> Founding one our selves seems to be a huge load of work, at least in > Germany it > is not too easy to become a so called "gemeinnütziger Verein" and we would > have > to do a lot of paperwork every year. I suspect that it would be a lot of > work to > get accepted as foundation in the US, too, though maybe not as much as for > Germany (looks like some people here *love* paperwork ;) ).
While a side point to this discussion, since I know many of you are in Europe, the USA is a federation, a union. There are 50 states each with radically different laws and regs, just as Europe has many states with different laws. We're fortunate to have three board members (so far) being citizens of New Hampshire, which is one of the easiest states to incorporate in. We'll also be dealing with some federal tax paperwork as well, but the incorporation is on a state level. In any event, you are correct, there is a good amount of work - not just paperwork but hiring an accountant, board meetings, bylaws, etc etc etc. This is why we decided to create an umbrella group rather than incorporate just our one project. Many of these questions were already answered, but I'll repeat for completeness: * What will we have to do to get in there? You have to decide as a group to join and we need to work out the precise terms for that. It would seem best to have David or a small group including him to work with us directly on that. > * Which benefits will we have from it? Short term - you have a bank account for Wesnoth that money can be processed through, vs having money given to one person in your group and it being a tax burden on that person. There are potentially many long-term benefits, but this is our initial goal with the group. > * Will it cost us anything (money or freedom for our project)? Since we're a voluntary organization you give up no liberty by joining - if a change in policy or management makes membership disfavorable to Wesnoth you as a project can leave. In order to cover our overhead (accountant, bank fees, etc) we'll charge a nominal % from income - *much* less than the tax authorities would take from an individual, less than it'd cost to do these same services as your own "Wesnoth Foundation", and comparable to what other umbrella organizations charge. We have to finish our budget for a firm %, but it'll be reasonable. * What will be handled by the foundation, what will be done by us? Wesnoth project continues to do exactly what it does now - we impose no technical restrictions or management style to how your project proceeds. In addition, you as a group determine how your funds are spent - though in order to have it be tax-free there are some restrictions in how it can be spent. * What is the situation of our copyright and will anything change due to > joining > the Copyleft Games Group (or any other umbrella foundation)? At the moment > I > think we don't have a single copyright holder, right? This is up to you, and there are pros and cons. The only thing more I can say on this is that if you do copyright assignment, it'll be a 2-way agreement between the organization and each contributor, and this assignment will transfer to another group if Wesnoth chose to leave in the future. You do not need to do copyright assignment, but there are some legal protection benefits to it. > * What would we have to do to get access to the money when we need it for > eg > acquiring a server? We've talked about a few options. For recurring costs, we'll likely just have it draw directly from the bank account monthly (just like a credit card). I do not know if, due to tax liabilities, we'll be able to give you direct access to this bank account. We'd like to see the most direct access possible since it is less work for us. * If we would want to leave the foundation again for any reason, what would > the > impact on our project be, would it be possible at all, would we have to > join > another foundation / create our own one, what is needed and what about the > assets (server, ...) we bought in the time we were part of the foundation? If/once we gain 501(c)(3) status, a delegation that allows donors to deduct donations from their federal income tax, if you leave any assets would need to be given to another 501(3)(c) organization. Most umbrellas have this already. I highly recommend, given the current market for co-located servers, using a service which provides a server rather than purchasing one - you save money and it's less paperwork. As far as the bank account goes, if Wesnoth leaves in the future, we'll either give a reasonable time to "use it up" or transfer the remaining funds to another 501(c)(3) group. Part of joining is working up the exact terms for this in a written contract.
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