IMHO it's better for a potential donor to see more info on how the money is spent, with the list of events/tasks on what the donations are spent. An Sage project outsider won't have a clue, and might have a feeling it goes into a sinkhole rather than into well-specified meaningful activities. On Sat, Sep 22, 2018 at 4:54 PM John H Palmieri <jhpalmier...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > On Saturday, September 22, 2018 at 7:36:52 AM UTC-7, William wrote: >> >> On Sat, Sep 22, 2018 at 3:45 AM, Dima Pasechnik <dim...@gmail.com> wrote: >> > On Sat, Sep 22, 2018 at 11:21 AM Volker Braun <vbrau...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> >> >> Afair the Sage foundation is a US non-profit with the necessary >> >> accounting busywork graciously provided by UW; So I'm sure there is >> >> similar reporting thats either published or available to the public. >> > >> >> Let me try a rough attempt at answering some of the questions in this >> thread. Please ask followup questions or let me know if this is >> helpful. We could then add some version of this to the sagemath.org >> website. >> >> More precisely the "Sage Foundation" is really just the name of a >> donation account (a budget number) at University of Washington. That's >> it. UW itself is some sort of not-for-profit (though not a 501(c)3), >> so when people donate they can get a tax deduction. >> >> For the last few years, the main purpose of the Sage foundation has been: >> >> - accept donations from an anonymous retired person and a Microsoft >> Research to fund "Women in Sage" workshops, >> - accept a couple of small "random" donations, which for a couple of >> years have gone entirely to funding "The Sage booth" at math >> conferences (e.g., JMM and Mathfest), where a couple of us talk to >> hundreds of people who stream by. These donations are often on the >> order of a total of $50-$100/month, but it adds up, and sometimes >> there is occasionally more. >> >> One very nice aspect of this arrangement is that Univ of Washington >> does not charge anything at all for >> operating this account. So when somebody donates $50, we get to fully >> spend that $50. E.g., when there >> is a women in sage workshop, there's a ton of paperwork by UW involved >> in reimbursing everybody, and this >> is just done for free. >> >> Another possibly relevant data point (in case I were to leave UW) is >> probably the Chair of the UW math department >> right now is John Palmieri, who is also a Sage developer. > > > Yes, and we're happy to accept donations in any amount, to the Sage > foundation fund or to any of a number of other funds, if you want to support > other efforts of the UW math department. (I can give you a prioritized list, > if you're interested :) And as chair of the department, I am in charge of the > funds, to answer Frédéric's question, and note that I am legally bound to use > them according to the fund's description and in ways that are appropriate for > a not-for-profit institution. (I am not in my office now, so I can't look up > the description right now, but it probably just says "To support the > development of the mathematical software system SAGE," as it does on the > donation page.) Also, I would defer to William about how to use it (since he > is one of our faculty members, and the department set up the fund to help his > work on Sage); I do not plan to use it without asking him, and if he has a > valid use for it, I would approve it. > > As far as I know, there are no published reports of how the funds are used. > This is not because it is secret – legally, I think the use of the funds > should be public knowledge – but rather because there are so many of them. > Our department might have 50 different funds to which people can donate > (various scholarship funds for undergraduates, fellowship funds for > graduates, funds for endowed professorships, general purpose funds, highly > specialized funds, and multiples of each of these types), and if you > extrapolate to the rest of the university and imagine publishing a report for > each one, it gets out of control very quickly. If William's answer is not > good enough, I can ask our departmental administrator for all of the recent > uses of the Sage foundation money. > > John > > >> >> >> -- William >> >> >> Though I've never read the Oberwolfach financial report ;-) >> > maybe I was wrong. As a member of their "Förderverein" I do get annual >> > reports (no idea whether they are confidential)... >> > >> >> >> >> >> >> On Friday, September 21, 2018 at 1:18:53 PM UTC+2, Dima Pasechnik wrote: >> >>> >> >>> Similar foundations, e.g. the one of Oberwolfach Institute, publish >> >>> their annual finance reports. >> >> >> >> -- >> >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> >> "sage-devel" group. >> >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> >> email to sage-devel+...@googlegroups.com. >> >> To post to this group, send email to sage-...@googlegroups.com. >> >> Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel. >> >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > >> > -- >> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> > "sage-devel" group. >> > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> > email to sage-devel+...@googlegroups.com. >> > To post to this group, send email to sage-...@googlegroups.com. >> > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel. >> > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> >> >> >> -- >> William (http://wstein.org) > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "sage-devel" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
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