Subject: [permaculture] NGOs, 501c3s and USA-centrism
Date: Tue, 06 Feb 2007 14:30:08 -0500
Hi-
Many countries have way to differentiate for-profit and non-profit entities.
501c3s are a creation of the USA tax code. In case you hadn't noticed,
not everyone on this list is from the United States of America. Though
those of us from the US tend to think that everyone knows what we mean.
(And all too often, folks from around the world do. I heard a speaker
who visited China say that folks there understood where North Carolina
and Wyoming were. He asked the audience: How many people here know where
Beijing and Shanghai (new names?) are?)
Judging from an earlier entry that said
"The Permaforest Trust is a not-for-profit education centre and
demonstration farm created to promote sustainability.[in New South
Wales]" it looks like this is a similar entity in Australian law.
I'm not writing this for everyone to talk about non-profits, but to
mention that these are all different from being an accredited NGO.
In the late 1980s, partially to get stodgy governments off their feet,
the UN started encouraging (even more than they had in the past)
NGOs to register and raise heck. Thus, the organizers of the Earth
Summit purposely included an citizen parallel summit-- they knew that it
would collectively be more honest and insightful than the governments.
The Center for this kind of thing is the NGLS (Non-Governmental Liason
Service)
http://www.un-ngls.org
Though, that said, I didn't find an easy link to how to apply for such
status (there is both general status, and status for each conference, if
I remember correctly).
I subscribed to their Go-Between newsletter for years leading up to the
Earth Summit in 1992 and afterwards.
There is a subscription form on the website noted above.
-- Jim
[permaculture] NGOs, 501c3s and USA-centrism,
Jim, 02/06/2007