[Board] Non profit support - follow up summary

[Arnulf Christl (OSGeo)]

Tyler,
thanks for following up and updating us, this looks like we are cleaning
out a lot of ambiguities. I would be very interested in having a kind of
"board training", please make this a topic for the next board meeting so
that we can gauge interest by other board members.

I would be interested in getting some feedback on this question:
"What we do is in the public interest because what we do allows the
following activities to take place and they provide this clear benefit..."

As this is in the interest of the whole organization and does say
something about how we want to evolve it might be a good idea to invite
collaboration of the broader community using our Wiki .

Best regards,
Arnulf.

> Hi all,
> I had a good phone meeting with an attorney in the US, to get some help
> on a few things, namely the 501c3 application but also some general
> guidance.  It was our first meeting and he gave a good critique of a few
> items.  He has vast experience starting/supporting nonprofits so gave
> some good comments on our current response answers.  Here are a few
> things we talked about, that either he noticed/flagged for me or that I
> had had on my mind to ask...
>
> * IRS seems to have struggled recently through the challenge of
> understanding the kinds of "content" that software-related organisations
> provide
> * We chose to represent ourselves as both an educational and charitable
> organisation.  That relates to our teaching (FOSS4G and Education
> Committee, etc.) plus our free software and how it is used.
> * We need to clearly show a couple purpose-related aspects of OSGeo more
> clearly:
> -- What kinds of tasks/abilities do we actually teach to people?    What
> specifically are they learning from us?
> -- He suggests we provide a representative sample of educational
> material (education)
> -- What do people use our software for, that would be in the public
> interest?  (charity)
> -- "Charitable" needs to be tied to some way that our activities "help"
> the public.  e.g. other orgs might focus on protecting environment,
> pollution, etc.  Don't tie it back to say it's charitable because it's
> educational.
> -- Suggest along lines of: "What we do is in the public interest because
> what we do allows the following activities to take place and they
> provide this clear benefit..."
>
> * There was a question about whether 501c6 was more applicable to us,
> but he disagreed and hadn't seen groups like ours falling into the
> category of 'trade associations' in particular because we do not have a
> "shared common economic activity" and aren't promoting some commercial
> activity.
>
> * As part of a 501c3 we need to show ongoing public support, on a
> financial basis.  The question I had was how did corporate donations fit
>  into requirement.  Corporate donations should actually qualify as
> "public support" in the regulations.  There is another approach that may
> be taken to show this, by including "earned income" from something like
> FOSS4G.  I will get more info on that, but it looks like we have two
> different, solid, ways of showing public support.
>
> * Tax filings requirements during the 501c3 application process are not
> crystal clear.  He advised that we should be submitting a Form 990 - the
> "long form" since we have more than the threshold amount of donations.
>
> * I was wondering about an potential issues with operating my office out
> of Canada or from non-US addresses - there should be no issues at all.
> Some US registered non profits are set up for sole operation in a
> foreign place.
>
> * Got some clarification on what it means to "operate" out of another
> country (e.g. Canada office, FOSS4G events)
>
> * A monthly board meeting is a good sign of ongoing commitment to the
> organisation, e.g. that it won't die off or spin out of control.  Some
> other nonprofits are encouraged to have directors sign a statement of
> commitment to show this.
>
> * Briefly discussed insurance and the question of how does our foreign
> aspect affect it.  US-based orgs are most likely to be sued in the
> location they are registered or operate in.  Or also in location that a
> particular event-related accident occurs - e.g. if FOSS4G didn't have
> its own insurance.  He mentioned considering having a liability waiver
> for either attendees of events, volunteers or presenters.  Can't recall
> which exactly but waiving the right to sue is common.
>
> * I'm updating our responses this week and will flash them past him
> again for another critique.  Response is due by March 19th.  Your input
> would be welcome too, considering the above.
>
> * His costs are less than $200 / hour and he seems efficient, so this
> round of support will likely cost $500-600, though I hope to have him on
> retainer for other questions that might come up.
>
> * They also provide board training!  He's in Oregon State, but able to
> travel to us, or even to a small group of our directors if desired.  A
> conference call would be valuable too if you are interested.  Some
> directors haven't been on a board before and might benefit from some
> encouraging training.  I can coordinate something along with FOSS4G if
> interested (either this guy or someone else locally in Barcelona for
> example).
>
> Anyone else interested in getting started on the Form 990 tax filing
> while I'm working on the 501c3? :-)
>
> Hope that's interesting to you and fills some gaps in our knowledge.
>
> Talk to you later,
> Tyler
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-- 
President OSGeo
http://www.osgeo.org