On Thu, Apr 17, 2008 at 6:25 PM, Chad innocentkiller@gmail.com wrote:
*facepalm*
Do we honestly need 3 more employees all doing the same thing? I really think a dedicated "Donations Coordinator" could accomplish the same thing, rather than making 3 positions, at least at this point in time.
Not to mention, assuming they each start at $80,000/yr, that's nearly a quarter of a million dollars in new salaries. While the new large donations have helped, they by no means have insured a multi-year massive increase in salaries (remember, these aren't the only new hires!). I won't even bother asking if our budget can cover this (the answer, truth or not, will be "yes")...I do however have one question:
How much money does this leave for the kids in Africa we're helping? Or the PDF print-on-demand we're doing? Or even helping Kaltura develop it's for-profit venture, heaven forbid? We've got a long list of things we're helping, and I don't see much work being done towards /that/. As much as these goals strike me as lip-service and promises to woo donations, at least they're a better spending money on excessive jobs with even more excessive titles.
The Foundation getting these large grants reminds me of getting my first credit card...it put this mentality of "I'll buy it now and figure out how to pay it later" into my head. I hope to God the Foundation doesn't make the same mistake.
Spend $1 to make $5. Fundraising is a special case, in that each new hire would be expected to directly lead to additional income far exceeding their salary. While there would be a point of diminishing returns, I don't think 3 hires is at that point.
Also, keep in mind that even though the fund drives have done well in absolute terms (e.g. $2 million in the last one), there have been very substantial portions of those efforts that were rushed or outright mismanaged. Taking fundraising more seriously should offer the opportunity for substantial improvments. I'm glad to see the Foundation taking these steps.
-Robert Rohde