Mastodon forms new U.S. non-profit
Mastodon forms new U.S. non-profit
As part of our commitment to supporting the growth and operational capabilities of Mastodon, we have established a 501(c)(3) non-profit entity in the United States aimed at facilitating our efforts, including being able to receive tax-deductible U.S. donations.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/14961640
We’re excited to announce the Board of Directors governing this newly formed entity:
Esra’a Al Shafei is a human rights advocate and founder of Majal.org
Karien Bezuidenhout is an advocate for openness and supporter of social entrepreneurs.
Amir Ghavi leads Fried Frank’s core technology practices as the co-head of the Technology Transactions Practice
Felix Hlatky has been the Chief Financial Officer of Mastodon since 2020.
Biz Stone is an entrepreneur best known as a co-founder of Twitter, one of the world’s leading social media platforms.
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Welp, don't like that. US nonprofit is a huge misnomer. For the most part they're used by the wealthy to create businesses that don't need to pay taxes.
Edit: Not sure why I'm getting mass downvotes. The non profit system in America is where the wealthy go to create tax free income. The CEOs of non profits still get huge salaries. Just seems out of line with the vision of a true non profit IMO. That's why I call it a misnomer. Non profits are almost never set up to do what they actually say they are trying to do. They're often just created to get public favor and money laundering.
They are also used by non profit organisations so...
All I'm saying is generally when those in big tech establish a non profit, it's for the wrong reasons, or it eventually becomes the wrong reasons. Look at open AI. They had a non profit and and profit side. The non profit side essentially controlled with the for profit side did, then when they ousted the CEO for doing things that were clearly in the interest of profit over the betterment of society, the CEO had set it up so that without him the open AI ship began to sink. Then those on the board that were against him were ousted from the board. It was a hostile takeover.
I'm not saying that's going to happen with mastadon, I'm just saying they have some key players that are investors and/or long time workers in big tech and it puts a bad taste in my mouth.
The open AI governance model was doomed to fail, however, and structurally had no chance to work. By ignoring human nature and greed, things ended up with the profit side getting backing from a massive for profit company and employees voted with their pocket instead of sticking to some mission statement idealized by the non-profit board.
I sure hope mastadon turns out better. We need a strong voice advocating for the fediverse.