...not necessarily. But now I have a more informed answer instead of the business-babble I was doing earlier.
FIRST is a registered non-profit with a NTEE code of A57 that recognizes them as a "Science & Technology Museum" (Note: NTEE = National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities, a Classification System developed by The National Center for Charitable Statistics). By the way, you can visit
http://www.guidestar.org and search under "robotics" to pull up their records.
MelissaData (
http://www.melissadata.com/Lookups/np.asp?ein=222990908), a listing of non-profits, lists FIRST as a corporation - which makes sense, because there is an extensive board of directors....one of them being Dean. To "buy FIRST", the board would agree to place whomever bought it in one of the top seats of the Board.
It's not a publicly held company. Revenues are from registration fees, private donations, and leasing revenue from the other companies & orgs within the FIRST Place building. You could say that indirectly...yes, we are funding the organization, but by giving money to FIRST you are at the Board of Director's mercy. If you didn't like the game, you cant "talk with your feet" and ask for your registration fee back...or "sell your FIRST stock". You are right in saying that we are the customers, paying for the service that FIRST provides....if we were the beneficiary, then we wouldn't be putting money in.
But hey, this could all be babble too
