Great news on the fundraising but only 4 days to announce and accept nominations for the WMF board? That's not how it's done. It should have been two weeks or two months. Liz Read! Talk! 21:40, 3 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
- Agreed. As for the fundraising success, it's striking that annual revenue has increased exactly fivefold in the space of five years: from $15.1 million in 2009/2010 to $75.5 million in 2014/2015. All along, donors are told that the money is needed to keep Wikipedia online and ad-free, even though less and less of the money collected is actually used to cover the costs of keeping Wikipedia online. Andreas JN466 22:09, 3 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
- Well, having worked for some non-profits, an organization that relies on fundraising to meet all expenses and obligations can be very precarious and it is difficult to make long-term plans when you don't even know if you will meet your fundraising target a year from now. I hope that the surplus funds are being kept in a reserve account in case there is a catastrophic event or next year doesn't meet its fundraising goal. Liz Read! Talk! 16:28, 6 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
- Not exactly, Liz. Expenditure has risen as well, from $10 million in 2009–2010 to $56 million in 2014–2015, mostly as a result of the vast staff expansion. However, cash reserves have risen in line with expenditure [1]; in fact, the rising expenditure has been used to justify ever greater reserves. In other words, the tens of millions in cash reserves have been defended with the argument that it is "just one year's expenses", omitting to mention that expenses have also increased tenfold since 2008–2009.
- In my view, the public needs to understand where all the money is going – and needs to understand that the donations drive is not about saving Wikipedia from blinking out of existence or having to host ads to survive, as the "keep Wikipedia online and ad-free another year" wording seems to imply, but about the fact that the Foundation has increased in staff size by a factor of 25 since 2007 and more and more money is needed to maintain that bulk. And donors have a right to know in my opinion what those Foundation staff are doing, and how it benefits the public. It shouldn't just be a blank cheque that increases every year thanks to bigger banners telling people money is needed again to "keep Wikipedia online". Andreas JN466 17:38, 7 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
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