[Data-modeling] Non-profits, once more with feeling

[Tim Kientzle]

Faye makes a good point.  It seems quite possible that the only  
property of "non-profit" would be the tax framework under which it's  
recognized (e.g., "US Government 501(c)(3)").  Every other property of  
your proposed "non-profit" type applies to things other than non- 
profits:  Harvard has an endowment, the Organization type already has  
a "Geographic scope," and there are philanthropic and/or charitable  
organizations that are not non-profit but to which your "non-profit  
sector" classification would still apply.

Tim

On Aug 7, 2008, at 5:15 PM, Faye Li wrote:

> Technically a non-profit is just an organization that's not  
> commercially motivated. :)
>
> Legally though, the term has very specific definitions in the US,  
> state-defined definitions, actually, which means a CA-based  
> nonprofit may very well not qualify as a "non-proft" under say,  
> Montana state law. To sort through the state-to-state discrepancy  
> the IRS has the final say on nationally recognized non-profit  
> organizations through section 501(c) codes. There are over a million  
> (!) of them registered with the IRS today. Even 1% of that data will  
> make a nice chunk in Freebase. :)
>
> But that's besides the point, which is: a non-profit has a  
> privileged status which has to be qualified by the system that  
> recognizes it as a non-profit, much as a protected site needs to  
> specify the park system under which it is protected. Without that  
> data, or at least a property to input that data, the claim of being  
> a non-profit becomes...well, unqualified, and legally weak.
>
> Kirrily, I'll have to check out your charities domain. :)
>
> -- Faye
>
>
> Kirrily Robert wrote:
>>
>> Not all non-profits take donations.  However, I have been modeling
>> charities in a domain of my own (/user/skud/charities) and I've got
>> properties for religious affiliation as well as geographical focus.
>>
>> K.
>>
>> On Aug 7, 2008, at 3:27 PM, Alexander Marks wrote:
>>
>>
>>> How about a Religious Affiliation property? Applies to any
>>> organization, I guess, but seems especially relevant for those that
>>> take donations.
>>>
>>> Al
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Jeff Prucher" <jeff at metaweb.com>
>>> To: "Freebase data modeling mailing list" <data-modeling at freebase.com 
>>> >
>>> Sent: Thursday, August 7, 2008 9:24:29 PM (GMT) Europe/London
>>> Subject: [Data-modeling] Non-profits, once more with feeling
>>>
>>> I sent a note about this a couple weeks ago, and received no
>>> responses. I'm
>>> figuring that either things are slow because it's summer (in the
>>> Northern
>>> Hemisphere anyway) or that nobody cares much about this schema one
>>> way or
>>> another.  Just in case it's the former, I'm reposting my non-profit
>>> organization schema to sandbox; if it's for the latter reason, I'll
>>> go ahead
>>> and upload the schema at my leisure. :)
>>>
>>> https://sandbox.freebase.com/type/view/organization/non_profit_organization
>>>
>>> It's pretty basic; it includes the types Organization (to get the
>>> board
>>> members and parent/child organizations, among other things), and
>>> Employer.
>>>
>>> Jeff Prucher
>>> Type Librarian & Ontologist
>>> Metaweb Technologies, Inc.
>>>
>>>
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>>
>
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