Re: [gentoo-nfp] Conference call with lawyers

[Chris Gianelloni]

On Thu, 2006-11-16 at 10:14 +0000, Stuart Herbert wrote:
> Renat Lumpau <rl03@g.o> wrote:
> >Hey gang,
> >
> >I'm scheduling a conference call with our lawyers for the week of
> >November 26th to discuss the next steps. Please let me know if there's
> >anything you want me to add to the agenda beyond what we've already
> >talked about.
>
> I've got one more thing.  I need to know what the rules are governing our
> sources of income.  Specifically, where can we accept money from, and where
> can we not?  Are there limits on individual donations - either in monetary
> value, or as a total percentage of our income over our accounting period
> (what _is_ our accounting period, btw?).

There are few rules, since we're a 501(c)6 and not a 501(c)3.  An
individual could give us 30 million dollars, and it affects nothing on
our standing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-profit_organization

(and more importantly)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/501%28c%29

If you prefer reading from the horse's mouth...
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=browse_usc&docid=Cite:+26USC501

> My other question is more a question for us than our lawyers, I guess.  Can
> we start trying for large-scale fund-raising now, or would we be better off
> waiting until the Foundation has been moved from New Mexico?  I'm concerned
> about any possible change in our registration type, and also about whether
> we're legally viable at all atm (given that we're moving from New Mexico
> because we don't meet their residency rules).

-- 
Chris Gianelloni
Release Engineering Strategic Lead
Alpha/AMD64/x86 Architecture Teams
Games Developer/Council Member/Foundation Trustee
Gentoo Foundation