Spending Money Structure

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#1

Hello, I’d like to open us up to continue a bit on what we were talking about on here: How do I make a donation? about how to make a donation.

The problem that @JoshData said was that we don’t have a plan on how to spend donations, and I agree with him. Non-profit and not-for-profit causes SHOULD have a structure that is agreed to be fair, for spending money.

So we should answer these questions:
who spends the money?
Who keeps/maintains the money (treasury)?
Who decides to spend the money?
What do we spend the money on?
How much money do we spend on each item?
How do we keep the process transparent?
Is it worth establishing a legal entity for Mail-in-a-Box?
Can we accept online identities (i.e. nicknames), or do we need legal documents to prove people’s real-life identities that will be working with Mail-in-a-Box’s money (i.e. board members)?
Who will maintain such records, if records are to be kept?

#2

Mail-in-a-box has many contributors, however that doesn’t make them owners or copyright holders.

Mail-in-a-box Is CC0 licensed, so I am not 100% sure how you could make it a legal entity since it essentially has no identity now to begin with.

#3

Reach out to the CentOS project they have a protective legal structure around what is essentially a very open structure. This was to protect the “Brand” after one of the early founders fell out and squatted domain names and other shared resources afaik. It also protects it from being turning into a for profit company by it’s maintainers and contributors.

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#4

No no no, product and people behind a product are TWO different things.

I can sell staplers, but it doesn’t mean that I invented staplers, or am a patent/trademark owner of a stapler, it just means that I sell staplers.

What I’m getting at is the assembling of people to spend money on the concept of “Mail-in-a-Box”. We can call that group of people whatever we want.

#5

Hey all. This question is really the only one that needs to be answered. Within reason all of the logistics are easy to figure out after that.

#6

You mean investors? That is VERY different from donations. See cause you kept saying “Mail-in-a-Box’s money” so I thought we were talking product. You’re talking a team of people who invest money into MIAB then, yes?

#7

Yes, I am talking about investors. I am an investor, I have invested FREE support to others, JoshData has invested his time and code into Mail-in-a-Box. I am not talking about self-interest investors, I am talking about community-interest investors.

#8

That is not monetary investment. That would make you a contributor though.

#9

This is an interesting take, legally speaking (which you brought up) there is no difference between the two. (Though I am not a lawyer, just my take on it)

I think, why don’t we let @JoshData answer then. which I believe was:

at which point, I believe maybe the discussion should go in a different direction now.