Jimmy Wales wrote:
which reminds m... Any status update on the wikimedia foundation?? I know as of know Its officially a non-profit, but still hasn't achieved IRS tax exempt status. So, where are we with that? Have the papers been filed, or not? And how many more steps do we have afterwards. It'd be nice to have an estimated time by when this could be done. Is it going to take a couple of weeks or a couple of months? Just curious, and eager to donate....
Alex is an attorney who does this kind of thing all the time, and he is now advising me. We chatted last week, and are scheduled to chat again this week. At that time, I'll be submitting to him the completed application, by-laws, etc., for him to review and make suggestions. Also, I have to register with Florida and California as a charity, etc. If I've done a good job, it'll be a matter of sending the apps to the relevant agencies.
However, we can actually start accepting donations before that, he tells me. So I'm setting up a bank account and a merchant account and a paypal account for all of that.
I would say within 2 weeks to 1 month, we'll be ready to do a press release (to Slashdot, for example) and to have a pledge week or something like that.
--Jimbo
Slick. Let us know when that's up and which one charges you a smaller fee. Also, Are you going to put up a musicbrainz-style finances page? I really like that about Music Brainz, I think it encourages people to donate because they see exactly where the money they donate is going. It's just a list people who donated either with ther name or no name or a pseudonym if they want to and how much they donated as well as a list of expenses and It's updated every day or so I would guess. I think that kind of thing really helps the credibility of projects and makes people more comfortable with donating their money.
Lightning