RE: [ga] Funding

["Peter de Blanc" <pdeblanc@usvi.net>]

Jefsey, et all:

I never said, or agreed, with your interpretation of how I (or others in
North America) regard non-profit or non-commercial companies.

Many non-profits do not have tax exemptions. Even if a non-profit does have
a tax exemption (in the US),l it only affects donations from other US
companies.

In our culture, "a non profit must be supported
by others (state, cities, companies) to join forces with the
free help brought be benevolent volunteers." (same as your words)

As an aside, i was surprised that the NCC does not accept non-profit
chambers of commerce as members. They are organizations set up to act as
political lobbists to local, state, regional, and national governmentsw in
order to argue for a more favorable set of business legislation. they are
all non profit, and mostly populated with volunteers.

I am personally involved with the VIP FreeNet foundation, in the Virgin
Islands. It does not have a tax exemption. It provides Internet access to
the public, where such access is not otherwise available thru schools,l
libraries, etc. It is run by volunteers.

The FreeNet conducts fund-raising activities, runs seminars, etc,. The funds
are used to deliver the internet service.

There is no difference (in my mind) between these non-profits.

Now, getting back to the DNSO constituency dues of NCC, I believe that your
secretariat, (if you have one) could simply request donations from other
organizations- including the other constituencies.

Meanwhile, I would appreciate knowing just who and what organizations are
eligible to be members in the NCC.

peter de Blanc




(Your mail appears below)



--------------------------------------

Dear Peter,
I think we have here a major cultural gap I start understanding
between the US and other cultures.

If I am righ in the US culture a non-profit organization is a tax
exemption formula which is permitted if the activity is actually
eductational, charitable, etc... The is determined if I understand
you right by the amount of money that activity is able to rise.
So in a way the payers are the people saying if the action is
beneficial to he community and a tax exemption is worth being
accepted.

For us this is the oherway around. The tax exemption is a
detail. It goes with the incorpoation of the non-profit. It is only
under some circumstances when the people have shown that
actually the activity is somewhat commercial that taxes may
be imposed. The important thing is the dedication of the
volunteering people.

So in your culture, a non profit must be self-budgeted to show
it is of interest, and does not really care about benevoelent
free help. While in our culture a non profit must be supported
by others (state, cities, companies) to join forces with the
free help brought be benevolent volunteers.

In the case of he DNSO, you consider that "pay for vote" as
natural since it means that the voter was able to show the
meit of hios participation to sponsors. While we consider that
"to be pay for vote' is the normal way: we already give our
time, efforts, we are not going to gove our money.

What you do not see is tjhat your system works because
sponsors write off their gifts. Ours does it only partly and
under tax control. As we have many more no-profit orgs.
with extremely low budgets most of hem are funded out
a Members and Board Members pocket without any tax
write off.

Please tell me if my reading of the US approach is exact
and if you understand the culture of the non US taxed
rest of the world.

Jefsey
------------------------------------------------

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ga@dnso.org [mailto:owner-ga@dnso.org]On Behalf Of Jefsey
Morfin
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2001 4:58 PM
To: ga@dnso.org
Subject: Re: [ga] Funding


As underlined in a mail to Peter de Blanc comenting one
of his positions, this approach of the ICANN and of the
DNSO funding is purely based upon the US tax culture
and is actually and definitly hurting to most of the people
not belonging to that culture.

As far as I understand the US tax culture considers
that non-profit actions are sponsored in proportion to
the good they bring to the society and therfore evaluates
the seriousness of an action by the amount of money
it may collect from sponsors. It has therefore no problem
in having them paying regular rates. This is a "Charity
business" conception.

The rest of the word evaluates the seriousness of a
non-profit organization by its targets and achievements
(in most of the cases without money). And from this
decides if it should be helped. "Charity is not a business".

As Chair for Charity and Cultural non profit associations,
as active against the International Digital Divide but also
as a business owner, a shareholder, a Member of several
business BoDs, Therefore - I hope :-) - a reasonably stable,
measured and seasoned business and human person, but
of no US tax culture - I really think in the deep of my heart
that an organization leading to such a post is absolutely
no worth existing and is totaly out of the economic,
relational, human, international reality.

I weight my words, here. I am really ashamed of this.

I know that my US friends will not fully understand my
position. But I submit this is one of the reason why the
iCANN was nicknamed the "US Joke": they make the
poors paying them and find it "OK".

1) As a temporary fix, I propose that only US tax
    exempt non-profit organizations are taxed by the
    DNSO.

2) I propose that the DNSO is incorporated as a
     European non-profit association sponsored by
     the iCANN at a level of 5 cents on every DNs.

     May be when they pay it they will pay attention
     to it.

3) a nice gesture by some ccTLDs  would be to pay
     the NonCom fee deducting it from their "donation"
     to the iCANN.

Jefsey




On 04:07 10/05/01, babybows.com said:
>This message regarding funding has just been circulated to the NCDDHC
>membership.  This funding issue affects all of us.  Proposed solutions or
>resolutions might be in order.  Thoughts?
>
>
>Dear NCDNHC members:
>
>The Fundraising Committee of the NCDNHC is soliciting voluntary membership
>contributions. The DNSO Names Council has decided that every constituency
>must pay an equal share of the DNSO's operating costs.* We need to raise
>$29,500 by December 2001 to keep our voting rights in the DNSO Names
>Council.
>
>We expect to discuss contributions and their relationship to membership at
>the Stockholm ICANN meeting. For the time being, however, we are suggesting
>the following minimum contribution levels:
>
>Large organizations: $300  Small organizations: $50
>
>These are the suggested levels. We will accept contributions larger or
>smaller than the suggested amount. Some large organizations are pledging
>several thousand dollars. Many small organizations have paid $100 in the
>past.
>
>If you are concerned about bank fees or currency exchange fees, and you
plan
>to attend the constituency meeting in Stockholm, please consider making
your
>contribution in cash at the meeting. We will be issuing receipts. Also,
>ICANN is implementing a capability for credit card payment. That may be
>ready by Stockholm, or shortly after.
>
>You can "pledge" a specific contribution by email. Address your pledges to
>ncdnhc-discuss@lyris.isoc.org. Put the following text in the subject:
>
>Voluntary Contribution
>
>And in the body of the message please include:
>
>Name of Contributor:
>Mailing Address (to send invoice):
>E-mail address of responsible party (to be contacted later for details):
>Amount of the contribution in US$:
>
>*The operating costs of the DNSO includes:
>Hosting of Internet Services by AFNIC (including web and mailing lists for
>General Assembly and Names Council); Secretariat of Names Council and
>General Assembly (including all support for Internet Services, and
>organizational tasks at all Names Council and General Assembly physical
>meetings and Names Council teleconference), perfomed by AFNIC, Webcasting
of
>General Assembly and Names Council meeting performed by Harvard Berkman
>Center.
>
>Regards,
>NCDNHC Fundraising Committee (Adam Peake, Nilda Vany Martinez, Milton
>Mueller, Dany Vandromme)
>
>
>
>
>
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