[Fundraising] Prototype Income Projection

[Frank Warmerdam]

Jo Walsh wrote:
> dear all,
> On Tue, Aug 22, 2006 at 11:44:26AM -0400, Frank Warmerdam wrote:
>>   http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Income_Projection
> 
> This is a shiny future picture... 
>> Obviously it is optimistic in some regards, but I think it is not
>> completely unreasonable, and for the purposes of 501(c)3 application
>> should demonstrate a diversity of support.   In the meeting I hope we can
>> find tune it a bit.
> 
> I would like to muddy the waters a bit more by reminding you of some
> of this discussion about nonprofit status + financial management:
> https://board.osgeo.org/servlets/ReadMsg?listName=board&msgNo=1129
> 
> 501(c)3 really may not be the way to go - it invokes a 1/3 public
> support test - and a lot more administrative attention and enthusiasm
> apparently - than the 501(c)6 which is a "trade association" and may
> be much more like what the foundation needs - and would enable the
> pursuit of multiple largish sponsorships. I would like to know what
> kind of advice are we taking / can OSGeo take on this topic?

Jo,

Early in the year we went through this and decided we ought to be a 501(c)3
for a number of reasons, and that we felt the public support test should
be fairly achievable.  Some of the details of that have faded from my memory
now.  But reasons include:

  o Some foundations will only provide grants to 501(c)3 organizations.

  o Some governments will only provide "NGO" funding to charitable
    organizations which is 501(c)3 in the USA.

  o It is the only way to accept income tax free money from individuals.

I did a rough income projection at the time where most income was from
sponsorships, and it seemed it was not hard to meet the public support
test, though it did stress the need to promote lots of small sponsorships
in addition to a few big ones.  I don't have those numbers around any more
(or perhaps they are buried somewhere in the wiki or mailing list?)

I *think* the 2% aspect is that of the 1/3 of income that is suitable for
the public support test, only up to 2% of the *total budget* can come
from each source.

So, if the budget is $500K, then we need $166K that meets the public test
and each chunk can be at most $10K.  In the proposed income projection the
all gold and silver sponsorships would be under this line, and the first
$10K of platinum sponsorships.  So there alone we would have $192K or so.

Rich is the authority on all this of course, and is preparing the documents.

Personally, I went through the same concerns you are raising in this earlier
discussion (paperwork overhead, hard to meet public support test) and came
out of it feeling comfortable about the 501(c)3 route.

Best regards,
-- 
---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGF, http://osgeo.org