When you have chapters and affiliates that aren't incorporated, how do you handle agreements or grants between such entities? SJ.
On Fri, Dec 21, 2012 at 10:31 PM, Michael C. Berch <m...@postmodern.com>wrote: > On Dec 19, 2012, at 6:49 PM, James Alexander wrote: > > On Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 4:41 PM, Michael C. Berch <m...@postmodern.com>wrote: > >> There are no legal or financial stakes, the issue of "municipalities" is >> an irrelevant triviality, and it just serves to annoy people. >> >> -- >> Michael C. Berch >> User:MCB >> m...@postmodern.com >> >> > There most certainly are legal and financial stakes. An incorporated > organization costs a not insignificant amount of resources and cash to > maintain even before they do anything at all. This is especially true when > you are spanning multiple diverse jurisdictions (such as states or > countries) and have to know at least some of the laws of each. I don't > think towns/cities are a major problem. I'm sure it will be an added > wrinkle given that the jurisdiction overlaps the foundations offices itself. > > > I can't speak to jurisdictions outside the U.S., but I have a fair amount > of experience and expertise with respect to both business and nonprofit > entities in the U.S. I have formed and advised a number of both as an > attorney, and I can assure you that there are no problems in operating a > 501(c)(3) organization (or similar) that operates in multiple or > overlapping states, counties, or municipalities. It is also not > particularly necessary that a "chapter" or "affiliate" of a national or > global nonprofit (like Wikimedia Foundation) be, itself, an incorporated > entity. (The Board of Directors may specify that as a requirement, but it > is not a legal one.) > > Inexperienced organizations often "over-organize" when it comes to local > chapters and affiliates, drawing precise geographical jurisdictional lines > or requiring that the affiliates represent some particular level of > subnational entities. There are a number of reasons why this happens, > including intra-organizational politics and misunderstanding of legal > issues. It is almost never a good idea, and as we see, generates unneeded > conflicts. > > -- > Michael C. Berch > User:MCB > m...@postmodern.com > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-SF mailing list > Wikimedia-SF@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-sf > > -- Samuel Klein @metasj w:user:sj +1 617 529 4266
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