SPACE CADETS ONLY NEED APPLYby Eva Rosenberg, MBA, EA.
Moderator, HelpDesk, WebReview.
You've Come A Long Way, Baby!We live in an astonishing world. In my own lifetime televisions have moved from luxury store windows to become a fundamental utility; radios evolved from big, beautiful articles of furniture to wrist-watch size; computing devices have shrunk from environment-protected room-size to hand-held devices containing more computing power than was used to get Neil Armstrong to the Moon. (We won't even talk about the morphing of kitchen appliances from wood-burning stoves and ice-boxes, with ice delivered by horse and wagon, to sleek gas or electric ranges or microwave ovens and frost-free, ice-making refrigerators.)
Awesome!
Now we are celebrating Space Week, commemorating the first time humans walked on the Moon. It was a most breathtaking moment to hear "the Eagle has landed" and see Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin climb down from the lunar module Eagle and set foot on the Moon. Perhaps, if you followed the Mars landing and were captivated by the Mars Rover , your passion for space exploration has been awakened.
And I Care...Why?
We have so much to gain from the continued exploration of our Universe. But it's a very costly proposition. World governments are no longer committed to this goal - they are all facing more immediate economic concerns - like food, power, wars... So the funds for exploration, and all the knowledge we stand to gain in more immediate areas of our existence, are severely limited. (Let me bring this to a personal level - this includes satellite television and cell phone technology...and perhaps, the Internet?.)
In fact, you've probably noticed, this technology has made our planet smaller and brought people closer together. Just think - could it help us get along better and --- eliminate wars? Dream on (well, who knows....)!
So, if we are to continue - or even maintain these programs, money will have to come from the private sector. We, the people who care, must voluntarily choose to donate our money to organizations that foster education and research, train scientists and others and develop these resources. If handled correctly, the money you contribute will become a tax deduction in most countries. So you not only help the universe, but you help yourself.
Charity Starts At Home
Why did I say "handled correctly?" Can't you just make a donation to anybody that says they have something to do with space and take a deduction for it? Hardly. For a donation to be tax deductible, the organization must recognized as such by the Federal government. The folks at Deloitte and Touche, LLP have provided some excellent guidance on making sure that your donations are deductible in their article Tips on Charitable Giving
Who can you count on?
Here are some organizations involved in the study and/or exploration of space. They also offer many links to other fascinating, space-related entities - including views of planets and space. While they are each based in different countries, they are all international in their focus.
Starting here in the USA, is the Earth's largest international association related to Space. The Planetary SocietyThe Planetary Society was founded in 1980 by Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray, and Louis Friedman to encourage the exploration of our solar system and the search for extraterrestrial life (SETI). The Society is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization, funded by dues and donations from individuals around the world. With 100,000 members from over 100 countries, we are the largest space interest group on Earth. Membership is open to are all people interested in our mission.
The Society: Encourages are all spacefaring nations to explore other worlds. Provides public information and supports educational activities about the exploration of the solar system and the search for extraterrestrial life. Supports and funds innovative and novel research and development projects that can seed future projects of planetary exploration
Traveling to the North, seeking deductions for Canadians (this is not likely to be deductable in the USA), we find the International Space University and its Canadian Foundation for the International Space University - CFISUCFISU raises private and public funds to sponsor Canadian students chosen to attend ISU. Since 1988 CFISU has raised scholarship funds to allow over 50 Canadian graduate students to attend the ISU summer program. In 1991, CFISU sponsored the first Canadian university student space conference, which was held in association with the 42nd Congress of the International Astronautics Federation.
Thus, at the source of ISU's educational programs are the need to create a suitably educated body of professionals capable of managing and leading the space sector, the desire to explore new horizons of thought and to develop new knowledge, and the objective of acquiring new perspectives through exchanges with those engaged in space activity worldwide.
And crossing the Atlantic in search of British deductions (again, not for us in USA), we land in Britain....where we find The Space Education Trust (SET)The Space Education Trust (SET) is a charitable trust established in 1987, by Jerel Whittingham and Justin Paynes. It was originally chaired by Roy Gibson. founding Director General of both the European Space Agency (ESA), and of the British National Space Centre (BNSC).
The initial project of the Space Education Trust was to ensure that the UK participated in the International Space University (ISU) project then being proposed, to find and select students to attend the ISU and, most importantly, raise the funds necessary to sponsor their attendance. At a cost of $10,000 per student, this proved difficult, but not impossible and in 1988, 10 British students attended the inaugural session of the ISU at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Our activities in this area have continued, and a total of over 50 British students have now been able to attend the ISU.
At the same time, we have sought to broaden our support of the fields of space education and awareness, with a number of small projects when funds allow. In addition to this, the Space Education Trust acts as the trustees of UK-SEDS (United Kingdom Students for the Exploration and Development of Space).
Empty Pockets Don't Stop Me!
You don't need to have money to be generous. Charitable contributions can be made by donating clothing, books, toys, appliances, vehicles - or simply your time. (While the value of your time may not be deductible, the mileage and the supplies you buy while you're helping are.) There is some excellent information about how most of us can use the tax laws to our advantage in Deloitte & Touche's article General Rules on Charitable Contributions
Then there are those people who are so wealthy, they would really rather give their wealth to charities of their choice rather than fund the government. Deloitte & Touche have outlined some excellent options to cut the tax bite for you in Planning for Charitable Contributions. The article contains information about Charitable Remainder Trusts, where you can give your assets away in your lifetime and have them pay you a monthly stipend as long as you're alive. It describes the Charitable Lead Trust, which lets you give away a large asset and take a donation, but keep part of the income from it yourself for a while. And of course, the Private Foundation.
Doing it My Own Way.
On the other hand, if you don't like the charitable organizations available to you, you can always create your own. Really, in fact, two of my clients have started their own non-profit organizations. One of them is A.N.G.E.L.S. Day, designed to prevent animals from being killed in the pound by matching them up with senior citizens who need some love. The organization is designed to help the seniors both get the animal and fund it's support. (By the way, it needn't be a space-related organization you start.)
If you find a need that isn't being fulfilled in your community, why not get together with friends to help support or retrain some street people, or help prevent people you know from losing their homes due to job layoffs or strikes, or help someone with cancer whose life has fallen apart, or...only limited by your imagination. You can get more detail about how to create your own foundation in Deloitte & Touche's article Charitable Giving Made Easy
I've known many generous people who have helped others directly. They've not been able to get a deduction for the private donations they've given people. Sadly, the government does not reward pure generosity and kindness. Giving money to hungry people on street corners or street musicians doesn't count. If you're not ready to start your own charity, at least consider going to an existing one and funnel your donations through the charity to help the kind of people or issues important to you. What's in it For Me?
And once you've done are all this giving, what do you get? From your government, I mean? There's a nifty table that outlines Tax Effects of Charitable Gifts. By now, you've probably noticed, the folks at Deloitte & Touche OnLine were generous enough to let us link to them and provide more detail about each of these topics.
Being generous is so much more complicated than you ever thought. There simply wasn't enough room here for are all the instructions, so rather than give you vague generalities, I thought you'd enjoy being able to do some in-depth reading about the details.
Please, don't let the technical nonsense impede your generous impulses. And charitable giving isn't just about Space exploration. Please use the information we've provided to fund any kindnesses you can.
If we can help each other, perhaps we can reduce government involvement and control in many areas of our lives.
