Richard,
To answer 1 and 2 together, and thanks for your response....
As you noted, under Gift Aid charities receive a 25% premium on donations (I hope that's correct just going on your figures), and I can't see the WMF really wanting to lose what is essentially, well, a gift.
As Fae mentioned in his response, the WMF could set up a trust in the UK for the sole purpose of fundraising, to ensure that the 25% gift aid is retained. They could then distribute these funds to whichever countries they like.
This is apparently how Greenpeace operates with the Greenpeace Environmental Trust[1] used to fundraise for the organisation, and Greenpeace Limited doing the stuff that wouldnt be legal for the charitable trust to do. With the fundraising the GET receives they can use these funds to support the upkeep of their foreign ships, or to protest Russian goings ons in the Arctic.
I sincerely can't see WMF wanting to lose the premium on donations which I am sure they are aware of, and they don't want WMUK collecting donations, so the logical conclusion to this is that they are bypassing WMUK to do this themselves (which they have already stated, except for the how).
So that we have some idea could we please get some figures on how WMUK collected for the WMF, and how much of the 25% premium (if that it was it is) the WMUK received.
Cheers
Russavia
[1] http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/Charity...
On Wed, May 21, 2014 at 8:19 PM, Richard Symonds < richard.symonds@wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:
Hi Russavia,
Just a quick response to your points:
- Yes. Gift Aid isn't quite the same as tax deductibility. To take
Wikipedia's example, when Mr Smith donates £100 to a charity, the charity gets £100 from him, plus an extra £25 from the government. It's more complex than this - not everyone is eligible - but broadly this is the case. 2. Probably not. See
http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/frequently-asked-questions/faqs-about-re... . 3. I'm not sure where the 50% figure came from, but it is incorrect. The correct figure for that year is 69%. For this past quarter, the correct figure is even better, at 80.24%. In addition, our fundraising costs as a percentage of total spend have dropped from 22% to 10%. If anyone wants more information on this, our treasurer is happy to discuss it with them by email. 4. As for the planes - it is indeed fantastic and a good example of how, even where we may disagree, we can still all pull together to do great work for the movement. Speaking personally, it's a shame we don't have something similar for ships!
Richard Symonds Wikimedia UK 0207 065 0992
Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
*Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*
On 21 May 2014 12:22, Russavia russavia.wikipedia@gmail.com wrote:
Hi all,
A couple of things popped into my head that I am unsure of, but hope someone might be able to answer.
- I understand that processing of UK donations in the US has significant
tax implications on the funds collected. I would imagine that the WMF couldn't claim anywhere near the same tax relief on this income in the
USA?
- If there are tax implications, wouldn't it make more sense for the WMF
to register its own charity in the UK, thereby it could essentially take WMUK out of the equation completely? 3) Could the fact that WMUK is currently spending approximately 50% of
its
income on non-project costs[1] be partly the reason for this decision by Sue? I understand that 3 years ago there was no staff in the UK and something like 90% of income was spent directly on projects, and now
there
are 12 staff with at the very least 50% of income being spent on non-project activities based on reports presented for the last FDC proposal. This could be a message that WMUK needs to trim the fat, especially if there are more overheads that are "hidden" within programme activity funding.
Not really sure what's going on here with the WMF, but the likelihood
that
what Nemo and Mircu state is possible, but we shouldn't discount other things as well.
But I would like to thank WMUK for sponsoring the "Airliners" project on Commons,[2] which will see over 200,000+ aviation images being made available via Fae's great work, and the chapters generosity. It's
something
that I don't think sponsorship would have come as easily from other sources.
Cheers
Russavia
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:FDC_portal/Proposals/2013-2014_round1/W...
[2] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Batch_uploading/Airliners _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
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