Mailing List Archive: UK Foundation (was Day 1 Fund Drive Report)

UK Foundation (was Day 1 Fund Drive Report)

scottkeir at yahoo

Feb 19, 2005, 8:20 PM

Post #1 of 6 (667 views)

Given the UK support is about 10% of the total support, has there been
consideration given to setting up a UK Foundation, to promote Wikimedia
and raise funds in the UK?

UK law means that for donations to UK charities, either the donor can
reclaim the tax they've paid on the donation, or the charity can (so if
a donor gives GBP10, the charity can receive a total of GBP12.80). This
is obviously more attractive to both donor and charity.

There would be practical issues to consider - of administration, legal
matters for setting it up, how trustees etc would be decided, and how
the donations received from this charity could be put to use for
Wikimedia, but I thought it was worth raising, as I haven't seen it yet
on this list.

(On a related note, has consideration been given to providing a
"proper" facility for people to donate via credit or debit card (Visa,
Mastercard, Diners etc)? Not everyone has Paypal, and their fees are
quite high. If there's going to be this quantity of donations received
on a regular basis, the investment in a WorldPay type system might pay
off. [.I've investigated this for a small UK charity I'm a trustee of,
so the issue is fresh in my mind - apologies if this has been discussed
before])

> On Sat, 19 Feb 2005 01:43:46 -0800 (PST), Daniel Mayer, Wikimedia CFO
> wrote:
>
> On Day 1 (Friday eastern US timezone since PayPal data are not
> available in
> UTC) we made $9,939.47 (USD equivalent) through a combination of
> PayPal and
> MoneyBookers.
>
> PayPal breakdown:
> AUD 314.03 (247.27 USD)
> CAD 334.40 (271.58 USD)
> EUR 3413.75 (4464.75 USD)
> GBP 475.17 (899.77 USD)
> JPY 28340 (269 USD)
> USD 3424.63
> Total 9576.78 (USD equivalent)

Scott Keir
scottkeir@yahoo.co.uk

Re: UK Foundation (was Day 1 Fund Drive Report) [ In reply to ]

james at jdforrester

Feb 19, 2005, 8:34 PM

Post #2 of 6 (663 views)

On Sunday, February 20, 2005 3:20 AM, Scott Keir <scottkeir@yahoo.co.uk>
wrote:

[Snip]

> has there been consideration given to setting up a UK Foundation, to
> promote Wikimedia and raise funds in the UK?

I had a quick look into it, and it looks do-able, but there are some issues
(for example, the Wikimedia Foundation United Kingdom could not merely send
collected monies overseas to the Wikimedia Foundation and expect to be
granted charity status, but would have to be a proper institution in its own
right, with a Plan and so on); however, it does look like it would be a not
entirely insensible thing for us to do.

Obviously, long-term, WMFUK would be sub-ordinate to WMFEU (or perhaps just
WMFE?) which, in turn, would function at the behest of the WMF; however,
only the last of these three organisations currently exist, so... :-)

As I have said a few times before (;-)), I would be happy to help out with
the establishment of a UK Foundation.

[Snip]

Yours,
--
James D. Forrester -- Wikimedia: [[W:en:User:Jdforrester|James F.]]

Mail: james@jdforrester.org | jon@eh.org | csvla@dcs.warwick.ac.uk
IM : (MSN) jamesdforrester@hotmail.com

Re: UK Foundation (was Day 1 Fund Drive Report) [ In reply to ]

walter at vankalken

Feb 19, 2005, 8:37 PM

Post #3 of 6 (664 views)

I certainly think a Wiki UK foundation would be a good idea. So good
luck in setting it up!

Walter van Kalken

Re: UK Foundation (was Day 1 Fund Drive Report) [ In reply to ]

maveric149 at yahoo

Feb 19, 2005, 10:44 PM

Post #4 of 6 (661 views)

--- Scott Keir <scottkeir@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> (On a related note, has consideration been given to providing a
> "proper" facility for people to donate via credit or debit card (Visa,
> Mastercard, Diners etc)? Not everyone has Paypal, and their fees are
> quite high. If there's going to be this quantity of donations received
> on a regular basis, the investment in a WorldPay type system might pay
> off. [.I've investigated this for a small UK charity I'm a trustee of,
> so the issue is fresh in my mind - apologies if this has been discussed
> before])

Yep - This is going to happen, likely before the next fund drive. But we will
keep PayPal as alternate payment option.

-- mav

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

Re: UK Foundation (was Day 1 Fund Drive Report) [ In reply to ]

2.718281828 at gmail

Feb 20, 2005, 1:31 AM

Post #5 of 6 (662 views)

On Sun, 20 Feb 2005 03:20:07 +0000, Scott Keir <scottkeir@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> Not everyone has Paypal, and their fees are quite high.

Paypal allows you to donate with a credit card... and their fees are
among the lowest I've seen. Are you sure you're referring to their
current fee schedule, and not remembering what it was like two years
ago?

--
+sj+

Re: UK Foundation (was Day 1 Fund Drive Report) [ In reply to ]

beesley at gmail

Feb 20, 2005, 9:27 AM

Post #6 of 6 (662 views)

On Sun, 20 Feb 2005 03:20:07 +0000, Scott Keir <scottkeir@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> Given the UK support is about 10% of the total support, has there been
> consideration given to setting up a UK Foundation, to promote Wikimedia
> and raise funds in the UK?

Yes, there has. See http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/British_Wikimedia_chapter

There is currently an issue about exactly what area the chapter should
cover. British Isles or UK or only England & Wales (since those have a
separate charity law from Scotland etc)

There has been limited interest in the chapter so far. Only ten people
have pledged any interest, despite 86 people being listed at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:UK_Wikipedians%27_notice_board

Angela.