[OLPC-Philippines] OLPC PH has to organise itself first

Charles Chen ideasman88 at yahoo.com.au
Mon Mar 23 16:40:07 EDT 2009


Hi Cherry,

The opportunity to partner with PBSP was actually something I explored already last year to assist us in doing a school pilot at Don Bosco Mandaluyong. PBSP also has its own program to equip public schools with online access. For a variety of possible reasons they did not find the partnership something which they can add value. But PBSP is the mother of all NGOs and although they appear as one big organisation supported by donations from their member companies, they also have a multitude of programs. However, developing an IT model to deploy OLPC requires a different set of business skills.

In hindsight, it was a blessing in disguise we did not agree on the partnership as I later saw we need to organise ourselves first. All the issues you have raised are issues we still have to work after we know what we want to do. We can do this easily if only we all work together and identify what this is.

Thanks.

Charles

--- On Mon, 23/3/09, olpc-philippines-request at lists.laptop.org <olpc-philippines-request at lists.laptop.org> wrote:

From: olpc-philippines-request at lists.laptop.org <olpc-philippines-request at lists.laptop.org>
Subject: OLPC-Philippines Digest, Vol 17, Issue 8
To: olpc-philippines at lists.laptop.org
Received: Monday, 23 March, 2009, 12:27 PM

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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: OLPC-Philippines Digest, Vol 17, Issue 6 (Cherry Withers)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Sun, 22 Mar 2009 13:17:41 -0700
From: Cherry Withers <cherry.withers at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [OLPC-Philippines] OLPC-Philippines Digest, Vol 17, Issue
    6
To: olpc-philippines at lists.laptop.org
Message-ID:
    <958133bc0903221317y282affc3va9ecbc98241f8c4d at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hi All,

Thank you Charles for clearing up some of my confusion.
That 1M capital is pretty steep. It would help if the tax deduction would be

retroactive at the very least.

I suppose piggy-backing with PBSP is a good option, but I see a few possible
hurdles
for our group (that may or not be realized):
1) I looked at their mission statement on their IT program and they may have
to massage
it to accommodate our goals, which may just be a minimal thing for them.
2)  Acquisition and distribution of funds. They have a diverse group of
programs, they would have
to ensure that funds would have to be clearly allocated for OLPC goals. If
they are restricted on their
by-laws to spend a certain percentage on tech equipment spending and we need
to purchase
a bunch of equipment for a school pilot program...would they be able to
accommodate that expense
easily? It would be great if OLPC is funded by their company members, but we
might have to
do our own fund raising. If so, would they be able to accommodate additional
trustees and officers
to oversee the funds coming from our our organization?

I guess my questions above are more on how they will handle our integration.
They seem to operate
on corporate memberships rather than individual volunteers. Again, they
might just have easy answers
to these questions rendering my brain swizzling moot.

Thank you Charles and Malee!
--Cherry


Today's Topics:
>
>   1. Re: SEC and PCNC requirements (Jose Mari Bigornia)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 22 Mar 2009 21:37:43 +0800
> From: Jose Mari Bigornia <jtbigornia at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [OLPC-Philippines] SEC and PCNC requirements
> To: "OLPC Philippines/Pilipinas grassroots"
>        <olpc-philippines at lists.laptop.org>
> Message-ID:
>        <845ad53e0903220637p5cdca76fv9178353b435c8676 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Hi to All,
>
> is it possible that we can peggy back our group with a foundation like PBSP
> / AYALA  etc..who are also committed to
> and the vision or mission same as OLPC...we can just make an Memo of
> Undesratnding / Agreement which ever is more douable for both
> Organization..if its okey with I can explore the possiblity and talk to
> them.
>
> Malee Bigornia
>
> 2009/3/22 Charles Chen <ideasman88 at yahoo.com.au>
>
> > Hi Cherry and for the information of everbody,
> >
> > 1. The minimum paid-up capital requirement for a non-stock, non-profit
> > corporation if registered with SEC is P1.0 Million. This was based on the
> > information sheet given byt the SEC when I was attempting to register
> OLPC
> > last year.
> >
> > You can find the same information from the SEC home page and going to
> Main
> > tab/ Guide to SEC requirements tab/ Corporations/Partnerships tab. This
> will
> > lead you to a document titled SEC Registration Requirements (as of 5 Nov
> > 2007). If you click on the non-stock corporations under the first heading
> > (Registration of Corporations) it would lead you to the page listing the
> > specific requirements for non-stock corporations.
> >
> > I tried looking for a way we could this in another way because I
> personally
> > did not have that amount of money. But unfortunately, I could not find a
> way
> > around it. I understand this was not a requirement before and only became
> > one recently.
> >
> > A foundation is the legal term used to describe a non-profit
> organisation.
> > The foundation can be a Non-Government Organisation (NGO). An NGO is an
> > organisation that does not have any representation or participation from
> the
> > government but perform a public service role usually played by a
> government
> > insititution.
> >
> > 2. Based on the information provided by Philippine Council for NGO
> > Certification (PCNC) website describes the following benefits of being
> PCNC
> > certified:
> >
> > "Donations to donee institutions are tax-deductible and/or exempt from
> > donor's tax (Section 34(H) and Section 101 of the Philippine Tax Code).
> In
> > other words, aside from being exempt from donor's tax, local donors,
> whether
> > individual or corporate, can deduct the amount they have donated from
> their
> > taxable income derived from trade or business as computed without the
> > benefit of the deduction. Donations to some donee institutions, however,
> are
> > subject to limited deductibility: 10% for individual donors and 5% for
> > corporate donors.
> >
> > Thus, tax incentives such as those mentioned above encourage local
> > donations and, especially in these times of dwindling financial resources
> > from abroad, complement PCNC's aim to strengthen private sector
> > participation in our country's social development."
> >
> > However, for an NGO to be certified by the PCNC they also have to be
> > non-stock, non-profit.
> >
> > 3. I am not a taxation expert so I am not sure whether the tax
> deductibilty
> > can be retrospective. Normal business practice especially when it comes
> to
> > applying tax exemptions is you can only use it moving forward after
> > obtaining the exemption or at least within the same taxable year. But I
> have
> > sent an email to the PCNC to ask this question. I will get back to you
> once
> > they have answered.
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> > Charles
> >
> > --- On *Sun, 22/3/09, olpc-philippines-request at lists.laptop.org <
> > olpc-philippines-request at lists.laptop.org>* wrote:
> >
> >
> > From: olpc-philippines-request at lists.laptop.org <
> > olpc-philippines-request at lists.laptop.org>
> > Subject: OLPC-Philippines Digest, Vol 17, Issue 4
> > To: olpc-philippines at lists.laptop.org
> > Received: Sunday, 22 March, 2009, 3:00 AM
> >
> > Send OLPC-Philippines mailing list submissions to
> >     olpc-philippines at lists.laptop.org<
> http://mc/compose?to=olpc-philippines@lists.laptop.org>
> >
> > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
> >     http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-philippines
> > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
> >     olpc-philippines-request at lists.laptop.org<
> http://mc/compose?to=olpc-philippines-request@lists.laptop.org>
> >
> > You can reach the person managing the list at
> >     olpc-philippines-owner at lists.laptop.org<
> http://mc/compose?to=olpc-philippines-owner@lists.laptop.org>
> >
> > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> > than "Re: Contents of OLPC-Philippines digest..."
> >
> >
> > Today's Topics:
> >
> >    1. Re: OLPC PH Stimulus Plan (Bernie Innocenti)
> >    2. Re: OLPC-Philippines Digest, Vol 17, Issue 2 (Cherry Withers)
> >
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 1
> > Date: Fri, 20 Mar 2009 23:46:48 +0100
> > From: Bernie Innocenti <bernie at codewiz.org<
> http://mc/compose?to=bernie@codewiz.org>
> > >
> > Subject: Re: [OLPC-Philippines] OLPC PH Stimulus Plan
> > To: OLPC Philippines/Pilipinas grassroots
> >     <olpc-philippines at lists.laptop.org<
> http://mc/compose?to=olpc-philippines@lists.laptop.org>
> > >
> > Message-ID: <49C41CD8.4000003 at codewiz.org<
> http://mc/compose?to=49C41CD8.4000003@codewiz.org>
> > >
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
> >
> > Jerome Gotangco wrote:
> > > Let me know when the domain olpc.ph is needed. It's just idle at the
> > > moment and would be glad to donate it as well when things are
> > > formalized on that end.
> >
> > If needed, Sugar Labs would be happy to host the OLPC Philippines
> > website for free on one of our servers with lots of bandwidth.
> >
> > We're already doing that for OLE Nepal.
> >
> > --
> >    // Bernie Innocenti - http://www.codewiz.org/
> > \X/  Sugar Labs       - http://www.sugarlabs.org/
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 2
> > Date: Fri, 20 Mar 2009 22:29:04 -0700
> > From: Cherry Withers <cherry.withers at gmail.com<
> http://mc/compose?to=cherry.withers@gmail.com>
> > >
> > Subject: Re: [OLPC-Philippines] OLPC-Philippines Digest, Vol 17, Issue
> >     2
> > To: olpc-philippines at lists.laptop.org<
> http://mc/compose?to=olpc-philippines@lists.laptop.org>
> > Message-ID:
> >     <958133bc0903202229i27e3bd5fo98f4b8a1b4544261 at mail.gmail.com<
> http://mc/compose?to=958133bc0903202229i27e3bd5fo98f4b8a1b4544261@mail.gmail.com
> >
> > >
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> >
> > Dear Charles,
> >
> > Thank you for starting this discussion. I do have a couple of questions
> > regarding your post.
> >
> > 1) I know that the 1M peso capital is needed to establish a foundation,
> but
> > there doesn't seem
> > to be a capital requirement to form a non-profit/non-stock NGO and a
> quick
> > look at the SEC-PH
> > website and an email from PCNC shows that the cost would be comparatively
> > minimal than forming
> > a foundation (around $1000). What are the benefits of forming a
> foundation
> > vs. a regular non-profit NGO?
> >
> > 2) Would a donation to a foundation be exempt from donor's tax vs. a
> > non-profit NGO? We might still have
> > get this added benefit even if we're a regular non-profit NGO by
> > registering
> > for a DONEE certification with
> > PCNC :http://www.pcnc.com.ph
> >
> > 3) Since we have yet to raise the 1M peso capital to register to
> > organization, would the donations be retroactively
> > be exempt from the donor's tax after we've registered the foundation(if
> > this
> > is in fact an added benefit of forming one)?
> >
> > Thanks again.
> >
> > Sincerely,
> > Cherry Withers
> >
> > P.S. Jerome, the hosting that you're talking about for the olpc.ph name,
> > is
> > that just for the domain name hosting or
> > that does include the site hosting as well? If not, I have an account on
> > www.bluehost.com that you guys can use
> > for a year.
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sat, Mar 14, 2009 at 9:00 AM,
> > <olpc-philippines-request at lists.laptop.org<
> http://mc/compose?to=olpc-philippines-request@lists.laptop.org>
> > >wrote:
> >
> > > Send OLPC-Philippines mailing list submissions to
> > >        olpc-philippines at lists.laptop.org<
> http://mc/compose?to=olpc-philippines@lists.laptop.org>
> > >
> > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
> > >        http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-philippines
> > > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
> > >        olpc-philippines-request at lists.laptop.org<
> http://mc/compose?to=olpc-philippines-request@lists.laptop.org>
> > >
> > > You can reach the person managing the list at
> > >        olpc-philippines-owner at lists.laptop.org<
> http://mc/compose?to=olpc-philippines-owner@lists.laptop.org>
> > >
> > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> > > than "Re: Contents of OLPC-Philippines digest..."
> > >
> > >
> > > Today's Topics:
> > >
> > >   1. OLPC PH Stimulus Plan (Charles Chen)
> > >
> > >
> > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > Message: 1
> > > Date: Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:13:37 -0700 (PDT)
> > > From: Charles Chen <ideasman88 at yahoo.com.au<
> http://mc/compose?to=ideasman88@yahoo.com.au>
> > >
> > > Subject: [OLPC-Philippines] OLPC PH Stimulus Plan
> > > To: olpc-philippines at lists.laptop.org<
> http://mc/compose?to=olpc-philippines@lists.laptop.org>
> > > Cc: Ellay Ricalde <MSRicalde at psbank.com.ph<
> http://mc/compose?to=MSRicalde@psbank.com.ph>>,
> > solutiongrove at gmail.com <http://mc/compose?to=solutiongrove@gmail.com>,
> > >        Elleanarosa Ricalde <elleanarosa at yahoo.com<
> http://mc/compose?to=elleanarosa@yahoo.com>
> > >
> > > Message-ID: <471853.79615.qm at web54003.mail.re2.yahoo.com<
> http://mc/compose?to=471853.79615.qm@web54003.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
> > >
> > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
> > >
> > > Hello everybody,
> > >
> > > I am sorry for being silent the last few months as I had been busy on
> > other
> > > important matters. I hope despite the current economic situation, we
> > > continue to have a job or a source of income and continue our efforts
> to
> > > develop a viable model for using OLPC in the Philippines.
> > >
> > > In a similar way where governments across the world are implementing
> > > various stimulus programs to jump start their economies, I would like
> to
> > > start the same for our group in the Philippines to help me establish
> the
> > > OLPC Philippines Foundation.
> > >
> > > We will initially aim to raise P1.0 Million pesos which is the capital
> > > requirement for a non-profit, non-stock foundation to be registered in
> > the
> > > Philippines. I will start the ball rolling with an initial donation of
> > > P5,000. I have asked my niece, Ellay Ricalde who is a branch manager at
> > > PSBank in Makati to help us in opening the required bank account and
> hold
> > it
> > > in trust until we are able to reach the P1.0 million amount. While the
> > money
> > > is in the account held in trust it cannot be withdrawn (only deposits
> can
> > be
> > > made) by anybody (including her) until the company is registered and
> its
> > > articles of incorporation and by-laws are presented. After such time,
> the
> > > foundation will manage the funds raised.
> > >
> > > I would like to solicit help from the rest of the group in the
> following
> > > manner:
> > >
> > > 1. Nomination of at 4 other people who aside from myself to be the
> > initial
> > > 5 trustees (I will be the fifth person) of the foundation. They shall
> be
> > the
> > > people also who will assist in drafting the articles of incorporation
> and
> > > by-laws of the foundation.
> > >
> > > 2. Nomination of at least 3 members to compose the finance committee.
> We
> > > need to develop a program to raise the money we need not only to
> register
> > > the foundation but also our day-to-day activities. I know in the light
> of
> > > the current economic situation asking for donations will be difficult
> so
> > we
> > > need to plan how to do this effectively and efficiently. One idea is
> > > soliciting the help of our local Congressman or other publicly elected
> > > official to make a donation to the foundation to start a OLPC pilot in
> > his
> > > congressional district.
> > >
> > > 3. Nomination of at least 3 members to compose the pilot committe. I
> > > previously have mentioned a plan to do a school pilot with Don Bosco
> > > Mandaluyong. I have put this pilot on hold until a viable model has
> been
> > > identified on how to do this. Reading all the previous discussions
> which
> > at
> > > some point became passionate if not heated, I decided we need first
> work
> > out
> > > what will be the deployment model appropriate for us. Once that is
> > finalised
> > > I can go back to Don Bosco to work with them to test this. For those
> > > involved in this committee we can now secure a minimum of 100 XO
> laptops
> > for
> > > US$ 259 each for the pilot. I have enclosed the following links
> provided
> > > below by OLPC Australia for your reference.
> > >
> > > http://www.olpcfriends.org/2009/02/olpc-deployments-a-global-approach/
> > >
> > > http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Australia%27s_first_deployment
> > >
> > > http://laptop.org/en/participate/change-the-world.shtml
> > >
> > > Caroline, you may want to be involved here.
> > >
> > > The establishment of the foundation will help us have the needed legal
> > > entity to futher promote our activities. Once we are able to register
> > > ourselves as a tax exempt institution we can be an attractive
> receipient
> > for
> > > tax deductable donations from private companies and individuals. And
> > > finally, with the financial resources available, we will be able to
> > afford
> > > to cover some if not all the cost of our activities. Even if we all
> > > volunteer our time and effort (the example of Bernie Innocenti) we
> still
> > > need to have the needed funds to cover the out-of-pocket expenses
> > involved.
> > >
> > > Bernie I will keep in mind once the right opportunity comes up for us
> to
> > do
> > > this.
> > >
> > > Thanks.
> > >
> > > Charles Chen
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >      Stay connected to the people that matter most with a smarter
> inbox.
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