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

[Jeff Prucher]

I like Faye's suggestion, too, and I'm looking into other countries to see
what kind of patterns there are.  And thanks for catching the duplicate
"geographic scope" property on organization.

In terms of sector, are you proposing that it go on "organization", instead?
It's sort of the organizational equivalent to "industry", so I could imagine
it going there.  (That said, taxonomies like the NTEE-CC are explicitly for
non-profits, so linking to them from another type might be semantically
weird, assuming of course that they have compatible licenses.) In terms of
endowments, what type would you propose putting that property on?  "Endowed
entity"?  I guess I don't see how the having an "endowment" property on the
"College/University" type precludes an "endowment" property being on
"Non-profit organization".

Jeff

> -----Original Message-----
> From: data-modeling-bounces at freebase.com 
> [mailto:data-modeling-bounces at freebase.com] On Behalf Of Tim Kientzle
> Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 6:09 PM
> To: Freebase data modeling mailing list
> Subject: Re: [Data-modeling] Non-profits, once more with feeling
> 
> 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_organ
> >>> ization
> >>>
> >>> 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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