Xfce Foundation status

[Jannis Pohlmann]

On Sun, 17 Oct 2010 23:57:02 +0200
Fabian Nowak <timystery at arcor.de> wrote:

> 
> > > Two things:
> > > 1) The Xfce * e.V ist not meant as a foundation from my
> > > understanding of the discussion.
> > > 2) Why can you argue that noone would want to raise a real
> > > foundation dedicted to Xfce? Already among this discussion here
> > > have been statements that people wanted to donate.
> > > Maybe the entire document/discussion is unclear and one should
> > > try to make Xfce * e.V. also a real foundation by the whole
> > > concept. Then naming it this way would be very fine.
> > 
> > I think there is a misunderstanding here. An non-profit e.V. can
> > receive donations just fine. People can even deduct their donations
> > from the taxes they pay (or rather from the taxable income).
> 
> Sorry, you don't get the point (due to maybe my badly formulated tries
> to explain). I simply think that the name *really* has to indicate
> what it is. The point is not whether anyone is able to donate or not.

A "Foundation" (and we're not talking about the German "Stiftung" here,
we're talking about an international non-profit organization that
carries "foundation" in its name) acts as one of the foundations on
which something else (Xfce and open source software in this case) is
built. 

If you read the articles of association that I posted, you'll notice
that paragraph 2 explains in what ways the Xfce Foundation e.V. will
support Xfce and related open source projects. It does, of course, not
just say "we raise money for Xfce" because that's not what we'll do.
We'll organize things around Xfce to help it being pushed forward and
to do so, we need money. Paragraph 12 explains how we'll try to
collect money to support Xfce in the ways mentioned.

So, I still wonder what is unclear here. There are hundreds if not
thousands of non-profit organizations out there that decided to name
themselves a "Foundation" and they are not just related to software.
Wikipedia gives you this on the disambiguation page for "Foundation":

  "Foundation (nonprofit organization)", a legal categorization of
  nonprofit organizations:
   - ...
   - Charitable organization, which has the word Foundation in its name
   - ...

The page for "Charitable organization" says this:

  The term is relatively general and can technically refer to a public
  charity (also called "charitable foundation," "public foundation" or
  simply "foundation") or a private foundation.

Now, what is a non-profit e.V.? -- Right, it's a German charity! 

This definitely was my last attempt to explain why the name
"Foundation" is perfectly fine for an e.V. and is completely compatible
with the draft document I posted earlier. 

> > Please inform yourself next time you enter a discussion. Otherwise
> > the tag "ridiculous" is quickly going to be applied to your own
> > behaviour.
> 
> "Caring" or "worried" is what I use. I did not want to insult anyone
> however, but only warn that it may look or appear like to many others,
> especially from industrial and commercial settings where proper naming
> is very relevant. I proposed to put the status of a foundation more
> into foreground and hence to explain the name and everything would be
> fine.

You kinda insult someone if you post a fictitious job interview in
which you try to render him/her as an idiot. Look, should anyone ever
ask me about the e.V. in an interview, I will be proud. Proud
because, together with a supportive and awesome group of people, I
have managed to push something forward that means something to me and to
others. Something from which a lot of people around the world benefit
and find pleasure in. And if that interviewer asks what's with the name
of the organization, I'll have a very good answer for him or her.

Seriously, this is not something ridiculous or something to worry
about. This is something good.

  - Jannis
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