[Cz-L] The non-profit corporation

Is there some sort of corporate entity that would be recognized by
several countries as a non-profit charitable corporation which would
make contributions tax deductible on an international basis?

I believe there is such an animal between Canada and the U.S. It
would be ideal if we could set up a foundation that would make
contributions tax deductible in the whole English speaking world
including Israel.

Another thought. In the late 1980s I collaborated with Alexander
Roncari, a descendant of Columbus, who had been appointed by Prime
Minister Trudeau as chairman of a group to be formed to plan
celebrations for the Columbus Quincentenary in 1992. After there was
a change in government and Trudeau was out of the picture, the
federal government had cooled on the whole idea. In the meantime,
several important Italian Canadians who were also working with us had
started to incorporate a non-profit in Canada. There was some
disagreement among them and the incorporation was never completed.

For an initial effort I had arranged a symposium on the historical
accuracy of the various claimed landfalls for Columbus and had
invited a history professor from a Florida University and a senior
editor from National Geographic to come to Toronto to lead the
discussion. I had also sent invitations to all the foreign
embassies and consulates in Toronto and Ottawa, including the High
Commissions from former British Colonies. RSVPs indicated we would
have a good turnout. I had arranged for a venue for this affair in
Colombo Village, an Italian social establishment. Of course, I had
made presentations to banks and government agencies seeking donations
to cover the cost of our first effort. At this point I received
calls from the Mayor's office and from a couple of banks asking for
the proper corporate name to put on the checks they were prepared to
send us.

But now we had no charitable organization which would give them the
tax write-off and there was no time nor funds to create one. So I
asked the management at Colombo Village to function as a receiver of
these funds and since they were a non-profit entity, to provide their
license number. They co-operated and the whole thing worked.
Donors received their tax write-offs and we received the funds to
cover most of our expenses.

In the event that we are not able to create an international
foundation that would make available tax write-offs in various
countries for people making donations, we might approach appropriate
Jewish foundations who might be willing to "broker" the funds for us
to achieve what we did for the Columbus Quincentenary. (I believe
that this would be perfectly kosher and legal)

A word of caution, though, to Mimi. With all the good planning on
the Columbus effort, I still ended up with over a fifteen
hundred dollars out of pocket which was never reimbursed.

Cheers,
Andy
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Received on 2009-05-13 12:32:06