On Sat, Sep 22, 2018 at 11:21 AM, Dima Pasechnik <dimp...@gmail.com> wrote: > 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.
To further support your point, the people who donated nontrivial amounts all contacted me and discussed very specifically how it would be used. As an example, Microsoft Research really wants to encourage women, so they specifically asked that their donation be used to supplement funding women in Sage workshops. > 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. > > -- > 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. -- William (http://wstein.org) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-devel" group. 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