Slightly different reply from Nathan here.
The project and foundation exist to produce and distribute free knowledge. Every dime that is raised goes to cause "someone to profit". The bandwidth that's bought, the servers purchased, the desktops and other matters, they are almost all provided at commercial rates and for the provider's profits.
As part of its mission the foundation also needs human skills. Those skills need to be dedicated, contractual, continual, trained in specific niches, long term, committed, available as needed, and full time for the most part.
Ultimately the decision is because as a charitable foundation, WMF can deliver its mission far more if it identifies providers of those skills at commercial rates, pays them, and acquires funds by donation to do so, than if it sought to obtain those services without pay by volunatry effort.
FT2
On Sat, Nov 20, 2010 at 5:40 AM, Nathan nawrich@gmail.com wrote:
On Sat, Nov 20, 2010 at 12:27 AM, Noein pronoein@gmail.com wrote:
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On 19/11/2010 21:31, Risker wrote:
The last one is for the fiscal year ending June 2009, and was filed on
29
April 2010. Link:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/5/54/WMF_2008_2009_Form_990...
The section on salaries begins on Page 7.
Thank you for the links. I'm consulting the 990 form for 2008-2009 right now [1]. Sadly, I already have questions:
Item 15 of page 1 says: Salaries, other compensation, employee benefits: Current year (2008-2009): 2,073,313 dollars. (By the way, the annual report states another number: 2,257,621$. Why?) With 26 employees declared at that time, it gives a mean salary of 6645$ a month for each employee. Isn't it morally a little high for a non-profit organization and unfair towards the current 80 000 volunteers?
Also, at page 7, three major compensations are described: Sue Gardner was compensated 175050$ (equivalent to a monthly 14587$
income)
Veronique Kessler was compensated 121859$ (equivalent to a monthly 10155$ income) Mike Godwin was compensated 128139$ (equivalent to a monthly 10678$ income).
I don't live in the USA, but I'm surprised about these numbers. Frank Bauer estimates that they "don't have the money to begin to pay for such services at market rate".
The fact that this is legal or traditional is beside my point. Though I'm willing to listen and understand the Foundation's way of thinking, I'd like to express that for the cultural and ethical grounds from where I come, it is unacceptable for someone to profit from volunteers' efforts and from donations aimed at a cause. I'm not saying this is the case, but I would gladly receive insightful answers because I'm currently at loss about what to think of the Foundation.
[1]:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/5/54/WMF_2008_2009_Form_990...
[2]:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/4/4f/FINAL_08_09From_KPMG.p...
I've never heard of a major charity in the world without at least some paid employees. Some of the largest charities, like the Red Cross, have thousands of employees including highly compensated executives. The type of work the Foundation does requires full time staff with considerable talent and experience. It's unrealistic to expect the Foundation to acquire these resources without fair compensation. Do you have the right background, and would you work 40 hours a week for free with no benefits? If not, why should anyone else? While we're on the subject of you, can you tell us your current occupation and your annual salary? If you'd prefer not to disclose it, perhaps you can understand why others may not appreciate it either.
In any case, the law presents both an obligation to report certain facts and an obligation to keep other facts confidential. The Foundation discloses what it needs to, and even were the WMF a for-profit corporation and you an actual shareholder you would be entitled to no more detail than that.
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