ShaneCurcuru
commented
8 months ago Several people have reminded me to think about fundamentals. In the US (for example), IRS-recognized non-profits have both financial rules as well as (potentially) purpose rules that they must meet, or else they lose their nonprofit status. For public charities, this includes clear restrictions on purpose and operations for the benefit of the public at whole, versus for the corporation or for any shareholders. Given that financial incentives - even if several layers removed via shareholders expecting dividends or gains or the like - still can play a part even in B Corps, we will not be including them in this metadata directory at this time. The legal restrictions on 501(c) entities, or various kinds of charitable foundations in other jurisdictions are more stringent in multiple ways than any BCorp or public benefit corporation standards currently provide.
What should the inclusion criteria be for the main _foundations dataset?
This site originally started with only legally non-profit (or non-profit seeking, if just created) organizations. In the US that means 501(c)(*) orgs, or roughly equivalent public charity/education non-profit orgs in other countries.
However there may be some B Corps or Public Benefit Corporations (in US states that have those laws) that may fulfill similar purposes as FOSS host organizations like the ASF or SFLC.
DISCUSS: Should we include Public Benefit Corporations? Should we include registered "B" Corporations?
If so, in the main dataset (i.e. with distinct new values for nonprofitStatus field), or should they be in a separate dataset in case some research cases really need to exclude them more easily?
See also: #1