[openbeos] Donation Frustrations
- From: Czeslaw Czapla <czapla@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 01 Sep 2004 08:55:23 -0700
On 08.30.04 8:38 am, Kurtis Kopf at kurtis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Hey everyone, just wanted to let you know that Haiku can now accept
> donations!
>
> Check the web site for more info and a proper link:
>
> http://haiku-os.org/
>
> Thanks ahead of time everyone!
>
> -Kurtis
Hi, Kurtis, Michael, and friends.
It seems that the current donation processing website, Network for Good, is
suitable only for donations made by individuals residing within the United
States. For those individuals it works quite nicely, even providing formal
documentation of donation amounts (via return email) for tax-filing
purposes.
But perhaps the bulk of Haiku's base of users, supporters, and enthusiasts
lives outside of the United States. One writer estimates (in a Haiku forum
thread) that perhaps 80% of potential donors to Haiku reside in Asia, Latin
America, and Europe. Indeed, people who live elsewhere are already
complaining about their *inability* to donate, and the feelings of
frustration and exclusion that this causes for them. See, for instance, this
forum thread:
"Donations from the rest of the world"
<http://www.haiku-os.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=195&sid=bacb004bfd857020645e
f62c4e70835b>
Would it be possible for Haiku to make arrangements with a second donation
processing service, perhaps PayPal or something similar, for use by these
prospective non-US donors? Such a secondary service would not necessarily
need to provide all the non-profit tax-related services that Network for
Good provides so well, since non-US residents are not eligible for these
US-only tax benefits anyway.
There could be two buttons on the Donations page: one bearing the label "For
donors residing within the United States", and one bearing the label "For
donors residing outside the United States".
I realize that it's likely that Michael is already looking into making
arrangements of just this sort -- since very little slips past him unnoticed
-- but I also thought it best to make a somewhat formal request now in this
venue.
Your loyal Haiku promoter,
Czeslaw
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