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My Non-Profit Registration

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My Non-Profit Registration
Given that I know that Gossamer Threads staff read this, I wanted to bring something up about my recent registration of a free non-profit license for Gossamer Threads.

The registration was for me, Dan Cooperstock. I supply a free program for churches and charities to track their donors and donations, and issue charitable receipts, called "Dan Cooperstock's DONATION". It's on the the web at www.FreeDonationSoftware.org. I do the work on it in my spare time, as a labour of love. I have close to 1,000 registered users. GossamerThreads will serve as a Support Forum for it.

The issue I wanted to bring up is that while I do advertise that the program is free, something less than a year ago I started also saying that users could make small contributions towards my costs if they felt so inclined and could afford it. (Suggested amounts are $10 - $25.) At first the results were very meager, but after a mailing at the beginning of this January that mentioned the opportunity to contribute again, I've received about $600 US ($400 Canadian) this year so far.

In terms of real dollars that does exceed what I have spent on it this year so far, where my costs include such things as web hosting, domain registrations, ISP, etc. Looked at that way, at the moment it is not technically a non-profit. However, this does not take into account my labour in any way, which is probably on average a good 1/2 hour per day, if not more.

If you feel that this does not fit into your definition of non-profit, please let me know, and I will pay for a proper registration.

Thank you.
Dan Cooperstock
info@Software4NonProfits.com
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Re: [DanCooperstock] My Non-Profit Registration In reply to
Hi,

Our policy is if:

1. Gossamer Forum is being used by a for profit company, government or educational institution then a license is required.

or

2. You wish to remove the Powered By link from all Gossamer Forum generated pages.

You must purchase a license (licensed users do not need to display powered by link -- of course we love it if you do). =)

Let me know if you need any further clairifcation.

Cheers,

Alex
--
Gossamer Threads Inc.
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Re: [Alex] My Non-Profit Registration In reply to
Thanks Alex. I guess I was asking you to make a judgement, based on what I wrote, as to whether what I was doing was "non-profit" enough to qualify. I feel very strongly about being honest and fair about software licenses.

I feel no need to remove the "Powered by Gossamer Threads" logo.
Dan Cooperstock
info@Software4NonProfits.com
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Re: [DanCooperstock] My Non-Profit Registration In reply to
While GT would have the final word in this, I believe that "non-for-profit" could be both a formal definition of your organization (e.g., 5013c in the United States) or informal, like the arrangement you've made with your users. It seems to me that your operations are not for profit, since I assume you are using the proceeds to pay for overhead costs of the programs you provide to your "clients".

If you have revenue generating activities posted in your site and that is your prime mission/goal, then it seems that you would be a for profit operation, and thus would have to purchase the necessary software licenses dictated by the companies you "contracting" with.
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Buh Bye!

Cheers,
Me