[LGM] Sponsoring LGM

[Gregory Pittman]

On 2/20/19 8:37 AM, Øyvind Kolås wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 19, 2019 at 5:58 PM Frank Trampe <frank.trampe at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Despite our efforts over the last few years, we have so far been unable to get an American umbrella organization. For this reason and for simplicity's sake, it is my preference that we direct all funds through K8 at this time. This does not come with the benefit of 501(c)3 deductibility, but we can at least legally accept the money.
> 
> LGM has been hosted in multiple European countries, Canada and Brazil.
> As a group of organizers we have not, as far as I am aware, been
> trying to get an specficially *American* umbrella organization with
> tax benefits for US entities. For candidate umbrella organizations I
> do not think we should consider such tax deductibility of donations
> neither a plus nor a negative since I do not think many that are
> supporting LGM financially consider US 501(c)3 implications for taxes
> a make or break in terms of support or not. Nor do I think such
> benefits outweigh making more libre software entities operate on US
> terms. Due to the countries where we go - and where many people are
> from - it also would be more natural to seek out an umbrella
> organization based in European banking, organization law and software
> patent climate.
> 

On a practical level, having just finished the first go-around with my taxes, even if I donated several times what I typically donate, it wouldn't impact my US tax bill anyway. I dutifully entered all of my charitable contributions, only to find that there was no impact. Separate from this info, I have never donated because of the tax benefit. 

Greg