[VereinAT-l] Fwd: [Internal-l] Board letter about fundraising and chapters

Fr Aug 5 11:17:50 UTC 2011

Hallo zusammen,

hier sind die neusten Infos vom Wikimedia-Vorstand (Foundation!).

Es geht um den Fundraiser an dem wir eigentlich teilnehmen wollten. Das
Fundraising Agreement wurde wie am 13. Juni auf dieser Liste angekündigt
unterschrieben.
Die unterschriebene Version ist hier:
*  http://mitglieder.wikimedia.at/Archiv/2011-12_Fundraising_Agreement
* Kurt: Bitte PDF noch hochladen.

Der Eingang wurde am 20. Juni von Moushira bestätigt.

Nun kam untestehender "Brief" bezüglich der ganzen Sache.
Wikimedia-Vereine ohne Steuerabsetzbarkeit sind nun ausgeschlossen
worden. Die Foundation sieht keinen Mehrwert darin, wenn diese Vereine
selber Spenden einsammeln sondern nur einen Mehraufwand (Overhead) da
mehrere Vereine die entsprechende Infrastruktur aufbauen und verwalten
müssen, Gelder transferiert werden müssen etc.

Ich persönlich bin sehr überrascht und natürlich enttäuscht. Mit
Hinblick auf unserer Beteiligung haben wir den Fundraising Summit
ausgerichtet, das Agreement verhandelt und unterzeichnet, Holger aus
Schweden eingeflogen um uns bei der Aufbau der entsprechenden
Infrastruktur zu helfen und viele Kleinigkeiten mehr die uns wir auf uns
genommen haben um den Fundraiser vorzubereiten.

Nun habe ich eben mit Barry Newstead dazu angesprochen. Er erklärte mir
den Grund für diese Entscheidung (s. oben) und sagte, dass es nur drei
Chapters gäbe, die das beträfe (Australien, Schweden, Portugal). Dass
wir betroffen sind wusste er offensichtlich gar nicht. Er wird nun mit
betreffenden Leuten und Moushira sprechend und dann wieder auf uns
zukommen, ich bin gespannt.
In Brittanien scheint es ähnliche Probleme zu geben, auf der
Internal-Mailingliste ist gerade ein wahrer Entrüstungssturm
losgebrochen wie die Foundation auf die Idee kommt erst Fundraising
Summit, Verhandlungen, sogar schon Banner- und Fundraisingtests
verstreichen zu lassen um dann diese fundamentalen Änderungen
vorzunehmen. Insbesondere dass die WMF dieses Jahr extra früher starten
und alles rechtzeitig fertig haben wollte.

Interessant wäre nun ein Statement von unserer Arbeitsgruppe die wir an
der Mitgliederversammlung dafür eingesetzt haben.
Die Projektseite gibt leider nicht viel dazu her:
*
http://mitglieder.wikimedia.at/index.php?title=Projekte/Absetzbarkeit_von_Spenden&action=edit&redlink=1
* http://mitglieder.wikimedia.at/Projekte

Ich denke, dass noch nicht das letzte Wort gesprochen ist. Wir haben
noch ein paar Optionen - vom Erreichen des Absetzbarkeitsstatus (eher
unwahrscheinlich, aber wir haben ein paar neue Ideen) über eigenes
Fundraising, Verhandlungen mit der Foundation bis hin zu Grants (wenn
alle Stricke reissen).
Darum bitte ich um besonnene Reaktionen, auch wenn die Nachricht doch
eher sehr schockierend / ärgerlich ist.

Grüsse,

Manuel

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[Internal-l] Board letter about fundraising and chapters
Date: 	Fri, 5 Aug 2011 11:28:24 +0300
From: 	phoebe ayers <phoebe.wiki at gmail.com>
Reply-To: 	Local Chapters, board and officers coordination (closed
subscription) <internal-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
To: 	Local Chapters, board and officers coordination (closed
subscription) <internal-l at lists.wikimedia.org>

All,
At the recent Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees meeting at
Wikimania, the Board approved sending the following letter regarding
concerns with our shared fundraising practice, and outlining principles
for future fundraising practices.

This  will also be posted at
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_accountability for
discussion. Special note for those at Wikimania: please feel free to
talk with any of the board members as well as Sue or Barry about this
while we are all here in Haifa. For those not at Wikimania, we will all
be online to answer questions but there may be delays as people are
travelling etc.

best,
Phoebe Ayers
(2011-12 Board Secretary)

-------------------------------------------------------

The Board of Trustees has recently reviewed our fundraising model and
issues related to the way donor funds are received. This review followed
detailed discussions among the Board's Audit Committee and with our
outside auditors, which highlighted issues about the level of financial
controls over donor funds that go directly to the chapters who act as
payment processors. This review focused on the model established last
year, under which donors in certain countries are exclusively directed
to the local chapter during the annual fundraiser. In our 2010-2011
year, about $4M net went directly to 12 chapters, representing roughly
15% of the total funds donated to the movement.

There are several problems with this model, and with the current
fundraising situation. Some chapters have received large sums of money
early in their organizational lives, before they have built the capacity
and financial controls to safeguard and best use those resources in
pursuit of the mission. Some chapters have received many times their
planned budget in a single fundraiser. Additionally, in some countries,
transferring funds internationally has been limited by regulatory
constraints.

There are also currently no movement-wide controls applied consistently
to all entities that receive donor funds. Some chapters, despite being
well-funded, have not reported in a timely way on their activities,
their financial status, and their use of donor funds, or have had
difficulties following the regulatory requirements of their countries.

This fundraising model has also contributed to significant resource
disparity among chapters. Some of the largest fundraising chapters have
revenue far greater than their stated need and capacity to spend, while
other chapters receive revenue only from Foundation grants or have
almost no revenue at all. The model also suggests that chapters are
entitled to funds proportional to the wealth of their regions, which
amplifies the gap between the Global North and South.

We need to improve our model to address these concerns and to improve
the distribution of donor funds across the Wikimedia movement.
*
==Design principles==*

Our design principles for improving the fundraising model are:

* We are deeply committed to decentralized pursuit of our mission and to
supporting the long-term sustainability of chapters and other movement
partners.

* Because of its role as operator of the websites, the Foundation has to
be satisfied that any organization directly receiving donor funds will
treat them with an appropriately high level of care and transparency.

* An organization can directly receive donor funds as a payment
processor if the following criteria are met:
** There is sufficient money raised in the geography to merit the
logistical effort.
** The organization offers tax deductibility or other incentives to
local donors.
** Regulatory issues about any international funds flows are fully resolved.
** The organization's current financial resources are not enough to fund
proposed program work.
** The Foundation can confidently assure donors to the chapter that
their donations will be safeguarded, that our movement's transparency
principles will be met, and that spending will be in line with our
mission and with the messages used to attract donors.
* The donation process should clearly disclose basic facts about the
organization receiving the donation.
* The Foundation is committed to a grants program to continue to provide
funds to those who can most effectively pursue our mission.

*==Next steps==*

These concerns need to be substantially addressed prior to the start of
the 2011 fundraiser. In particular, we expect all parties to live up to
current fundraising agreements including full compliance with all
reporting deadlines.

We appreciate that some chapters have already started working on their
budgets assuming that they would participate as payment processors in
the 2011 fundraiser, but may not be able to meet the new criteria
outlined above. The Foundation will work with these chapters to follow
through on the principles of the current Fundraising Agreement to
provide the necessary funds to continue their programmatic work and to
meet their operational needs.

The Foundation will significantly expand its grants program, and should
work closely with the Audit Committee to continue improving the controls
and disclosures around grants.

-- 
Regards
Manuel Schneider

Wikimedia CH - Verein zur Förderung Freien Wissens
Wikimedia CH - Association for the advancement of free knowledge
www.wikimedia.ch
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