The Occupy Wall Street group was originally group that was protesting and began out by just receiving donations of pizza, while they camped out in Lower Manhattan park. This group now however has received more than $500,000 in five weeks in just donations and doesn't know what to do with it.
The Occupy Wall Street protesters has received way more cash donations than anyone has ever imagined. With these donations several requests for spending have been prompted. Along with spending the donations, the money raised allowed protesters to considered taking the necessary steps to becoming an organization. This organization will be organized with both a board of directors as well as officers.
The group's finance committee has met with lawyers and accountants to determine which steps should be taken next to handle the money. Such steps include a tax-exempt status along with naming leaders and other issues. At this point in time the Occupy Wall Street can not spend any money or make any big decisions without consulting the General Assembly and a consensus is reached.
The next issue brought was having "meeting minutes show long." This was brought up with someone asking for $2,000 to have 92,000 stickers printed. This lead to many questions being asked such as why so many stickers? What are the stickers going to made of? And wouldn't be a waste of time and money to place these stickers all over the place. Over time, some stickers were purchased, but not nearly 92,000.
Currently, where the $500,000 goes is not solely up to the General Assembly. You may be wondering why not? Well according the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) the Occupy Wall Street doesn't even exist.
A few weeks ago the Occupy Wall Street group was able to gain tax-exempt status. This allowed donors to write off these contributions made. However, the Alliance for Global Justice, which granted them this status has no final say in the spending of the money and will have no say in the decision making of the spending, they will be able to intervene if they violate the tax-exempt status.
According to the finance committee of Occupy Wall Street, once donations were beginning to be received, they needed to keep documentation of this receipts and accounting for spending. They are currently working with a lawyer as well as an accountant in preparing a statement of cash flows that will soon be available online.
It seems incredible that a group who is protesting for so long was able to raise half a million dollars in just five weeks. It wouldn't be a surprise now if over time they were able to raise so much money that they need to become a real organization to keep a handle on something so simple as donations.
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