Difference between revisions of "Friends Organizations"
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==Friends Organizations versus Chapters== | ==Friends Organizations versus Chapters== | ||
===Friends organization=== | ===Friends organization=== | ||
| − | One is the concept of a “friends organization,” sometimes called a supporting organization. (It also is often called a “friends of organization,” since so many nonprofits that support foreign charities have names that begin with those two terms, such as Friends of China Heritage Fund. However, there also are innumerable such nonprofits that do not have names that begin with those two words, such as <membersonly>Doctors Without Border/Medecins Sans Frontieres.) In the United States, the term friends organization has a technical legal meaning, which I am not referring to now. When I use the informal term “friends organization,” I mean an organization in one | + | One is the concept of a “friends organization,” sometimes called a supporting organization. (It also is often called a “friends of organization,” since so many nonprofits that support foreign charities have names that begin with those two terms, such as Friends of China Heritage Fund. However, there also are innumerable such nonprofits that do not have names that begin with those two words, such as <membersonly>Doctors Without Border/Medecins Sans Frontieres.) In the United States, the term friends organization has a technical legal meaning, which I am not referring to now. When I use the informal term “friends organization,” I mean an organization in one countrymdash;say the United States:mdash;that has organized funds for the purpose of supporting an organization in another country. This is commonly, for example, friends of a university or a museum abroad. So here I am talking primarily in terms of when funds flow from the United States to an organization supported abroad. |
===Chapter=== | ===Chapter=== | ||
Another contrasting term that is commonly used is the word “chapter.” This is a term used in the United States that quite often itself does not have defined legal meaning. It is often referred to around the world as an affiliate, partner, or even subsidiary organization. In this context, a chapter carries on the work of an organization in another area of the world, such as, for example, in Japan or the United Kingdom. | Another contrasting term that is commonly used is the word “chapter.” This is a term used in the United States that quite often itself does not have defined legal meaning. It is often referred to around the world as an affiliate, partner, or even subsidiary organization. In this context, a chapter carries on the work of an organization in another area of the world, such as, for example, in Japan or the United Kingdom. | ||
| − | So, in the case of a chapter, the parent organization is in one country conducting operations abroad via a chapter, whereas a friends organization is channeling funds from one country to what I loosely call the parent organization. | + | So, in the case of a chapter, the parent organization is in one country conducting operations abroad via a chapter, whereas a friends organization is channeling funds from one country to what I loosely call the parent organization. |
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==U.S. Friends Organizations== | ==U.S. Friends Organizations== | ||
Revision as of 18:23, 3 September 2011
Taking into account the legal duties of United States nonprofit boards, let us take examine how this impacts the relationship between United States organizations and NGOs outside the United States.
Since the laws and terminology of nonprofit cultures can vary so widely between countries, let us first make sure at the onset that we are all using in the same way two terms that are often confused.
Contents
Friends Organizations versus Chapters
Friends organization
One is the concept of a “friends organization,” sometimes called a supporting organization. (It also is often called a “friends of organization,” since so many nonprofits that support foreign charities have names that begin with those two terms, such as Friends of China Heritage Fund. However, there also are innumerable such nonprofits that do not have names that begin with those two words, such as
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