Non-Profit Corporation
From the CouchSurfing Wiki, an informal workspace which anyone can edit.
Yes CouchSurfing is a non-profit, which is similar to an NGO:
- it is impossible for couchsurfing to make a profit
- it cannot be sold
- if it pays salaries, they must be within a certain range
- all expenses must be justified based on a charitable mission statement
- if CS fails, all assets must be given away to other nonprofit companies or NGOs -- nothing may be sold or kept.
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From sos.nh.gov
COUCHSURFING INTERNATIONAL INC. is a Non-Profit Corporation in the state of New Hampshire. Its Business ID is 431859. The entity was created 4/2/2003.
Principal Office Address: 200 EAST SIDE RD PO BOX 288 CONWAY NH 03818 Principal Mailing Address: No Address Expiration Date: Perpetual Last Annual Report Filed Date: 12/24/2005 Last Annual Report Filed: 2005
501(c)3
CS has filed for 501(c)3 status in November 2007.
Board of Directors
"Corporate board of directors": How money owns, and privileges to its own property, the means of extracting and removing money from the common environment.
Casey used to be the only member of the Board of Directors of CouchSurfing.
See this Jan 28, 2007 email by Casey in a public list: "Simply said, as of now, I am the only member on the board. When we move to 501c3 there will be several members. We are in the process of moving to 501c3 and hope to do so in the next couple months. It is a complicated process that must be done exactly right otherwise the IRS will reject us."
Apparently on May 17th Matt Whatley is now also in the Board of Directors. Then later he removed that part from his profile.
But, now (http://www.couchsurfing.com/policy_faq.html#Board_of_Directors) apparently Dan and Seb are back in the BoD.
Non-Profit Corporation?
A non-profit corporation is not owned by money for the money it can accumulate. It is a commercial player owned and directed, by a common society, through the association of its members, via their representatives on a governing council. Commercial and business players are granted many advantages, privileges, and discounts, not available to human citizens directly. The non-profit's commercial and business enterprise, feeds upon its community's social capacity, a lot like other corporations do. But, the non-profit Board of Directors must direct, restrain, and justify those acts, appetites and costs for the common, and not to the advantage of privilege. It is upon the board of directors, that the common trust for a healthy and viable relationship resides. The buck stops there. When anyone asks, 'why anything', about the non-profit, the board is identified as 'the because'. The board of Directors is not only responsible for how it is, but also for how it got that way, and also for moving it into how it should be.
In the United States Non-Profit Corporations are much more common than Non-Profit Organizations, which are more found in Europe.
See also Wikipedia.
