My family and I have a new house on 5 beautiful acres out in the country. We just found out that the 12 acre cornfield next to us may be sold and subdivided for 4 or so houses. I don’t want anyone to build there, and would like to buy the property. The problem is that I don’t have enough money to cover the payment, and I already have a home equity loan (we were going to finish our basement….it’s not enough to buy the land).
I got to thinking, "if I could get a bunch of nice people to just donate 2 or 3 bucks to me, no strings attached, maybe I could raise enough money." I know it sounds questionable; it wouldn’t be a pyramid scheme, since I would make it clear that these are donations (to me). Furthermore, if people donated to me, but I ended up not having enough to buy the land, I’d turn over the money to a real charity.
Would this be legal? What would the tax implications be? How could I convince people I have good intentions?
My parents can’t afford to buy the land either. I plan on begging my father-in-law soon. Other than that, lottery tickets might be our only alternative….?