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you raise an interesting point that caused me to look deeper into the 990s filed by ISOC and PIR. So, I share this in case you are curious (or getting sucked down this rathole like I am:)). In 2017, ISOC created the Internet Society Foundation (like PIR a wholly owned subsidiary of Internet Society). PIR was a cash machine, generating ~$75M in cash, which they recorded as having been paid out in grants. ISOC split that so that ~30M showed up as revenue on Internet Society's 990, and $43M showed up on the newly created Internet Society Foundation's 990 as revenue. This may have been to avoid ISOC failing a public support test? (I'm operating at the limits of my understanding at this point and haven't taken the time to dig into this question). I am going to speculate that the proceeds from the sale of PIR will also go into the Foundation. Interestingly, the ISOC 990 does not show their ownership in PIR as a material asset on the balance sheet. One would think that a wholly owned sub that has $90M+ in revenue and throws off $75M in cash would be treated as an asset of value? It's possible there is something about non-profit accounting that makes this okay under GAAP - not something I know much about, but it caught my eye. I don't know how to evaluate the self-dealing question - I have dealt with some of the other issues here (eg disposition of non-profit assets, unrelated income, etc) as a non-profit founder, board member, or treasurer, but I have never wrestled with a self-dealing issue (thankfully!), so I don't know what the courts would look for there. Edit: source here is 2017 990s for Internet Society, Internet Society Foundation, and Public Interest Registry, pulled down from Guidestar. 2017 is the most recent year available for all three. |