[Wikimedia-l] Fwd: [Chapters] Question: How do we define lobbying?

[J Alexandr Ledbury-Romanov]

Forwarding a reply from a non member of the list.

Alex


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: rexx <rexx at blueyonder.co.uk>
To: Wikimedia Chapters general discussions - closed list <
chapters at wikimedia.ch>
Cc: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 2013 18:04:45 +0100
Subject: Re: [Chapters] Question: How do we define lobbying?
I was aware that in the USA non-profits can lobby, but there are limits on
how much they can spend on it. The most restricted type of non-profit is a
503(c) and such an organisation may choose to spend up to 20% of their
first $500,000 of annual expenditure on lobbying - the maximum any 503(c)
may spend on lobbying in a year is $1,000,000.

I assume that the WMF would need some mechanism to ensure that the grants
it makes do not become used for lobbying in such a way that the total
exceeds the $1M total - which would jeopardise their tax-free status. It is
therefore perfectly understandable that WMF may decide that the easiest way
to be certain is to bar the use of granted funds for lobbying completely.
If we wanted to move away from that, each grantee would probably need a
more complex accounting system to be able to reassure the WMF that spending
on lobying was strictly limited. I'm not suggesting such a system would be
impossible, only that it would require some negotiation between Chapters
and WMF.

Some quick Google results for background reading:

http://www.clpi.org/the-law/faq
http://apps.americanbar.org/buslaw/blt/2009-03-04/mehta.shtml
http://www.asaecenter.org/Resources/whitepaperdetail.cfm?ItemNumber=12202

Cheers
-- 
Doug Taylor


On 19 April 2013 16:37, Fae <faewik at gmail.com> wrote:

> In a workshop in the Milan conference, there was a break-out
> discussion led by Iolanda (WMIT) on lobbying. There is a lot of
> interest in finding ways of supporting change in copyright legislation
> and open knowledge access in as many countries as possible.
>
> One of the interesting features of the WMF agreement when providing
> funds under the FDC process is that this money should not be used for
> lobbying. During the coffee break I had a quick chat with Garfield
> (the WMF CFO) about a possible clarification. My understanding from
> that chat was that if there were valid reasons for lobbying in support
> of our cause, this should be a separate grant for traceability
> reasons, it is not intended to imply a blanket ban, but traceability
> is needed to satisfy the IRS. If a chapter has separate income from
> the WMF, then there is no concern as this is a matter for the
> individual chapter board and membership to worry about.
>
> I think this is a useful clarification, and this ought to be followed
> up as an action from our workshop.
>
> I would welcome any comments from the wider community on what sorts of
> lobbying as a movement that we definitely want to support, encourage
> and possibly provide funds for, and if we could come to a clearer
> definition of what lobbying is (such as political protest) and things
> we do as a community that is not quite lobbying, even though it may
> relate to government legislation (such as publishing a white paper
> with our summary of the benefits of changes in copyright law).
>
> Cheers,
> Fae
> --
> faewik at gmail.com http://j.mp/faewm
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