Gnucash Foundation [was: Re: Nothing works on Red Hat ]

[Linas Vepstas]

On Thu, Dec 05, 2002 at 02:04:07PM +0900, Reinke Bonte was heard to remark:
>
> What would be needed in my opinion is the following:
> 
> - The creation of a non-for-profit legal entity for gnucash.

Under american law, there are many ways of doing this.  The simplest
way of doing this is to declare "I am the Gnucash Foundation".
There, I've done it.  This, of course, has the potential of getting
me into all sorts of trouble with state and federal authorities
if the Gnucash Foundation engages in significant financial or
business activities.  I am willing to assume this risk as long
as the dollar amounts stay small.

If you mean "create a corporation under the laws of texas", then,
no, I wouldn't want to do that, not at this point, not now.  There
are hundreds of dollars in filing fees, multiple city, county, state
and federal agencies to work with (e.g. travis county tax apraiser,
travis county business registrar, the state of texas, the IRS).
Tax returns need to be filed annually and probably quarterly.
Its a lot of work.  Where "a lot" means 40-80 hours a year.
If I had 40 or 80 extra hours, I'd rather work on gnucash.
Or take a vacation.

I don't expect donations of more than a few hundred dollars 
annually; the above is an awful lot of work for a few hundred
dollars.  If the amounts turn into the several thousand-dollar
range, then things change, then there are advantages to a more
formal structure.

> - This legal entity should have a bank account.

Easy enough.

> - A web page which shows these bank account details 

In the U.S., one never shows account details, as they can be used
to commit fraud by third parties.  For example, by deceased Nigerian
ministers of culture ...

> and a number of
> features for which people can contribute money.

paypal, checks, cash.  No credit cards.

> - Each feature would have a unique code, which the contributor would
> need to state when he remits money to the gnucash bank account.

???  In the US, there is no way to do this.  Check, cash, paypal.

> - There should be a batch job or whatever which would read an ofx file
> (or whatever) from the bank and update the web page to show how much
> money is contributed for what feature.

There are many security problems associated with this.  You would be
foolish to do this, at least within the confines of the american
banking system.

Besides, it requires significant amount of work to create these
scripts.  	Who's going to do this work?  

> The main advantage is that it makes contributions very easy.
> Contributors just have to fill in a form at their online banking
> application.  For me that would be much easier than sending a Chrismas
> card.

In germany, you must have some rather awesome online banking
features.  Here is the U.S. it is a *lot* easier to put money
in an envelope.

--linas

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