ICO legal structures: non-profit foundations

[HonestSurfer]

Hi guys, I've been thinking about why do many ICOs actually create a non-profit foundations? For instance Ethereum has the Ethereum foundation in Switzerland; according to their webpage the purpose is to "promote and support Ethereum platform and base layer research, development and education..." But this is not really specific and it doesn't seem very transparent to me.

In some other projects I have seen that they use the non-profit foundation for:
- being the open / inclusive / community driven organization
- developing and holding the IP
- being the parent organization to for-profit companies

My initial questions are:
- how does the decision-making process happen in such foundations (how is it more democratic than in for-profit companies)
- how does the non-profit foundation transfer the developed IP to a for-profit company (for free? with what kind of license?)
- who holds the assets raised at the ICO: non-profit foundation or for-profit company?

Does anyone has any experience in this field or "insider" knowledge?

I would love to hear your opinion on this and get new information!

[Shova]

ICO raising companies are generally a profit oriented company intended to invest the raised money for profit giving sectors.
In case of Ethereum it was selling of premined coins for the development of the community as the coin is still mine-able.
Foundations like Bitcoin/Ethereum foundations are non profit organisation and are not the sole authority about any coins.
It's the user who decide where to head. As, these foundations have the pioneering people, more user are likely to follow its decision.
Similar was the case when the orginal Ethereum blockchain support community renamed themselves the Ethereum classic while the new chain supported by the foundation became the Ethereum.

[HonestSurfer]

Foundations like Bitcoin/Ethereum foundations are non profit organisation and are not the sole authority about any coins.
It's the user who decide where to head. As, these foundations have the pioneering people, more user are likely to follow its decision.
Similar was the case when the orginal Ethereum blockchain support community renamed themselves the Ethereum classic while the new chain supported by the foundation became the Ethereum.

I dont understand. I assume Ethereum foundation had many funds at the time of the fork and kept them even after the fork. The fork of the blockchain is not a fork of the foundation.

But thats besides the point. My question goes to who and how controls those funds and what is the purpose of those funds.

For instance I hear Agrello also has a  foundation which holds 10% of the tokens. They say they need it so that the system can run. When the reserve is out, they will buy more agrello tokens from exchanges. But that doesn't really answer any of my questions above.

[Sid1611]

a non profit foundation is a good way to avoid being a security token

[tsaroz]

Well they are copying the Bitcoin Foundation and all of them are not necessarily the specific group for that coin. Bitcoin and Ethereum Foundation do have influential people but they don't represent the whole community and are here mostly for the promotion of coins they hold for their own profit.