[liberationtech] Am I the only one who feels tricked by the Kickstarter campaign thinking that BRCK will be non-profit?

[Mitar]

Hi!

On Wed, Sep 17, 2014 at 8:08 PM, Juan Batiz-Benet <juan at benet.ai> wrote:
> Thank you Richard. Very well put. I wish more people understood things so
> clearly. Many very smart people somehow believe tax status distinguishes
> Good from Evil, completely ignoring a wealth of counter examples. Some of
> the most glaring: SpaceX and MPAA.

OK. I would just add to this that what I am talking about is not the
question if a project is for-profit or not for-profit. This is really
for them to decide how they want to wrap it into an organization.
There are advantages and disadvantages to any of these forms, both tax
and other questions, like ways how to raise funding. And of course
non-profits do not mean that they are "good" by itself. They can be
misused as well. And I think what makes an organization "good" are
mostly other things, not for-profit status.

What I am concerned is that they did not explain this initially. If
they would, I would decide differently. Not because non-profits are
"better", but exactly because non-profits have harder time raising
funding otherwise and I like to help a little to overcome that. This
is where I see crowdfunding an important part of this landscape. Being
possible to get funding from the community and then being responsible
to the community. Which is what I think is one of main aspects of
"good" organization which is trying to make a positive social change.

Now, they looked like they are non-profit, but then decided to turn
for-profit exactly for exactly those reasons: it is hard to raise
money as for-profit. I understand that, but for me it feels like
double dipping. I do understand that for some people this is not a
concern, because we all contribute to crowdfunding campaigns for
different reasons.

But what I wanted to do is mostly see what others are thinking about
this. And I am glad to be getting responses. It seems I am the only
one concerned about this, but this is also good. If people believe
that anything goes approach works, just that you get funding and
projects off the ground, why not. Personally, I will be more careful
next time and everything is OK. I am also learning. :-)


Mitar

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