On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 10:13 AM, Mike Godwin <mnemonic(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Sam Klein writes:
I do think there are more risks inherent in this sort of growth than
are listed in the 'potential risks'
section -- for instance,
"inability to acculturate new staff due to aggressive growth" -- and
we should be alert to these risks to avoid them.
Just to be clear about this, I read Sam here as saying something like "there
is a potential risk that we will be unable to acculturate new staff as we
grow." This of course is true -- and it's even true when growth is slow!
Precisely :-)
But in practice the Foundation takes this risk very
seriously, and takes
pains to promote the acculturation of new staff, not just to Foundation
culture but to the larger community.
Yes. The influx of staff at Wikimania this year will be a sight to
see... I look forward to seeing you there.
Ziko writes:
It struck me that the Foundation has decided to
concentrate on the
large public, the small donators, and not seek much further to
approach big spenders or make money by business partnerships. This is
a statement not only about our history and our future, and also about
our character as movement. Is it too much to call this an event of
historical importance?
Yes, it is a big deal. I think it helps clarify the Foundation's
philosophy as well, unifying our donors and general audience in a
satisfying way -- as Sue says, we are lucky to be able to make that
decision.
Eugene writes:
The cost of doing an endowment drive is enormous.
There is usually an 18 months ramp
up time simply to start the drive, and you need a huge staff to manage it. That work
comes at the expense of other work. Furthermore, endowment drives also
typically court high wealth donors aggressively.
This seems like an extreme type of 'endowment drive' - just as we
don't court high wealth donors in general we would not necessarily
need to for this. Setting up a dedicated fund for supporting core
services, for instance (whatever you call it) need not have elaborate
staff, 18-month ramp ups, or other extraordinary overhead... I think
it's good that an endowment drive is being planned for the future - I
hope a target for it shows up in our five-year timeline.
SJ