[Openmcl-devel] Tax deductibility of contributions to the M1 port

[David Cooper]

Hi Ron,





Ron Garret wrote:
>
> so I am starting to think about how to structure things to minimize the collective financial risk.

> 

Thank you. 


>> 

>> Also, if anyone here has a contact at an existing 501c(3) that might be willing to partner with us please let me know that too. 

>>





In the U.S., The Common Lisp Foundation works with the ALU, which is an active 501(c)(3), for processing payments. 



So in principle the CLF could manage payments for a CCL porting fundraiser at our payments.common-lisp.net host, and U.S. based donations would qualify as donations to a 501(c)(3).  We have in the past done such campaigns at the 10% rate that you mentioned, which includes a custom payment gateway (which happens to be running on CCL!) and paying of the Stripe fees. 

 



Dave Cooper












---- On Mon, 01 Jan 2024 12:26:37 -0500 Laughing Water <lw at mt.net> wrote ---



I just had a phone visit with my daughter, who heads a 501(c)(3). This would be outside our scope, which is mostly human potential and cultural. 
 
But what would be the point of a 501(c)3 other than being able to accept tax-deductible donations? It seems to me that the vast majority of donors would be able to write off the donation through their business or as an unreimbursed business expense. 
 
If the point is that some form of business entity is needed for officially managing income and payroll, obtaining 501(c)(3) status may well be overkill. 
 
Laughing Water 
 
> On Jan 1, 2024, at 8:16 AM, Tim McNerney <mailto:mc at media.mit.edu> wrote: 
> 
> I looked into this extensively the summer before last. There are a number or organizations who accept donations and manage payroll. In fact it’s quite common. The typical fee is 10%, which for a small non profit is quite reasonable IMHO. In the end we choose the easy route because the only “employee” was an intern, and direct payments outside the normal payroll mechanism was perfectly legal. 
> 
> The legal work to set up a 503c(3) is a PITA. Now I think it might be worth the effort. 
> 
> --Tim 
> 
>> On Dec 31, 2023, at 13:35, Ron Garret <mailto:ron at flownet.com> wrote: 
>> 
>> A lot of people have offered to contribute to the M1 port recently, and it is starting to look more promising that we could start to make some progress soon, so I am starting to think about how to structure things to minimize the collective financial risk.  To figure this out I need to know: is there anyone here considering contributing to this effort for whom having the contribution be tax deductible is a significant concern?  It is plausible that we could structure this in such a way as to make that possible, but it would be quite a bit of work.  We'd either need to set up a 501c(3) or establish a collaboration with an existing one, who would almost certainly take a cut of the proceeds.  I'm wondering if this would be worth the effort.  This would require quite a bit of lead time to set up, which is why I'm asking now. 
>> 
>> If a tax deduction would make you more likely to make a significant contribution, please let me know privately. 
 
>> Thanks, 
>> rg 
>> 
>> 
>
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