On Thu, Sep 6, 2018 at 4:32 PM Michael Orlitzky <mjo@gentoo.org> wrote:

> On 09/06/2018 11:52 AM, Alec Warner wrote:
> >
> > The foundation is already a not-for-profit organization. Did you perhaps
> > mean a *tax-exempt* not for profit, and if so, why do you think we should
> > be a tax-exempt nonprofit?
> >
>
> For starters, tax-exempt organizations are exempt from paying taxes =)
>
> More seriously, a lot of programs like Amazon Smile require their
> participating organizations to be 501(c)(3). Right now I send that money
> to the FSF, and Amazon tells me they've made $11,000 over the past few
> years via donations.
>

There is a hidden premise here; that the Gentoo Foundation Inc. needs to
raise more money to fund its activities. I'm not entirely convinced of
this; our expenses are fairly low and we have adequately raised funds
irrespective of the Foundation's tax-exempt status in the past.

This is perhaps part II of the thread though. If there is clear demand for
the Foundation to spend money, then it becomes a signal that we should
improve our ability to fund raise and it improves the argument to do all
the necessary paperwork to be a tax-exempt organization; the idea being we
can activate additional fundraising channels. The current signal for funds
is funding requests, which are rare, so the Foundation has not sought more
money in the past; pretty much all of our fundraising is ad hoc.

-A


>
> As for how to spend the money: paying people to fix bugs is unexciting,
> but it's probably the idea with the best return on investment.