[Foundation-l] Foundation vs. charity

[Ray Saintonge]

On 04/26/11 7:50 PM, Fred Bauder wrote:
>> On Tue, Apr 26, 2011 at 3:05 PM, Fred Bauder wrote:
>>> Foundation is not a legal term
>> "Private foundation" is one, though, and it is one that is contrasted
>> with "public charity".
>>
>> http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode26/usc_sec_26_00000509----000-.html
>> http://www.irs.gov/charities/charitable/article/0,,id=137894,00.html
> Yeh, I think we'd have to look up more than that to actually clarify all
> this. Bottom line: the terms are ambiguous except so far as they are
> legally defined in one context or another. Although the NYT's journalist
> did have a point. The Ford or Rockefeller Foundations were funded;
> Wikimedia Foundation is not.

I mostly agree with the NYT article except at the end where it defines a 
charity on the basis of where it gets its money.  Being a charity really 
depends on what it does with its money.  It depends on the common law 
concept of charitable purposes and the 1601 Statue of Elizabeth.

Sure enough Wikmedia employs a misnomer when it calls itself a 
Foundation.  Whether an entity is "public" or "private" has more to do 
with its funding sources.

Ray