Allow me to be the first to thank you Florence for getting this information to the public. I am sure many potential financial contributors will be thrilled at the public financial statements are available for review. Now we can truly see where all of our money went.
Once again, many thanks.
-Chad
On Feb 8, 2008 3:52 AM, Florence Devouard anthere@anthere.org wrote:
Dear all,
Although a bit later than we would have originally liked, I'm pleased to announce that the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees has approved the Foundation's 2006/2007 financial statements.
The financial statements are now posted on the WMF wiki at: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Finance_report. Direct link: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Image:Wikimedia_2007_fs.pdf
The financial statements were approved following the Audit Committee's careful consideration and review of the auditor's report and the Foundation's own records. We bring in auditors to do an analysis of the Foundation's financial health - which includes considerable scrutiny of our expenses and revenues, as well as the Foundation's overall administration and processes.
"Why the delay?" you might ask. We had originally hoped to post the statements a few months earlier, but more time was needed at the Foundation level to review finances and work with our Florida-based auditors.
And why did we need more time? It's fairly normal for audits to take longer to complete than was initially predicted. The Foundation's projects (and their popularity) grew significantly over the past year, which meant that spending (number of transactions) increased. That means there was more work to be done. Also, there had been some turnover in Foundation staff (e.g., the accountant), which resulted in some loss of institutional memory that made it harder to do the audit preparation. So it isn't really all that surprising that the audit was fairly time-consuming. It's complete, and that's what matters.
To that end, the Board would like to recognize the hard work of both the Foundation staff who spent many hours supporting the campaign, and helping to concurrently move the offices and analyze our books, Oleta McHenry and Mona Venkateswaran. I'll would like to give a special thank you note to Oleta, for the endless hours spent on the books. Mona particularly helped strengthen (she would probably say set up...) our financial procedures and controls. I'd also like to personally thank our Audit Committee for their energies and efforts. This review overall was no small task - we want to thank everyone involved in getting us through to this stage.
With this audit under out belt, we have an exciting year ahead of us, and much to look forward to. There are new projects under discussion, new research is under way (the UNU-Merit study is a fine example), new staff have joined the Foundation, there is a new headquarters in the heart of the silicon valley, and of course the ever-expanding growth of all of the Foundation's projects and their respective readership. On behalf of the Board I'd like to thank you for your patience in waiting for these results. I think you'll agree that it was worth the time to make sure we were in good shape.
Thanks for your time,
Florence Devouard, Chair Wikimedia Foundation
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