Re: [gentoo-nfp] Conference call with lawyers

[Chris Gianelloni]

On Thu, 2006-11-16 at 09:46 -0800, Joshua Jackson wrote:
> > 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.

> We aren't a 501(c)6 yet so we can't accept donations of that sort yet.

We are in New Mexico, even if it is on shaky ground.

> Until we are recognized federally it'd be best to avoid doing any
> large fund raising currently. As well, we really should have a plan of
> what the funds would be used for, when approaching someone for a
> donation. A itemized list of where the funds would go and what the
> funding would be used for if not for immediate use.

Well, there's nothing stopping us from accepting large donations now.
The only problem here would be if we were *not* accepted federally, as
we would end up being responsible for the taxes on the donations.

As for an itemized list, I couldn't agree more.  We need to come up with
what we want to spend money on and why.  As I have tried to say before,
setting aside a budget for specific needs, such as Infrastructure,
Events, and PR, is the starting step in this.  We simply start with a
budget that we can afford with our current income and scale it up or
down based on what we bring in each year.

What I want to know right now is simple.

- How much money do we have?
- Where is it?
- How do we access it?
- Who is responsible for it?
- At what rate does this money come in?
- Do we have credit cards/paypal/etc?

Basically, I think that with this information, we can plan a budget for
things we know that we need, such as the above mentioned and also for
legal costs.  So who can answer my questions?

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