Hi Fae,
Apologies for the length. I'll take your question into two parts:
Firstly about how we use the funds. We are extremely explicit about how the proceeds are used:
On the front of the store:
*"We use the proceeds from the store to send thank you gifts to the volunteers who make Wikipedia possible."*
In the shop FAQ:
*Who profits from this shop?**100% of the proceeds from the Wikipedia store go to the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organization that operates Wikipedia and other free knowledge projects. The profits are earmarked toward our Merchandise Giveaways Program to reward those who have made an impact on the projects.*
And on the FAQ on meta a slight variant of the above:
*Who profits from this shop?* *100% of the profits from the Wikimedia Shop go to the Wikimedia Foundation. It is not the intended purpose of the Wikimedia Shop to become a Profit center. All proceeds are filtered back into the shop to keep production costs low, subsidize shipping and help to provide merchandise specifically aimed towards community members.*
On the point specifically about what the profit margin of the store is and the percentage of any one purchase going towards the above. At no point do we claim that any purchase is a "donation" and we do state the following:
*Are purchases tax deductible?* All of the purchase price of the item goes directly to funding the cost of the merchandise and the shop overhead, therefore we're not able to provide a tax receipt for any of the purchase. You can make a donation to the Wikimedia Foundation, which may be tax deductible in the country where you donate from, by visiting donate.wikimedia.org.
What is not currently made explicitly clear on any of those pages is what percentage of a merchandise bought goes towards community merchandise so we could do a little better in that respect, and it is something I will follow up on. It's important to keep in mind that it's not quite as simple as if you purchase X then Y goes to community merchandise since we also subsidise shipping which is also covered in the FAQ page which states the following:
*Why does shipping cost so much?*Shipping products internationally is always going to cost more than a domestic shipment. We've created the 'Wikimedia flat-rate global' shipping option, which is $15 USD, to provide a cost-effective way to send a shipment anywhere in the world. In some cases your shipment costs could be well under $15 USD, but when it isn't, and when your order is under 5lbs (about 2.2Kg), we provide a subsidized flat rate so customers in all parts of the world can purchase products at a reasonable rate.
I hope that covers the majority of what you asked.
Seddon On Tue, Mar 22, 2016 at 2:53 PM, Fæ faewik@gmail.com wrote:
Tim, thanks for raising the Trademark Policy.
Joseph, can you point me to where https://store.wikimedia.org explains exactly how much of the "donation" is profit going to WMF funds and how much is administration and costs (both supplier and WMF costs of administration)?
My assumption is that "You truthfully advertise to customers how much of the selling price, if any, will be donated to Wikimedia sites" is an ethical standard that applies to the Wikimedia Store and Fund raising department as much as it is it legally required by the WMF for Chapters or other organizations that sell or create products with the trademark.
Thanks, Fae
On 22 March 2016 at 13:38, Tim Landscheidt tim@tim-landscheidt.de wrote:
Fæ faewik@gmail.com wrote:
(I must admit that i tested the job a year ago, the product was fine,
the shipment fast. A bit expensive for my taste.)
Expensive? The profit adds funds the WMF, surely.
This is a logical fallacy that many charities fall into, and end up damaging their reputation in the tabloid press when it turns out that 80%+ of donations "disappear" in costs such as commercial fees, paying chugger agencies and bonuses and six-figure salaries for
fundraising/marketing
directors, rather than going to the intended beneficiary.
Here's a highly likely pragmatic scenario... if, say, a $20 "donation" to get a WMF merchandise tee-shirt disappeared as:
- $ 12.00 basic transaction and product costs
- $ 6.00 profit/fees to intermediary organizations
- $ 1.80 WMF administration costs
- 20 cents is the outcome "donation" to WMF causes (1%)
Then yes, the transaction adds funds to the WMF, but in a really crappy way where the system probably cost several times more in WMF staff time to set up than it will make over many years, comparatively huge profit margins are going to unnamed parties (at least unnamed for the purchaser or WMF volunteers), and in a non-transparent way too.
Your point is made much more succinct in the Trademark Pol- icy (cf.
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Trademark_policy#policy-commercialmerch ):
| You may make merchandise with the Wikimedia trademarks for | commercial use, if:
| - You obtain a trademark license from the Wikimedia Founda- | tion; | - You follow our Visual Identity Guidelines; and | - You truthfully advertise to customers how much of the | selling price, if any, will be donated to Wikimedia sites.
The problem is the belief that a charity with a focus on distributing knowledge must have its own t-shirt shop, probably fostered by firm disciples getting free mugs.
Tim
-- faewik@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
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