23 Apr
2020
23 Apr
'20
1:59 p.m.
On Wed, 22 Apr 2020 21:46:20 -0500
Michael <mb_trinity_desktop(a)inet-design.com> wrote:
On Wednesday 22 April 2020 07:46:27 pm David C. Rankin
wrote:
In theory, we should probably incorporate, but this introduces accounting
and tax-reporting requirements we haven't had to deal with up to this point.
Still, we should move away from any single person being solely responsible
for managing funds and resources—that's why we have a problem in the
first place.
I haven't checked if TDE has any formal
organization behind it that was
created in the past few years, but if not, doing a quick non-profit may
make sense.
Probably the best way with Tim 'owning' the non-profit. But, non-profit's rules are fairly odd/strict when
it comes to making money.
AFAIR non-profits can't easily sell stuff, so the non-profit itself making
and selling t-shirts is probably a no-go. Not that there aren't ways around
that (usually something like a commercial entity donates % of profits per
sale of non-profit's licensed product).
I’ve dealt with a bumper sticker place in Austin before that did the above,
once this gets worked out I wouldn't mind contacting them to see if they
still do that.
One thing that has to be worked through if we set up a not-for-profit
is *where* to do it. While a lot of TDE's users are American, a lot of
the developers seem to be European (judging from email addresses and
style of English usage). There are likely to be advantages and disadvantages
to setting up in each jurisdiction. And the US is not a single jurisdiction:
each state is different.
Selling TDE swag in return for funds could be fine in many places. That's one
of the things we'd need to find out. (Also, "not-for-profit" !=
"charity"—the
latter have stricter rules to follow, but TDE would not be one.)
So, what would the money the Trinity Desktop Environment Project, Inc.
acquires be paid out for?
-hosting
-having someone do the accounting and make required corporate reports
-publicity and outreach?
-salary for one or more full-time devs, if we were to grow that much?
-other?
And sources of income would be . . .
-donations
-sales of swag (shirts, coffee mugs, bumper stickers, mouse pads . . .)
-technical support of TDE in larger deployments, à la Red Hat?
-paid feature requests?
And the next step would be research of the rules governing not-for-profits
in the jurisdictions of people actually willing to do the *work* associated
with setting up such a corporation (filing documents, paying fees, maybe
an hour or two with a lawyer if necessary). I found the government how-to
handbook for my jurisdiction with a single search on duckduckgo. Not all
governments have this information on-line, but many should have.
E. Liddell
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