On 05/02/18 18:01, Reinhard Müller wrote:
Hi,

Am 2018-02-05 um 14:58 schrieb Daniel Pocock:

- the German laws for non-profits (this was mentioned on another list)
allow donors to specify that their donation or ongoing contributions be
used for capital purposes.  So any fellow/supporter can write an email
to contact@fsfe.org and declare that all or a percentage of their
donations are for investment / capital reserves and that money can't be
spent on operating expenses or campaigns.

you misunderstood this:

A donor can indicate that her donation *may* be used to build up a
capital reserve, and unless she does so, the donation has to be used
"immediately" (which in generally accepted interpretation of the law
translates to "not later than in the fiscal year following the donation)
for constitutional purposes.

A donor can not *require* a donation to be held as a capital reserve,
and it would be unlogical if this was possible, because it would mean
that the recipient of the donation does not have the power of disposal
over the donated amount.

In practice, asking for donations for building up a capital reserve is
done in specific cases, for example to accumulate the required capital
for a larger investment (think of a football club wanting to renovate
the sports stadium in 5 years).

I hope this makes it clearer.

Thanks for clarifying that

Somebody could still require the donation to be used for capital reserve in various ways though: in a will, when leaving a bequest, they can simply write that if the money is not accepted with this condition then it goes to some other beneficiary.  The executor of the will would then ask FSFE to confirm it will be used for capital purposes.  e.g. somebody could write "I give 50% of my estate to my wife, 33% to my children, EUR 25,000 to FSFE for the purpose of capital investment and anything remaining goes to my cat".  The executor of the will would contact FSFE and if the condition was not accepted by council, the EUR 25,000 would go to the cat.

Donors/supporters could make similar requests to FSFE in any other circumstances too: if the organization rejects the condition, the donor doesn't send the money.

Regards,

Daniel