Wish I could do more, but money is kinda tight at the moment.

Dear Blake Bonkofsky,

Thank you for your gift of $25.00 via Mastercard on 10/24/2011.
Your gift was assigned to the following areas:

SETI@home - $25.00

Your confirmation number is:
80310

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Thank you for your gift of $50.00 via Mastercard on 10/25/2011.
Your gift was assigned to the following areas:

SETI@home - $50.00

Your confirmation number is:
80314

That might get a stick of ram.

I saw nothing on the donation page, nor in the email, about the target amount for the donation drive. Is there a targeted amount?

Additionally, a statement of what is done with funds over any targeted amount might be useful. (Some people keep a close watch on charitable donations they make.)

I saw nothing on the donation page, nor in the email, about the target amount for the donation drive. Is there a targeted amount?

Additionally, a statement of what is done with funds over any targeted amount might be useful. (Some people keep a close watch on charitable donations they make.)

The frequently asked questions portion of the donation page has:

Q: How is my donation spent?
A: Donations will be spent on staff salaries, server hardware, network bandwidth, and other expenses. See our current budget.

IMO, you needn't be concerned about donations above the targeted amount, volunteers haven't provided even a quarter of the budget in any year yet.

                                                                Joe

I had an idea for another possible way to get donations. Has anyone ever looked into text message donations? You know, where some organization will advertise "text [word] to xxxxx to donate $10." One example is the Red Cross collecting money this way after natural disasters.

Just a thought.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

I had an idea for another possible way to get donations. Has anyone ever looked into text message donations? You know, where some organization will advertise "text [word] to xxxxx to donate $10." One example is the Red Cross collecting money this way after natural disasters.

Just a thought.

Not owning a text-capable cell phone, I wonder how exactly does that work?

Would extra manpower be required in the UC Charitable Donations office to handle those text messages and process the donations? Or could it be computerized, the way the web-based credit card donation system is?

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Donald
Infernal Optimist / Submariner, retired

Hello,

If I could, I would donate, of course. This year it is not possible at all. Sorry!

M.

Hi,
Please don't send me the messages. Donations to SETI@home are NOT tax deductible in Australia. There is a (albeit slight) chance that a complaint about the email inferring fraud under Australian law could be brought.

There is about 100% chance that the action would succeed and penalties could involve fines or prison sentences for the perpetrator/s.

Sorry to bring you the bad news,

Regards,

Chris

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Chris,

It tells you right at the top of the email you received "You are receiving this newsletter because you are a SETI@home participant. See below to opt out of future e-mails." which means you need to follow the link to unsubscribe.

In case you deleted the email already, here's the link again: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/opt_out.php?code=9f68038927338f0ec4dea97215866a3f&userid=780417 (note that this URL is customized for your account specifically. It will not work for other users).

FYI - Since you are a member of SETI@Home, and SETI@Home is a legitimate source, in no way would any court find SETI@Home's emails "fraudulent". Any case would be thrown out immediately.

I had an idea for another possible way to get donations. Has anyone ever looked into text message donations? You know, where some organization will advertise "text [word] to xxxxx to donate $10." One example is the Red Cross collecting money this way after natural disasters.

Just a thought.

Not owning a text-capable cell phone, I wonder how exactly does that work?

Would extra manpower be required in the UC Charitable Donations office to handle those text messages and process the donations? Or could it be computerized, the way the web-based credit card donation system is?

I don't know. I've never made a donation that way, let alone studied how it works for the donee. That's why I asked "has anyone ever looked into...".

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Hi,
Please don't send me the messages. Donations to SETI@home are NOT tax deductible in Australia. There is a (albeit slight) chance that a complaint about the email inferring fraud under Australian law could be brought.

There is about 100% chance that the action would succeed and penalties could involve fines or prison sentences for the perpetrator/s.

Sorry to bring you the bad news,

Regards,

Chris

While the email itself doesn't mention any stipulations about the donation, the page that it points you to does:

Q: Is my donation tax deductible?
A: If you are in the United States, your donation is tax-deductible. The University of California is a nonprofit educational and research organization governed by the provisions of Section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The University's Federal Identification number for reporting and tax purposes is 94-6002123.

Q: What if I'm not in the U.S.?
A: The conditions for tax deductibility described above may only be applied to taxes paid within the United States of America. For any other country or territory, the local legislation and/or International Conventions may sometimes allow you to benefit from similar local deductions, which would apply for the reasons of supporting educational projects and scientific research. You must verify these conditions yourself.

So they are safe from any claims of fraud.

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Jep i will donate what i cn for proceed seti and the projects

My grain of sand for the budget dune...

Thank you for your gift of $25.00 via Mastercard on 10/28/2011.
Your gift was assigned to the following areas:

SETI@home - $25.00

Your confirmation number is:
80464

DONATE TO S@H WITH YOUR SEARCHES AND ONLINE SHOPPING!
It won't cost you a cent. Just click the banner bellow, or go to goodsearch.com



Regards,
AR

WIth respect to those who responded.

Note, all dollar values here are Australian Dollars.

Under Australian Law, making a claim that a donation is tax deductible when it is not, is an offence punishable by, in the case of an individual, Not more that 3 years imprisonment and/or a fine of not more than $5000 for EACH and EVERY offence, in the case of a corporate or business identity or a non registered (in Australia) charity the penalty is a fine of not more than $100,000 for the first offence and not more than $300,000 for subsequent offences.

Additionally, directors or officers of the organisation may be punished similarly to individuals.

Additionally, under Australian Law, All that is required is that an email, electronic message be sent to the organisation at a commonly known address or to their place of business, requesting emails requesting donations no longer be sent to a particular email address or that Mail not be sent to a particular address.

Failure to comply with this is punishable by not more than 5 years imprisonment and/or a fine of not more than $10,000 in the case of an individual. For orporate or business identity or a non registered (in Australia) charity the penalty is a fine of not more than $500,000 for the first offence and not more than $800,000 for subsequent offences.

Additionally, directors or officers of the organisation may be punished similarly to individuals.

Action on these provisions (which are included in the penalty sections of the Australian Taxation Act (as amended) (The Act) are not usually brought by an individual but more likely by either the State Police, Australian Federal Police or the Australian Taxation Office. These cases are heard in the High court of Australia and provisions of The Act are applicable to anyone making the claim in Australia, sending the email to Australia has, in a previous ruling (Commonnwealth of Australia V Buchanan) by the High Court, been admitted as making the claim in Australia.

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WIth respect to those who responded.

And with respect, anyone that thinks a donation to an entity that isn't based in Australia would be able to get a tax deduction for it here needs adult supervision.

And as for the Commonnwealth of Australia V Buchanan, just as with any other situation involving outside jurisdictions- the Government & the courts can make all the determinations they like- but the only laws that are applicable are the ones of the country in which the offending partying is located.
At best, they can try to convince a court in the foriegn jurisdiction to allow the offending party to be extradited for trial in Australia.

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Grant
Darwin NT

Chris,

While your post is a wonderful read, it does not apply here. SETI@Home has made no claims that your donation is guaranteed to be tax-deductible, and they have given you a link to opt-out of future requests, thus complying with your local laws. I'm sure they could manually enter your email address or SETI@Home account number to their Opt-Out list if clicking on a link is too difficult, which I presume it must be since you couldn't be bothered to click on the Donations link explaining that tax deductions are primarily for U.S.-based citizens.

You simply have no case and you will be wasting your own time and money if you think you can proceed with any sort of hearings.

Sorry to bring you the bad news.

Click here: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/opt_out.php?code=9f68038927338f0ec4dea97215866a3f&userid=780417.

If I chose to donate 10 dollars to Seti@home, do you think my IRS (non-US, by the way) would pay me back 1 dollar in return?

Probably not.

I do not think the U.S. Federal Reserve (or at least the IRS) would have any interest of doing such a thing either.

So it goes.

IMO, you needn't be concerned about donations above the targeted amount, volunteers haven't provided even a quarter of the budget in any year yet.

                                                                Joe

Being snarky is not a good way to win people over, when asking for funds. I pointed out two valid concerns, one of which is something that I believe others might have a concern over, not so much myself, and you give attitude in a reply. Not good.

The root question was not addressed, what is the targeted amount of fund raising?

IMO, you needn't be concerned about donations above the targeted amount, volunteers haven't provided even a quarter of the budget in any year yet.

                                                                Joe

Being snarky is not a good way to win people over, when asking for funds. I pointed out two valid concerns, one of which is something that I believe others might have a concern over, not so much myself, and you give attitude in a reply. Not good.

The root question was not addressed, what is the targeted amount of fund raising?

I've never known Joe to be snarky or give attitude. Perhaps you're reading him wrong.


To answer your question, the target amount is to cover as much of the yearly budget as possible.

IMO, you needn't be concerned about donations above the targeted amount, volunteers haven't provided even a quarter of the budget in any year yet.

                                                                Joe

Being snarky is not a good way to win people over, when asking for funds. I pointed out two valid concerns, one of which is something that I believe others might have a concern over, not so much myself, and you give attitude in a reply. Not good.

The root question was not addressed, what is the targeted amount of fund raising?

I've never known Joe to be snarky or give attitude. Perhaps you're reading him wrong.


To answer your question, the target amount is to cover as much of the yearly budget as possible.

Likewise, I think Joe was unfortunately, just being factual. Fundraising, at least as publicly seen in these forums, has always fallen far short of any budgeted amount. So, targets have been to get as many people as possible to donate what they can according to their desire and ability.
There have been fund drives with specific goals in mind, such as the purchase of new servers, rather than the general operating fund.

But, to answer krokus' question, $548,200 in fall of 2010 dollars, per Ozz's link.

And thank you for asking. Perhaps one day a deep pockets donor shall see that and say.....'Shucks, that's not too much'.....

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"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."