The Pittsburgh Foundation handles both grants and endowment funds. Due to their presumed expertise in all things non-profit related, the Pittsburgh Foundation should be familiar with the basic categorization of non-profits as either private or public. You commented that the "De facto" non-profit does accept donations. I proffered that the Pittsburgh Foundation is a voice of reason in your own backyward and they would be happy to point out that this is not really the case. It is up to you to pursue that.
I do have some other concern which is why is your ethos/structure is posted on a blog and not a more permanent page? If this is to be a working document then please annotate changes or if your intention is a truly "open" company then how about enlisting feedback from potential users some of whom might be lawers or accountants familiar with small business law and also interested in alternative business structures?
If mmahemoff's quote (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4287308) is direct from your page, it shows a revision from what is currently shown and from what I'm going to presume is the original blog post from Google cache.
Quoted in comment from mmahemoff:
"An open company differs from a non-profit organization in that an open company does not itself accept donations, and it does not compensate its employees. From the open company’s point of view, whether and how its employees receive money and for what, is undefined."
Current blog display:
An open company differs from a non-profit organization in that an open company is not registered as a charity with a government, and does not itself accept donations. An open company also does not have a paid staff, as most non-profits do in practice. From the open company’s point of view, whether and how its employees receive money and for what, is undefined.
Google Cache (http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:RwFZLSt...):
An open company differs from a non-profit organization in that it does not itself accept donations, and it does not compensate its employees. From the open company’s point of view, whether and how its employees receive money and for what, is undefined.
With all of that said, I really like what you're doing here. I just am not able to see how this would be better than a well-documented non-profit or a B Corporation. But I am open to being convinced if there really is a better way to do things. If you want a real challenge and a start-up idea, I'd love to see you tackle a better non-profit transparency mechanism than we have available today with GuideStar and Charity Navigator.
I do have some other concern which is why is your ethos/structure is posted on a blog and not a more permanent page? If this is to be a working document then please annotate changes or if your intention is a truly "open" company then how about enlisting feedback from potential users some of whom might be lawers or accountants familiar with small business law and also interested in alternative business structures?
If mmahemoff's quote (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4287308) is direct from your page, it shows a revision from what is currently shown and from what I'm going to presume is the original blog post from Google cache.
Quoted in comment from mmahemoff: "An open company differs from a non-profit organization in that an open company does not itself accept donations, and it does not compensate its employees. From the open company’s point of view, whether and how its employees receive money and for what, is undefined."
Current blog display: An open company differs from a non-profit organization in that an open company is not registered as a charity with a government, and does not itself accept donations. An open company also does not have a paid staff, as most non-profits do in practice. From the open company’s point of view, whether and how its employees receive money and for what, is undefined.
Google Cache (http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:RwFZLSt...): An open company differs from a non-profit organization in that it does not itself accept donations, and it does not compensate its employees. From the open company’s point of view, whether and how its employees receive money and for what, is undefined.
With all of that said, I really like what you're doing here. I just am not able to see how this would be better than a well-documented non-profit or a B Corporation. But I am open to being convinced if there really is a better way to do things. If you want a real challenge and a start-up idea, I'd love to see you tackle a better non-profit transparency mechanism than we have available today with GuideStar and Charity Navigator.