Exactly.
See: - NPR - PBS - Every museum - Every university
If the WMF had thanked large donors from the beginning, no one would object at all. It's just the nature of the Internet that the WMF has been able to operate on so little money for so long. That's no longer the case with the current size.
Contrary to most people's perceptions, establishing the matching contributions has not been an easy task. So, it's not that the WMF has suddenly decided to "sell out." It just hasn't been necessary or practical to establish matching contributions in the past.
David Strauss
David Gerard wrote:
On 28/12/06, Brad Patrick bradp.wmf@gmail.com wrote:
Donations to WMF from 12/15/06 to 12/28/06: 2 people have given very large gifts ($25,000 and our anonymous matching donor) 49 people have given 500-10,000 USD ($67,594) 739 people have given 100 - 499 USD ($96,222) 1184 people have given 50-99 USD ($68,728) 2346 people have given 25-49 USD ($70,106) 5340 people have given 10-24 USD ($77,189) 4204 people have given 1-9 USD ($19,059) 891 people have given less than 1 USD ($481)
Yes. One thing very few people understand about fundraising is that it works on a power law. A graph of donations per donor will show a very few donors donating a substantial fraction of the takings.
And it is *usual* to thank them publicly and not to shy away from or try to play down doing so.
- d.
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