NetBSD achieves permanent charity status

["Jared D. McNeill" <jmcneill%NetBSD.org@localhost>]

NetBSD achieves permanent charity status
========================================

The NetBSD Foundation has been granted permanent 501(c)(3) charity status
under United States law. The Foundation has been a 501(c)(3) charity since
2004, but previously the status was given under an advanced ruling period,
i.e. it was of limited time. The permanent charity status is also known as
170(b)(1)(A)(vi) [1].

To achieve the permanent "public charity" status, we needed to prove that
we are publicly funded by going through the financial activity of the past
5 years and filing the necessary forms. Lex Wennmacher, Martin Husemann,
and Christos Zoulas spent quite a few weekends going through all the
numbers and completing the forms, and we are happy to report that the IRS
accepted our paperwork.

Being a public charity is important to us, as it means that we are eligible
to receive employer matching donations, as well as to enjoy the most
beneficial tax treatment.

Jared D. McNeill
The NetBSD Foundation

[1] http://bestpractices.cof.org/community/ViewStandard.cfm?itemNumber=901


About NetBSD:

NetBSD, a free, secure, and highly portable descendant of the BSD UNIX
family, is one of the oldest open source operating systems. It is
available for many platforms, from 64-bit Opteron machines and desktop
systems to handheld and embedded devices. Its clean design and advanced
features make it excellent in both production and research environments;
its source is freely available under an unencumbering business-friendly
open source license. More information is available at
http://www.NetBSD.org/.