Talk:Wikipedia and corporate structure

Incorporating wikipedia? Wouldn't that effectively kill what it's about?

We're talking about forming a non-profit foundation. See the w:Wikipedia-l archives for details. --Stephen Gilbert

From the mailing list:
> We might want to ask Rusty from Kuro5hin for some
> advice. He is in the process of setting up a
> non-profit, the Collaborative Media Foundation, and
> is hashing out all the nasty details.
>
> If we want to do this, it would probably be best to
> have Jimmy email him, rather than one of us random
> foot soldiers.
>
> Stephen

Would like to point out that you do not need to incorporate to get 501(c(3) status from the IRS, it is possible for an association or a trust (the word foundation is not synonymous with a corporation, it comes from the medieval organzation of monasteries) to do that unless Wikipedia is thinking that it is going to have sizable assets or thinks that lawsuits will be filed. I am not quite sure, from a legal point of view, why you are thinking of incorporating. Does Wikipedia really need that much structure? Alternatively a foundation could be started to endow a trust that would maintain Wikipedia with a hands off policy -- let Wikipedians manage Wikipedia by consensus -- people could donate to the trust (via PayPal or something like that) with a restriction that the trust would only be used to perpetuate the various educational Wikipedia projects, such a charitable trust which could receive IRS approval and thus major US contributors would get a tax deduction (maybe Revenue Canada and Inland Revenue also). w:user:Alex756

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