Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 8:08:16 PM
Yes, that's right. A new Search Kindly. The most recent letter from the IRS is pretty clear about what they will and won't grant tax-exempt status to. And, believe it or not, simply donating money to charities is not considered to be charitable work. Go figure. But that doesn't mean that we're giving up. Not hardly.
Before I get into what we're moving towards, I should offer a proper explanation as to why we must change. It comes down to two requirements by the IRS: We must perform our own charitable work and the board must have greater input in what it is that we are doing. The first requirement is easy enough to understand, but the second one needs a bit of explaining. Basically, the IRS isn't comfortable with the idea of democratic-altruism that we were experimenting with. What they like to see in organizations is strong leadership that strives to meet defined goals. And by continuously asking all of our supporters to determine what we should be doing, or who we should be donating to, well, they just don't get that part.
So...does that mean no more voting? No. It just means that the topics are going to be a little different. For example, we can no longer ask what kind of projects we should be working on--Ramadev and I have to establish that ourselves. But once we figure that part out (and we have), we can ask for everyone's input on where we perform that work. As long as we are doing bona fide charitable work, it doesn't matter where that work is taking place (as long as it's in an area that needs the help).
And what kind of projects are we interested in? I'll be sure to go into all of the details in my next post, but for now, I'll leave you with the idea of libraries in a box (and by box, I mean shipping container).
