[kde-usa] [kde-promo] KDE U.S. NPO

[heathmatlock]

On Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 3:41 AM, Lydia Pintscher <lydia at kde.org> wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 04:35, James Cain <james.cain.25 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> +1 if we can do it. I know it's been looked at before...it would also bring
>> many other benefits as well, such as being able to sell and distribute
>> merchandise with the proceeds going back to the KDE e.V. I remember we
>> discussed this at Camp KDE a few years ago. Maybe Lydia can shed some light
>> on this subject.
>
> Yes we've been debating this for KDE e.V. for quite a while. It'd be
> really nice to have. It's unfortunately not easy to do this properly
> and getting Free Software non-profits tax-exemption status has proven
> very very difficult lately*. From what I've heard from other
> organisations in the last weeks this is getting better though.
> I'm not sure what the current status is for KDE US. Jeff or Celeste
> can probably tell more.
>
>
> Cheers
> Lydia
>
> * There is apparently doubt that writing free software is a charitable
> thing to do for fear of companies open-sourcing their software
> development and funding a non-profit to get the tax benefits.

I don't think KDE would have a problem being accepted by the IRS as a
charitable organization, hackerspaces are much harder to classify and
are accepted regularly. I would think determining the organization's
structure is a bigger problem, but I suppose it couldn't hurt to at
some point come up with reasons why KDE deserves to be considered a
charitable organization.

Celeste, Jeff, what are your thoughts?


-- 
Heath Matlock
+1 256 274 4225