[Marketing] Chapter Fund Raising Draft Letter

[Alex Mandel]

Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo) wrote:
> A couple notes.  OSGeo does not have 501(c)(3) status as of yet - you
> cannot say donations are tax deductible.  We are waiting for the
> approval notice from IRS since the fall.
> 
I've been told that depends on the answers on page 21 of IRS form 1023
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1023.pdf&ei=oMS2SY6uA4KOsQPdo9jjCA&usg=AFQjCNE4-SLIV1qDqAL-uCKkVDkhtKsagw
Can we verify if we requested non-profit status from date of
incorporation or date of application postmark?
If either of those are true, then I think we can take donations as tax
deductions, we should probably just say (status pending) in the letter
though. I will double check with some legal sources.

> Also, you should also discuss the concept of local chapter fundraising
> with the OSGeo Finance committee or Board.  In particular, OSGeo has not
> managed local chapter funding resources.  This could be discussed, of
> course, but if the local chapter were to fundraise, collect funds and
> THEN donate the results to OSGeo specifically for Marketing that could
> already be possible and definitely much simpler.

Yes, I realize this warrants further discussion. For now we we're
operating under the ideas we came up with at a recent marketing meeting
to try and pay back some of the cost of the initial Exhibition
Pack/booth costs. As discussed we will be pooling all the funds to send
to you in large chunks.

I'll talk with Landon our Treasurer about getting in touch with the
Finance Committee and bringing this discussion up there.
I don't see the current situation extending beyond this initial fund
drive to pay to for conference exhibiting the next couple of months.

And this definitely is not the norm as only US chapters have a tax
reason to want to funds to go straight to OSGeo.
> 
> Just to be clear, local chapters are already free to lead their own
> fundraising, organisation, spending their own funding, etc. - but OSGeo
> HQ doesn't have any procedure in place for holding funds on behalf of
> local chapters.  This seems like it may be an important point to address
> in the letter or discuss further more broadly.
> 
> Tyler
> 
I agree we could elaborate a little more on that.

Thanks for the input,
Alex

> 
> 
> On 9-Mar-09, at 5:54 PM, Alex Mandel wrote:
> 
>> We've put together a letter here in California that we plan to use to
>> solicit monetary support for the Chapter and Foundation.
>> I'd appreciate feedback and comments this week.
>>
>> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Image:CaDraftSupportletter.pdf
>> odt, scribus files will be posted in a few days when I figure out the
>> best place to put them.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Alex