Dear Peter, Just for the record: The Script Encoding Initiative is formally run through the Dept. of Linguistics at UC Berkeley. I run the project. Of the funds raised, 2% goes automatically to the university for development, the remaining 98% goes towards scripts proposal-authoring and for the creation of fonts. Donations are fully tax-deductible in the U.S., in the same way that donations to SIL are; both have 501(c)(3) status. According to the UC Berkeley Gift Administration Manager, donations are also tax-deductible in Canada. It may be these are tax-deductible elsewhere in the world, but this is something donors would have to check with their own government agencies. I'd be happy to supply the IRS's letter stating the tax-exemption status (as an educational organization). U.S. citizens can check the full details about tax deductibility in http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p526.pdf.
>From the funds raised by SEI thus far, 98% has gone directly to Michael Everson for >his work. I authorize payment upon completion of a proposal. (I am not currently paid >from SEI funds. In the past, I have also used my own separate funding to pay Michael >to do work on proposals [i.e., Linear B, Old Persian cuneiform, and Avestan] because >I deem it very important to get missing scripts into Unicode.) Eventually I would >like to include graduate students in doing script research and to work on proposals. >I have applied to the National Endowment for the Humanities for funding (but will not >know the outcome until April 2004) and will apply to other agencies for additional >support. Funding agencies (such as NEH) like to see grass-roots support, so donations from individuals and groups is very helpful in the fund-raising effort. The advantage to raising money through a general "call for donations" (such as references in email) is that it doesn't involve all the paperwork that applying to government agencies entails; the NEH proposal took several weeks to prepare, time that could have been spent on working with scholars in reviewing proposals. Still, it is recognized that governmental and foundation support will probably be needed in order to guarantee stable funding for the long-term. Ideally, I would like to raise enough funds to pay Michael to work full-time on proposals, which is not a small task, since there are still over 90 scripts still missing from Unicode. SEI is a small project with big goals: to make sure work continues apace on encoding missing scripts. I work with Michael as the main script proposal author and as many scholars and experts as I can locate to review proposals. I also rely on the valuable input from Rick McGowan and some of the Unicode Technical Directors, particularly Ken Whistler. I try to make sure our efforts don't duplicate SIL's work (i.e., so there aren't two competing proposals for a given script), but rather to work together towards a common goal of encoding what is missing from the Standard. If anyone has further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me offline. Information on how to donate is at the bottom of this message. With best wishes, Deborah Anderson Deborah Anderson Researcher, Dept. of Linguistics UC Berkeley Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or [EMAIL PROTECTED] Script Encoding Initiative Page: www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/~dwanders List of Missing Scripts: http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~dwanders/alpha-script-list.html Online donations: https://colt.berkeley.edu/urelgift/ls_linguistics.html (but please specify in the Special Instructions for this Gift box "for SEI", otherwise the money goes into the general "Linguistics Department" account). Wire transfers are also possible. For details, please contact me directly for account information. Personal Checks (in U.S. dollars) should be made out to "UC Regents", with "Script Encoding Initiative" written on the memo line, and sent to: Script Encoding Initiative c/o Deborah Anderson University of California, Berkeley Department of Linguistics 1203 Dwinelle Hall #2650 Berkeley, CA 94720-2650 USA List of donors: http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~dwanders/donations.html
