Re: [gentoo-nfp] You need to pay them

[Roy Bamford]

On 2018.04.12 08:23, Daniel Robbins wrote:
> Hi Everyone,
>
> I'd like to propose that people consider having a couple of paid
> Foundation
> positions. Yes, I know what some of you are thinking. Blasphemy,
> right?
> Well, if you want people to run the Foundation and stay on top of
> finances,
> paperwork, etc, it takes a lot of time. If people devote a lot of time
> to
> the Foundation, it takes time away from their day that they would
> otherwise
> spend earning money.
>
> So without some modest compensation, trustees can only make a 'best
> effort'
> and they can't really guarantee a certain amount of hours to trustee
> duties
> per week. And we know from experience that that results in. That is
> just
> reality and will exist in any not-for-profit... ultimately most people
> use
> their time to make money, so if you want their ongoing assistance in
> the
> form of time -- for free -- they will lose money from their
> generosity, and
> this will be hard to sustain, regardless of the goodness of their
> intentions.
>
> But isn't that illegal!??!?!
>
> Absolutely not! It is perfectly legal for a not-for-profit to pay
> salaries.
> If you have ever donated to the Wikipedia Foundation (aka. Jimmy Wales
> beg-a-thon), you are giving them funds so they can have offices in San
> Francisco, computers, servers, desks, employees with regular salaries,
> benefits, paid time off, health care, retirement, etc. Yes, quite
> lovely,
> and nothing at the level we would offer our trustees -- I'm just
> making the
> point that not-for-profits are not vows of poverty. The organization
> itself
> isn't supposed to make a profit, but there can be expenses associated
> with
> running the organization and pursuing its mission.

The Foundation is a business like any other business and it can legally
make a profit, like any other business.

There are restrictions on what a non-profit can do.
The non-profit comes from being run not for the profit of the members.
Paying a dividend to members, would therefore be illegal. 

[snip]

>
> Isn't that against the bylaws!?!?
>
> Yes, a provision was added to the bylaws after the creation of the
> Foundation to prevent trustees from being financially compensated,
> with the
> expectation that the trustees would hire paid officers to do a lot of
> the
> heavy work of running the Foundation.

Not so much paid officers, as a fixed fee for a defined scope of work.

'Paid officers' raises the specter of employees, with hiring, firing,
health care, pensions, employment contracts and all the other 
overheads that go with having employees.
   
Another problem with paying for a role rather than a scope of work
is assessing value for money.  A scope of work can be competed
and value, not cost, to the organisation can be compared.

The Foundation does pay for services and should continue to pay for
services. These paid services can be performed by both members 
and non members.

>
> Best,
>
> Daniel
>

-- 
Regards,

Roy Bamford
(Neddyseagoon) a member of
elections
gentoo-ops
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