Lodewijk wrote:
When I'd have to guess, I'd say that we're beyond our 'optimal size' (budget wise) already.
Especially the 'small donor' stream is rather sensitive towards tides. As long as Wikipedia is very popular and visible, we'll be doing well. But when we have a few more screwups at the WMF (sorry, but I can't really find a better phrase for the past few months, communication wise at least), being a credible organisation towards donors might proove harder than was the case so far.
You mean that small donations provide accountability? :-) I agree. I think this is a feature, not a bug. I'd be happy for the Wikimedia Foundation to be about a tenth of the size it is currently: around 30 full-time employees, with additional money allocated for contractors as needed. When people tell me that they want to donate to Wikipedia, I tell them to make an edit. I'd much rather have people truly contributing to free knowledge. The Wikimedia Foundation made a series of choices such headquartering in San Francisco and hiring over 200 full-time employees that make it very unsympathetic to me. It certainly doesn't cost anywhere near $80 million a year to keep the sites online and running.
Sam Klein wrote:
It also makes for a very inward-focused and narrow sort of strategy: "How can we make our few banner projects work better / attract more people" rather than "how can we make knowledge more accessible to everyone in the world, including by supporting and enhancing other excellent projects".
If you start with funders and organizations whose missions are similar to Wikimedia's, working with them on a grant is a way of making them part of the community: a successful engagement results in them learning more about the impact and value of our mission, and supporting or encouraging more work along those lines with their other grantees. It also builds a relationship and trust within the circle of similarly-minded organizations (in this example, grantors; but this applies equally well to other sorts of partners), which can be drawn on in the future if there were a real crisis or urgent need.
The counter-argument here is that having a large and secure budget gives organizations more opportunities to spend on non-necessities. Does the Wikimedia Foundation need six legal counsels (not including the general counsel and two legal directors), eight community liaisons, or a mobile apps team? I'm sure these are all great people doing excellent work, but when I see how much the Wikimedia Foundation staff has ballooned (and frankly bloated), it makes me sad.
If you want diversification, build up the other Wikimedia chapters instead.
MZMcBride