Folding Forum

I think socializing the idea of a folding contest is a good start. Off the top having vendors donate hardware for event winnings would be a spoils way. If we could hold a event were people show up and attend, and hardware vendors would show off hardware and have topics, even Stanford would talk about projects being folded on, that would be great.

How ever , I do have experience putting on large public events, and the task is not a easy one, and the cost is high for the space and food.
Sponsorship must be pre approved, and is half the battle.

That being said, you could have events quarterly , and have prizes etc. you could do separate groups per state or region. You would need s board of directors, etc. just some thoughts.

Donating money directly to PG through their charitable vehicle is the most straightforward method to realise tax benefits.

If you're really set on giving prizes to donors, how about something like this:

I don't know how much work it would be to gather the actual data, but suppose there's a straightforward way to make a list of everybody who earn points during this month. Then have some unbiased entity pick a random number anywhere between the maximum and minimum number of points earned and award $10 to each of the 10 donors closest to that number of points.

Or the reward could be a graphics card instead of cash.

k1wi wrote:Donating money directly to PG through their charitable vehicle is the most straightforward method to realize tax benefits.

Yes, but the main issue in this topic is to get more CPU and GPU clients running FAH. The tax issue was only a potential sweetener for the theoretical wealthy benefactor.

art_l_j_PlanetAMD64 wrote:

Zagen30 wrote:I wanted to add that a giveaway of this magnitude would likely run into some significant legal and regulatory obstacles.

This is an excellent point. Perhaps if such a wealthy benefactor was ever found, the easiest and best way to benefit the FAH project might be to fund the addition and running/maintenance costs of high-end FAH machines as I said here. This can be done entirely within the US, and a clever tax specialist (which I'm sure the benefactor would have) might even be able to make most or all of it into a tax-deductible charitable donation, like donating money to cancer or Alzheimer's or Parkinson's research (to which FAH is truly contributing).

I'm glad you suggested that donors would certainly have a clever tax specialist since FAH cannot offer tax advice. Nevertheless, people often ask early in April (US income taxes are due April 15) and the answer most often suggested is that it would be disallowed. If it's a business computer, it's already being depreciated. If it's a personal computer, you can't separate business use from pleasurable use. The IRS has been tightening up on deductions for the costs of a home-office or for mixed business-pleasure travel or a charitable trip that includes a visit to a non-charitable resort. I'd guess that the same logic would apply to your electric bill, so your clever tax specialist will probably say NO. YMMV.

You CAN donate money directly to Stanford and designate it for FAH.

What are you going to answer when the Task Agent looks you in the eye and asks: You claim you bought a $1000 computer plus $300 in electricity and it's all a donation to FAH. There must be a good reason why you didn't just send the $1300 directly to them.

bruce wrote:What are you going to answer when the Tax Agent looks you in the eye and asks: You claim you bought a $1000 computer plus $300 in electricity and it's all a donation to FAH. There must be a good reason why you didn't just send the $1300 directly to them.

OK, let's forget about the tax issue, bury it. Because the real issue is that if/when this wealthy benefactor is ever located, what should we suggest he/she will do with that $10 Million?

Well, all of the ideas here are very good, so I suggest that we make a list containing all of these options, to present to the benefactor. That includes making a direct donation to PG through their charitable vehicle. The person putting out all that money will make the decision, we can only make suggestions. The person who pays the piper, gets to call the tune.