[Foundation-l] Site Notices Phase 2 - Annual Fundraiser 2008

[Gerard Meijssen]

Hoi,
I am sure this is really interesting. It however does not get us any nearer
to a text that invites people to support us.

"Help us with your money and allow us to spend it frugally to do what you
love us to do."

This is a sentence that means more to me and has more appeal then the
legalistic difference between charity and charitable. When it is clear that
such terms are not understood, we should only use them for their emotional
appeal. The sentence that I propose indicates that we do what people would
like to do if they could. We can.

Thanks,
       GerardM

2008/11/28 Anthony <wikimail at inbox.org>

> On Fri, Nov 28, 2008 at 12:40 AM, Aphaia <aphaia at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Fri, Nov 28, 2008 at 6:40 AM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> > > And, in fact, wikimediafoundation.org says "nonprofit charitable
> > > organization". I don't know why people generally say "non-profit"
> > > instead of "charity", then - charity would be more precise and would
> > > probably be better perceived.
> >
> > I'm afraid I disagree with you here.
> > Non-profit vs for-profit is a distinction in taxation and precise.
>
>
> Not in the US it isn't.  Non-profit vs for-profit is a distinction in state
> corporation law.  Not all non-profit organizations receive an exemption
> from
> taxation.  Tax exemption (at least under federal law, but most states
> follow
> the federal) is governed by section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC).
>
> Charity vs not being charity may 1) no legal distinction in some cases
> > and 2) Wikimedia Foundation could be no charity in some definition of
> > non-US jurisdiction (and at worse it may be taken as deceitful).
>
>
> Well, the term "charity" is less specific.  The WMF was granted an
> exemption
> from taxation under 501(c)(3) of the IRC, which exempts "Corporations, and
> any community chest, fund, or foundation, organized and operated
> exclusively
> for religious, charitable, scientific, testing for public safety, literary,
> or educational purposes... [cutting out other relevant details]"  It is my
> understanding that the WMF applied for exemption under the category of
> "educational purposes", not "charitable purposes", however, the IRS refers
> to 501(c)(3) organizations in general as "charitable organizations".  They
> also make a distinction between "private foundations" and "public
> charities"
> based on section 509 of the IRC.  (See
> http://www.irs.gov/charities/charitable/article/0,,id=136459,00.html for
> more information on these last two sentences.)
>
> That said, outside the United States I understand these terms are used much
> differently.  I've witnessed a lot of misunderstandings over this seemingly
> US-specific (and maybe even IRS-specific?) terminology.
>
> I am for adding "charitable" etc. but against replacing "charity" etc.
> > with "non-profit".
>
>
> I personally don't care one bit, but at least in the US, "non-profit" is
> not
> very specific.
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