During these discussions we must keep in mind the laws of the countries involved. I am not a lawyer and thus will leave the specifics to the legal counsel of my chapter (Wikimedia Canada) and the WMF. But from my lay understanding a Canadian chapter is not allowed to just funnel tax deductible donations to an American entity.
As a Canadian entity is the only one that is able to give tax deductions to Canadian donors the question is how much difference does this make. We are currently in the process of applying to the Canadian Revenue Agency to get charity status and will have a better understanding of how much difference this makes over the next couple of years. I agree that all within the movement need to be accountable for how money is spent to make sure that there is maximal benefit per dollar. I would be in agreement with the amount of money directly funneled to a chapter being related to how much benefit that chapter generates for the movement (local laws allowing this). If for example bringing tax deductability increases donation by 50% than monies should be split 50/50. If a chapter is not tax deductible there would be less restriction on financial agreements and I see less concerns with keeping finances more centralized (monies going to the WMF and grants being given to the chapters). -- James Heilman, MD, CCFP(EM) Wikipedian, Wikimedia Canada _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l