The better solution is simple: total transparency.
It's something
we've always been pretty good at, and that we are uniquely suited to
provide. We should simply guarantee that every penny we spend for
any reason is listed on reports that we publish to the world
frequently and archive indefinitely. Anyone who wants to know how
his money will be spent can just look to see how our money /has been/
spent; if he likes that, he can donate. If he doesn't, he can tell
us why and suggest how me might improve. But in either case, he
has total control, and /informed/ control, and in a way that doesn't
interfere with our management needs.
I totally agree and this is something that is being worked on. We already only
have fund drives *after* we draft a budget and we advertise that budget during
the fund drive. We are now working on better ways to publish our records on
what was actually spent, on what, and when. In fact, during the last fund drive
this was in place but did not get a final OK from the board (mostly because I
did not push too hard for that). See
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Bank_history/2004
But the idea of adding a pick list to the donation form asking for non-binding
input on how donors think their money should be spent, is a neat idea. The big
issue is that PayPal only allows for two options on form data sent to them. We
therefore might need to create our own form and database system to handle that
part of the donation form. The problem with that is that the data could not be
trusted since anybody could fill it out such a form, hit the send button, and
then not complete the PayPal transaction. To link donation amounts with
feedback, names would need to be cross-checked ; something I am not keen on
having to do unless it can be automated.
-- mav
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