@gmail.com wrote:
Not quite carte blanche. Surely "such charitable purposes" does limit them
to spending the money on things that would be deemed charitable in UK law.
Well, quite!
The main purpose of Trustees is to make sure the organisation only spends money in pursuit of its charitable objectives. Which means there are many many things we can't do.
Chris
On this issue I would argue along the same lines as I did on accepting in-kind donations: We have trustees for a reason - to exercise their human wisdom on things that are not absolutely black and white! If they aren't given the freedom to pursue the objectives of WMUK their way, we may as well have robots on the board.
Deryck
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On 29 April 2012 13:46, Deryck Chan deryckchan@gmail.com wrote:
On this issue I would argue along the same lines as I did on accepting in-kind donations: We have trustees for a reason - to exercise their human wisdom on things that are not absolutely black and white! If they aren't given the freedom to pursue the objectives of WMUK their way, we may as well have robots on the board.
Just to clarify, Gordon wasn't quoting WMUK's objects. They are quite specific and can be read here:
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Articles_of_Association
Objects that give the trustees the discretion to doing anything charitable are typical for family foundations that just make grants to other charities. It's really no different to the wealthy individual making donations directly, it's just more convenient in terms of tax relief (you get it immediately but can decide later what charities to donate to, and can avoid inheritance tax if leaving money to charity in your will).
On 29/04/12 13:57, Thomas Dalton wrote:
Just to clarify, Gordon wasn't quoting WMUK's objects.
So true. I was a bit off topic.
Sorry about that!
Gordo
Gordon, no offence, but wtf?
Can we try to keep discussions on this list at least tangentially relevant to issues related to Wikimedia UK?
Harry
________________________________ From: Gordon Joly gordon.joly@pobox.com To: wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Sunday, 29 April 2012, 21:29 Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Objects of a charity.
On 29/04/12 13:57, Thomas Dalton wrote:
Just to clarify, Gordon wasn't quoting WMUK's objects.
So true. I was a bit off topic.
Sorry about that!
Gordo
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On 29/04/12 13:12, WereSpielChequers wrote:
Not quite carte blanche. Surely "such charitable purposes" does limit them to spending the money on things that would be deemed charitable in UK law.
WSC
This reminds me on the recent proposals of the UK Government to put a cap on charitable giving, that is to partially reduce some income tax (and capital gains tax) liabilities. It would appear that WMUK is more likely to have small donations (plus Gift Aid) rather large donors in the higher tax bracket.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9229681/Charity-tax-could-deter-phi...
Gordo
We've been discussing just that in the office - however, the general profile of donations to WMUK means that we're not really affected by the cap on charitable giving. The vast majority of people who donate give less than £20 - there's just an awful lot of people who do so.
Richard Symonds Wikimedia UK 0207 065 0992 Disclaimer viewable at http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia:Email_disclaimer Visit http://www.wikimedia.org.uk/ and @wikimediauk
On 29 April 2012 21:35, Gordon Joly gordon.joly@pobox.com wrote:
On 29/04/12 13:12, WereSpielChequers wrote:
Not quite carte blanche. Surely "such charitable purposes" does limit them to spending the money on things that would be deemed charitable in UK law.
WSC
This reminds me on the recent proposals of the UK Government to put a cap on charitable giving, that is to partially reduce some income tax (and capital gains tax) liabilities. It would appear that WMUK is more likely to have small donations (plus Gift Aid) rather large donors in the higher tax bracket.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9229681/Charity-tax-could-deter-phi...
Gordo
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