On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 10:13 AM, Mike Godwin mnemonic@gmail.com wrote:
Sam Klein writes:
I do think there are more risks inherent in this sort of growth than
are listed in the 'potential risks' section -- for instance, "inability to acculturate new staff due to aggressive growth" -- and we should be alert to these risks to avoid them.
Just to be clear about this, I read Sam here as saying something like "there is a potential risk that we will be unable to acculturate new staff as we grow." This of course is true -- and it's even true when growth is slow!
Precisely :-)
But in practice the Foundation takes this risk very seriously, and takes pains to promote the acculturation of new staff, not just to Foundation culture but to the larger community.
Yes. The influx of staff at Wikimania this year will be a sight to see... I look forward to seeing you there.
Ziko writes:
It struck me that the Foundation has decided to concentrate on the large public, the small donators, and not seek much further to approach big spenders or make money by business partnerships. This is a statement not only about our history and our future, and also about our character as movement. Is it too much to call this an event of historical importance?
Yes, it is a big deal. I think it helps clarify the Foundation's philosophy as well, unifying our donors and general audience in a satisfying way -- as Sue says, we are lucky to be able to make that decision.
Eugene writes:
The cost of doing an endowment drive is enormous. There is usually an 18 months ramp up time simply to start the drive, and you need a huge staff to manage it. That work comes at the expense of other work. Furthermore, endowment drives also typically court high wealth donors aggressively.
This seems like an extreme type of 'endowment drive' - just as we don't court high wealth donors in general we would not necessarily need to for this. Setting up a dedicated fund for supporting core services, for instance (whatever you call it) need not have elaborate staff, 18-month ramp ups, or other extraordinary overhead... I think it's good that an endowment drive is being planned for the future - I hope a target for it shows up in our five-year timeline.
SJ