Can I donate to a nonprofit w/ the stipulation that original music is composed & performed and the money goes composer?

Your question is vague and too general. Can you restate it please?

I agree with my colleague that your query is unclear. Often it's possible to give a "restricted" gift to a charity that requires that your money be used in a certain way, but here,it's not clear that a non-profit corporation would even be able to earmark money to a composer who's an meployee. But maybe the composer isn't an employee -it's unclear. See a corporate/IP lawyer for help.

If I understand your question (and I am not sure I do) then you want to allow the non-profit to use your work but without giving away all rights and profits from anyone else using the work. To do this you would grant a license the non-profit to use the piece but otherwise retain all other rights. Any IP lawyer can assist you with a donative license.

If you stipulate that the money must be used for a particular purpose and that purpose would benefit a particular individual (i.e., the Composer in question), your donation would probably NOT qualify for charitable contribution deduction treatment. See PLR: http://www.legalbitstream.com/scripts/isyswebext.dll?op=get&uri=/isysquery/irla80a/1/doc

You appear to want to make a "sale" to a nonprofit. Even with changes to the hard wiring on "not an asset" in copyright for music, 1. Composer probably has no basis. 2. Using a patent analogy, IRS doesn't like partial donations. 3. If you donate, you give over title. The facts as stated smell strongly of tax fraud. Intellectual Property Attorneys (fully qualified) who are also fully qualified tax attorneys are not easy to find, but you need to talk with one about what you are trying to achieve. Please remember to designate your question's BEST ANSWER. Please remember to designate your question's BEST ANSWER. Curt Harrington (562) 594-9784 Curt: http://patentax.com/curt/index.html Visit the Library: http://patentax.com/library/