On Thu, Sep 18, 2014, at 00:35, Mitar wrote: > Hi! > > On Wed, Sep 17, 2014 at 8:08 PM, Juan Batiz-Benet <[email protected]> wrote: > > Thank you Richard. Very well put. I wish more people understood things so > > clearly. Many very smart people somehow believe tax status distinguishes > > Good from Evil, completely ignoring a wealth of counter examples. Some of > > the most glaring: SpaceX and MPAA. > > OK. I would just add to this that what I am talking about is not the > question if a project is for-profit or not for-profit. This is really > for them to decide how they want to wrap it into an organization. > There are advantages and disadvantages to any of these forms, both tax > and other questions, like ways how to raise funding. And of course > non-profits do not mean that they are "good" by itself. They can be > misused as well. And I think what makes an organization "good" are > mostly other things, not for-profit status. > > What I am concerned is that they did not explain this initially. If > they would, I would decide differently. Not because non-profits are > "better", but exactly because non-profits have harder time raising > funding otherwise and I like to help a little to overcome that. This > is where I see crowdfunding an important part of this landscape. Being > possible to get funding from the community and then being responsible > to the community.
I wonder if equity crowdfunding would improve the "responsible to the community" part. Unlike regular crowdfunding, equity crowdfunding is like a mini-IPO with a lot less overhead. Contributors buy shares in the venture. The owners are responsible to shareholders. The idea is gaining a lot of traction in the startup space, but could offer a useful structure for funding less-profitable ventures as well. Jens -- J.M. Porup www.JMPorup.com -- Liberationtech is public & archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at [email protected].
