Question 1: Could you explain why girlgeekdinners needs charity status? I think there are enough women out there with entrepreneurial expertise and creativity that could come up with some suggestions for how to generate some online revenue ...especially with the global expansion.(ASW)
A:
Answer: Hi A. At the moment we are looking to get charitable status in the UK so that we don't waste donated money on excessive taxes and give those people who are helping to encourage more women into the industry a little bit of a tax break. It leaves us with more money to put towards the events and towards support services. To get charity status we have to provide training and community services for the public and that is exactly what the events are all about. The sharing and transfer of knowledge, passing such information into schools and the education system and a whole lot more.
So you see if we didn't go for the status we would have larger tax bills and less reason for companies to be incentivised to sponsor events.
Your suggestion that the event should be revenue generating is something that has been considered in the past but only for the better good of the events (i.e. none profit organisation). The donate button on the right hand side of the blog is for people to donate if they so wish. We put that money towards the websites and to improve the infrastructure for events both in the UK and around the world as well as providing a small pot of money for the events that we run in case companies involved don't cover the sponsorship agreement payments quickly enough.
We don't charge for the events unless we don't have a sponsor and there is no profit margin on what we charge. This is deliberate as we have bantered around the idea of setting it up as a profitable business. There is the demand although not the acceptance for people to make money out of events that are to help the community and improve things. The idea of making it a profit making business seems to be both destructive and changes the focus of the cause some what. People start questioning why and whether you are taking advantage of a situation.
Feel free to discuss this further as you see fit.