[Marketing] [Board] IRS 501c3 Requirement: renaming Marketing Committee to Outreach Committee

[Alex Mandel]

I think it makes sense to do it.

Background, our application for non-profit status in the US is held up
at the moment by the IRS who isn't sure if we qualify. 501c3 orgs have
to be in the public interest and clearly demonstrate that. To get 501c3
as opposed to some other 501c# would mean that donations from the US
would be tax deductible and we'd be able to apply for many grants that
require such a tax status.

The IRS can be quite picky about what they perceive to be commercial and
in order to demonstrate that our mission is in the public interest and
not commercial, changing the committee name makes sense.

I can't decide if it's a good idea to mention we hand out OSGeo-Live for
free and give talks on the topic to encourage more users of geospatial
tools in general.

At this point I'm sure it's just a guess by our attorney, but it is
their job to figure this out.

I'll just note, when considering naming in regards to the IRS you have
think about the US interpretation of the word, no other context matters.

Thanks,
Alex

PS: Any alternate names to choose from?

On 11/29/2012 03:01 PM, Cameron Shorter wrote:
> Daniel, I'm open to the suggestion, but only if we can see reasonable
> value in it, as name changing is a bit messy. It means that web pages
> and archives point to old URLs which becomes confusing for someone
> searching for prior information.
> 
> Can you please provide some background explaining that this is more than
> just a minor hunch that we are basing a name change on.
> Maybe:
> * Who is suggesting it?
> * Is there any real or anecdotal evidence they can point to?
> 
> On 30/11/2012 7:33 AM, Daniel Morissette wrote:
>> Board, Marketing Committee,
>>
>> One of the things that came out of my discussions with our attorney
>> around the OSGeo vs IRS 501c3 questions is renaming the "Marketing
>> Committee" to "Outreach Committee" or another name along those lines
>> which would be better perceived in a non-profit context (i.e. less
>> commercial).
>>
>> Would there be any problem with this name change? This is one thing
>> that we would like to propose in our response to the IRS. See the
>> answer to question #1 at
>>
>> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/501c3_Application:_Questions_from_IRS,_September_2012
>>
>>
>> Daniel
>> _______________________________________________
>> Board mailing list
>> Board at lists.osgeo.org
>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
> 
>