[OLPC-Philippines] Organization Formation

[Jerome Gotangco]

Hi Cherry,

Those are all possible entry points of creating the organization, but
I think those are also given whenever any organization is formed (I
mean the mechanisms/agencies, etc.). It is also important, that we are
able to identify what this organization will be, its vision and goals.

There are 2 scenarios that might be possible:

1) an organization that is solely interested in the distribution of
laptops created by OLPC and implement its pedagogical goals and
partner with non-profits for laptop distribution.

2) an organization that promotes the advancement of primary education
through creating software and content with the OLPC XO as the driver.

The problem with 1) is that OLPC becomes the single point of failure.
If OLPC fails in the long term, the organization will have nothing to
distribute at all. As for 2) it is much saner as the OLPC XO machine
becomes a means to fulfill the goal, that is promote technology to
education perhaps in various forms, like build software that
corresponds to curriculum, education matching, etc. This is similar to
what Waveplace does in the Caribbean (see http://waveplace.com/).

I think once these things are sorted out, along with other possible
questions that may arise (fund campaigns, donor targetting, etc.), we
can identify what legal status the organization we want it to be
formed.

Best,

Jerome


2009/1/15 Cherry Withers <cherry.withers at gmail.com>:
> Speaking of organization formation...here's what I found out so far:
>
> If we want to set it up here in the US, which seems to be what "Open
> Learning Nepal" did (since it's
> listed as 501(c)3, we can ask MyCorp.com to do it for $124. While it seems
> quick to set it up,
> maintenance is tedious, because the Internal Revenue Service is very strict
> and an organization
> can be taxed heavily for any misstep. Hopefully a CPA can step-up as a
> volunteer.
>
> So, in the Philippines...you have to file it with the SEC as a NGO
> non-profit org. I think there's a
> way now to do this on-line. They have a fee schedule available on their
> site, but since I'm not
> an accountant I don't know which stuff we need to pay for. You still have to
> file something at the BIR
> at year's end to verify that you're operating as a non-profit entity. I'm
> not sure how strict they are out there.
> Also, there is such a thing as a "donor tax" where one is taxed for
> charitable contributions. This seems
> to defy the logic of giving since why would one give if you're going to be
> taxed for it. I guess this is
> why big corporations in the Philippines set up their own non-profit
> foundations to handle charitable
> contributions. Again, I'm not an accountant and I just found these out from
> the web and by asking
> some friends in the Philippines.
>
> Another option is funneling everything to DepEd and letting them handle the
> donations and disbursement, which
> frankly scares me since I don't trust the government there and they might
> not be as transparent as
> we will be on the funds.
>
> Cheers,
> ---Cherry
>
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>
>



-- 
Jerome G.

Blog: http://gotangco.blogspot.com