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Grex > Agora35 > #117: ACLU Fund Annual Dinner Program Ad -- Act now! | |
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other
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ACLU Fund Annual Dinner Program Ad -- Act now!
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Oct 30 23:14 UTC 2000 |
The Michigan ACLU is having its annual dinner to raise money for the ACLU Fund
of Michigan (the 501(c)3 part), and we have been asked if we would like to
purchase an ad in the program.
Ad rates range from $25 for a name listing, to $85 for a 1/8 page ad (3"x2")
to $500 for a full page (7"x10").
The catch is that the deadline is this Friday 3 November for them to have
art/checks in hand. This does not give us time to authorize a general fund
donation, should the membership be so inclined, so the only option is if
someone or -ones want/s to make donation in Grex's name.
If you are interested, please reply here, or email me at other@cyberspace.org
and I will forward all the details (the MS Word document with the Ad order
form -- about 95kb).
Thanks!
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| 18 responses total. |
other
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response 1 of 18:
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Oct 30 23:20 UTC 2000 |
Better yet, the ad order form will be available this week only, at the
following url:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~ebassey/grex/adsale.doc
Please keep all discussion to this or other items (link to Co-op if
applicable) rather than in email.
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scg
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response 2 of 18:
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Oct 31 01:35 UTC 2000 |
It would presumably also work for us to pool donations towards the ad.
I'm not going to bankroll the whole thing, but I'll pledge $10 towards this.
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krj
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response 3 of 18:
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Oct 31 02:53 UTC 2000 |
I'll pledge another $10.
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rcurl
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response 4 of 18:
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Oct 31 06:37 UTC 2000 |
I paid my ACLU dues...but while I like others also making more donations
to ACLU, I would not think it is right to associate these accumulated
donations to Grex. Grex has its own identity as a corporate "person"
(body), and only the Grex board can speak officially for it. Making
a donation "in the name of Grex" would be the same as someone making
a donation to perhaps a cause you do not support *in your name*.
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other
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response 5 of 18:
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Oct 31 17:42 UTC 2000 |
I don't know that there are any particular *legal* issues relating to the
making of donations in the names of organizations, to other organizations.
I certainly see your point from an ethical position, say, if the donation was
to the KKK or something.
As far as I know, Grex has no policy on the subject of authorizing user
donations to third-party organizations in Grex's name. In light of that,
Rane, what are you proposing?
Certainly the idea of a vote of the membership to authorize *might* be
reasonable, but for the short timeline in this particular case. I
responded to the solicitation with the suggestion that we would be open to
future solicitations from them, but that they should provide us adequate
lead time to accomodate our democratic process.
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rcurl
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response 6 of 18:
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Oct 31 18:55 UTC 2000 |
The board should endorse the donation (if a majority of them wish to).
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albaugh
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response 7 of 18:
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Oct 31 21:35 UTC 2000 |
I'm not comfortable with an organization such as grex making donations to
other groups, when the revenue it takes in is ostensibly for the express
purpose of running grex. OTOH, if there is belief that the benefit to grex
of the ACLU taking on the legal burden of court challenges to infringing the
right of free speech, then perhaps some "back scratching" might be in order,
*if* that would not jeopardize grex's non-profit 501(c) status etc.
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other
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response 8 of 18:
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Oct 31 22:42 UTC 2000 |
This particular solicitation is for the ACLU Fund, a 501(c)3 org., and I do
not know of any IRS regulations prohibiting 501(c)3 orgs from donating to
other 501(c)3 orgs, although the practice has caused some concern in the
political arena.
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mcnally
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response 9 of 18:
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Nov 1 00:52 UTC 2000 |
Whatever the technicalities, I agree with those who don't think it's
appropriate for Grex to redistribute donations to other charitable
or public service groups. If people want to give to those groups,
they'll give to those groups.
On the other hand I'd have no problems with a donation from a collection
of individuals and a dedication message something like:
Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice would like to thank the ACLU
for its work on behalf of Grex, www.cyberspace.org
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janc
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response 10 of 18:
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Nov 1 00:56 UTC 2000 |
I'm an ACLU member myself. Not sure that having Grex donate to the ACLU is
a good idea. The ACLU does represent a particular political point of view
and I think that Grex should remain as politically neutral as possible. If
we were specifically donating money to help them defend us, that'd be fine.
That's one of the few political issues that Grex has a legitimate interest
in supporting. But the ACLU supports all sorts of things and this is a
general fundraiser for the ACLU.
I don't thing our users would like to see us donating money to an organization
with a pro-life mission. Well, the ACLU is a strong campaigner for pro-choice
legislation. Same thing.
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krj
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response 11 of 18:
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Nov 1 02:22 UTC 2000 |
Right now it looks like contributions aren't going to pour in for this
to happen anyway.
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bru
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response 12 of 18:
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Nov 1 02:24 UTC 2000 |
I am against donating to the ACLU fund, adn I am opposed to an organization
that is supposed to be non-partisan having a political agenda.
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rcurl
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response 13 of 18:
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Nov 1 04:21 UTC 2000 |
Jan, this donation would not be to the ACLU, or to do any of the things
you think we should not donate to because of legislation or anything
else like this. It would have been to the ACLU *fund*, which cannot
use donations to support candidates and is very restricted in how much
it can use to lobby. (I'm not saying this to support the idea of a
donation, but to clarify to whom the donation would go.)
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janc
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response 14 of 18:
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Nov 1 04:44 UTC 2000 |
I'm still entirely with Bruce. The ACLU Foundation supports litigation and
public education programs. It advocates gay rights, reproductive choice, and
many other controversial issues. Though I happen to personally agree with
it's stance on all these issues, I'd like Grex to be a neutral forum for the
discussion of these issues. It should NOT take a stance on them.
There are a very limited set of issues Grex as an organization can
legitimately take a stance on. These are those that directly impact its
ability to function, including some freedom of speech issues (but not all such
issues).
It is appropriate for Grex, as an organization, to be grateful for the ACLU's
aid, but Grex is a very different organization with very different goals from
the ACLU. For Grex to donate money to the ACLU or the ACLU Foundation would
be inconsistant with our goals.
I certainly encourage individual Grexers to donate money directly to the ACLU
if you so wish.
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mdw
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response 15 of 18:
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Nov 1 08:45 UTC 2000 |
Actually, I rather suspect a lot of the people who might be against a
grex donation to the ACLU because it does all those other "evil" things,
were probably also opposed to grex participating in the suit in the
first place. I do see a problem with grex contributing out of "general
funds", because that is indeed diverting money from grex's mission, and
I quite understand how that might make some people uncomfortable (I'd
certainly be personally unhappy to see such money go to support
anti-abortion heckler groups). I'm not at all sure that I see a problem
with grex collecting funds from users and forwarding them on to the
ACLU, "in appreciation for the efforts they've done on our behalf". I
for one would be happy to contribute to such, much more so than to make
a direct donation. (I'd prefer the ACLU *not* see my name or address on
any donation they get from me, because I don't want to get junk mail of
any sort from them or anyone else as a result.)
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bru
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response 16 of 18:
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Nov 1 12:42 UTC 2000 |
I have had no objection to grex participating in the suit.
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senna
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response 17 of 18:
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Nov 1 18:19 UTC 2000 |
I'm in favor of the lawsuit. I'm opposed to a donation.
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other
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response 18 of 18:
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Nov 3 01:00 UTC 2000 |
Jan, I think you make a good point. Grex itself ought to remain
politically neutral on issues not directly relating to Grex and its
mission. Conversely, should the membership of Grex vote to make a
donation to any other organization out of our general fund (despite the
best arguments against it), I don't think there is either a mechanism or a
compelling reason for anyone to override that vote.
It would perhaps be an unfortunate vote for Grex, since the result might
be to piss off and cause the self-ostracization of those whose viewpoints
differ from those espoused by the particular beneficiary organization, to
the detriment of Grex.
Oh, well...
It is still a darn good idea as far as I'm concerned for individuals to
support the ACLU and specifically recognize their efforts on behalf of
Grex and free speech in so doing.
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