Sam Klein writes: I do think there are more risks inherent in this sort of growth than 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! 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. One way we do this is by sending new staff to Wikimania, if it makes sense to do so, and/or promoting new staff's interaction with the community in other ways. Attendees at Wikimania this year will see a number of staff who haven't been there before -- everyone is urged to engage staff members in conversations about our work together, or other topics of common interest. (I'll be there too -- first Wikimania since Taiwan!) --Mike _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

Sam Klein writes: I do think there are more risks inherent in this sort of growth than 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!

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.

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?

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.