SPI and the case of dissolution

[Jimmy Kaplowitz]

On Wed, Oct 25, 2006 at 11:40:21AM +0200, martin f krafft wrote:
> I wonder how SPI handles the case of dissolution; if the entire
> organisation became incapacitated, what happens to the trademarks?
> Or how do you guard against the dissolution?

The rules in case of dissolution are explained in our certificate of
incorporation:

http://www.spi-inc.org/corporate/certificate-of-incorporation

I will quote the relevant bit here:

"In the event of dissolution, all of the remaining assets and property
of the organization shall, after payment of all necessary expenses
thereof, be distributed to organizations that qualify under Section 501
(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, or corresponding
provisions of any subsequent Federal tax laws, or to the Federal
government, or State or local governments for a public purpose, subject
to the approval of a Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New
York."

Basically, what that means is that we'd have to give the assets to other
charitable nonprofit organizations with the same tax status as SPI, or
to the government. In practice we would consult with the associated
projects on how to do this, as Josh said, but those are the
restrictions. It probably wouldn't let us leave the assets to a foreign
organization, but if the associated projects wanted to move their money
to other new or existing US charitable nonprofits upon SPI's
dissolution, we could definitely do that.

- Jimmy Kaplowitz
jimmy at spi-inc.org