We should remember here that different chapters have different capacities when it comes to fundraising. Now I won’t question Mathias’ point on the ability of addiliates to fundraise vis-à-vis the WMF’s desire to centralize fundraising, but there is one part of the e-mail that I *will* question.
Wiadomość napisana przez Mathias Damour mathias.damour@laposte.net w dniu 20 gru 2014, o godz. 04:52:
Le 19/12/2014 00:08, Liam Wyatt a écrit :
This email was sent by WMF fundraising today. I'm embarrassed. Read the email first, then I'll tell you why, below.
Then what ? I suggest the reasons why the WMF and Sue Gardner did struggle for years against the ability of the chapters to fundraise were bad, or at least not good enough. They were complaint about the fundraising banners and messages, I guess one of the reason to centralize fundraising was to have full control on it and be able to switch it on and off at any time in any country (such as Russia), yet I don't think that it's even desirable. Furthermore the WMF shouldn't process the "Project and Event Grants" and "Individual Engagement Grants" in the countries were there is an active chapter.
And why not?
I’m sorry, but not all of us are Wikimedia Deutschland or Wikimedia France or Wikimedia UK, let alone affiliates in the developed world, where you have fundraising tools at your disposal and generous government support (e.g. gift aid, 1% programs, etc.) to match that, plus large numbers of readers who would want to donate banners or not. Whether you like it or not, many affiliates—especially in the developing world and including mine (Wikimedia Philippines)—are completely dependent on the Wikimedia Foundation for their funding, and to think that the above is a solution to our problems simply because there’s money to *supposedly* go around is ludicrous.
We can build fundraising capacity, but it takes time. In many cases, a *lot* of time. Don’t think that turning off the tap now and forcing affiliates in the developing world to fundraise otherwise without adequate preparation will magically make things better; I’d like to contend that they may make things much worse, and this solution is nothing short of suicide. I’m a supporter of being financially self-sustaining (and WMPH has made steps towards that, as we’ve intended to be financially self-sustaining from the get-go), but this is the wrong way to go about doing it.
Thanks,
Josh
JAMES JOSHUA G. LIM Bachelor of Arts in Political Science Class of 2013, Ateneo de Manila University Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines
jamesjoshualim@yahoo.com mailto:jamesjoshualim@yahoo.com | +63 (915) 321-7582 Facebook/Twitter: akiestar | Wikimedia: Sky Harbor http://about.me/josh.lim http://about.me/josh.lim