Hey Mike and everyone,

I think Jon and others have replied in my stead (sorry, I was on holiday this weekend and yesterday) on most points but I'd like to speak particularly to the points about longer term planning and volunteers having opportunities in this area.

So, this post will essentially deputize for me while I do a large piece of work requested by the board of trustees and it will essentially focus on three key areas; donor stewardship, donor data and records management, and reporting and finance - especially gift aid claims.  The idea has been to take off my hands really vital work that would otherwise get delayed and ensure that on a day to day basis the charity retains a commitment to donor services.

I don't know if you agree with me, but I think these tasks are a poor fit for volunteers for several reasons. The first is, frankly, they aren't fun (well, honestly donor correspondence can be REALLY fun but generally its just change of address or cancellation queries and the like). The next is they are very detail oriented and need to be done on a day to day basis - this is poor fit for a lot of volunteers who want less time sensitive projects they can dip in an out of. The final part is, despite what Andy says, to some extent data protection and legal considerations because the gift aid claims especially contain financial info and it is also extremely important they are done to a very very high standard. I cannot ask the same minimum considerations of a volunteer as a member of staff because legally, I cannot place demands like that on people we do not pay, and also because that is life - volunteers sometimes need to prioritise their personal lives and we need to be able to guarantee outcomes with work like that. I believe we did ask for a volunteer to help me with this work in September or October 2013 and no offer was forthcoming and I had to spend three weeks of working to 10pm to get it done.

Now, the good news. The reason I need to be taken off admin tasks is because the Trustees have asked me to scope out a formal, measurable, inscrutable ( ;) ) fundraising strategy and then develop a plan to support it. The research report will be public and in front of the board (and therefore the community!) in September. There will also be a public survey for volunteers to complete next month. It will give consideration to ways in which volunteers can input into fundraising activities. Some examples over the last months of this have been; helping deliver surveys, ideas for grant application opportunities, my supporting volunteers to make grant applications and working with volunteers to deliver a donor event. So this stuff is happening. The tricky part is always trying to segment work so volunteers do fun stuff that is useful to the charity (otherwise we can't really justify the use of my paid time) but that we guarantee hard outcomes around our Fundraising promise are delivered to a professional, timely standard. 

I can't pre-empt Trustee discussion and decision making about staffing capacity, budgetary resources and volunteer led fundraising (I privately have concerns that the latter though the most in line with our mission and indeed, what I'm used to in the university sector, requires more staff support than we currently have - but that is a point we could debate) but it would certainly inform their thinking and mine if people gave their thoughts on ways volunteers can lead fundraising either here or in the August survey.

Final thought - I apologise that the staffing advert went out without a better explanation like this first - I think I was a bit wrapped up in the report process and I see now it's important to explain things too. Happy to keep discussing here or on wiki as required.


Katherine Bavage 
Fundraising Manager 
Wikimedia UK
+44 20 7065 0752

Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).

Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.



On 21 July 2014 10:25, Jon Davies <jon.davies@wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:
Good morning Mike, (and Charles and Harry),

Answers in-line.


On 20 July 2014 00:07, Michael Peel <email@mikepeel.net> wrote:
Hi Richard/WMUK staff,

I'm rather puzzled by this. Given that:

1) WMUK cannot raise funds through the Wikimedia annual fundraising campaign any more, which means that the number of donors through that method will not be increasing, and that the apparent alignment of this position with the fundraising period (the position wraps up at the end of Jan 2015) is rather misleading (unless WMUK is planning to compete against the annual fundraiser);
 
You are completely correct, WMUK cannot raise funds through the Wikimedia annual fundraising campaign any more, which means that the number of donors through that method will not be increasing. But we still have a large number of monthly and occasional donors. These need stewarding and their payment monitored and processed, their queries answered and their gift aid 'paperwork' dealt with. This is a lot of work -at the backend' and needs to be done professionally if we are to keep these donors, encourage them to increase their donations and make  sure that all the processing is dealt with properly. 
 
2) WMUK already has a staff member who is focused on fundraising, and many other staff members who can help with the administration work;


Katherine's main role will be looking for major fundraising opportunities to enable the chapter to develop further. The FDC funding is fairly static and we need to be able to gain financial support from big trusts and institutions for the ambitious protect, eg. around software development, that we would like to undertake. It is my judgement, and that of the board's that we should offer her temporary support to allow her to use her professional fundraising skills to more effect.

As to the 'many' other staff members.

Discounting the temporary 4 Wikimania staff I wonder where these 'many other staff members' with the capacity to help are?
Take Stevie off comms and external work?
Take Jonathan off his GLAM work?
Take Toni off his Education work?
Take Katie off volunteer support?
Take Robin of his work in Wales?
Take Richard S off his finance work - which has increased dramatically since we were able to manage with a volunteer treasurer?
Take Daria away from running our programmes?
That leaves Richard N who is up to his eyes, especially with FDC reporting and managing our civicrm work etc etc..

So we might appear 'many' but in reality we are few and only human and work long hours.
 
3) This position wasn't included in WMUK's FDC application last year, with the implication that funding for this position is not guaranteed in the long run, despite the comment that the position "may be renewable based on evaluation of its effect";

You are quite right. The funding is not guaranteed, hence the temporary contract. If we find it helps pay for itself, we are currently undertaking a review of our fundraising ambitions.  The FDC provides roughly two thirds of our funding which means as an independent  charity and chapter we have the flexibility to make local decisions.

4) Volunteers are being excluded from assisting with this work;

If a volunteer comes forward who is willing to commit themselves to this work we would certainly welcome that as an option. In reality, and we know this through our work over Wikimania, we have a limited pool of active volunteers to draw on, many have jobs or other commitments in their lives, and most want to volunteer in areas that relate to editing not back room administration.
 
5) WMUK has so far done nothing to seek funding outside of individual donors to the Wikimedia movement via the Wikimedia websites, and has not shared any plans to do anything along these lines any time soon,

how is this staff position being justified? Wouldn't it be better to invest in volunteer support work instead, given the current funding situation?

We have been seeking funding from outside projects. We are doing a complete review of fundraising, see the last board meeting, which will report to the Board in October with a final paper in December.

If we are to make the impact we want we will need the funding to extend our dev projects, Wikimedians in Residence, the VLE  etc.  This does not preclude volunteer development which must go hand in hand. Specifically in terms of fundraising I know Katherine is considering how to harness the energy of our community.

I know your strong and properly held views but the chapter has changed a great deal from the days when a volunteer board could try and manage everything. We are in  a highly regulated sector with financial, administrative and governance duties that mean we need support staff to be well run.

Jon

Thanks,
Mike

On 18 Jul 2014, at 14:26, Richard Nevell <richard.nevell@wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> Wikimedia UK are now accepting applications for a Fundraising Assistant to support the delivery of the charity's fundraising programme, in particular working with our donors and undertaking the essential administrative tasks involved with donor stewardship.
>
> If you are interested in applying, more details can be found here. The deadline for applications is 5pm BST on Friday 1st August 2014.
>
> Regards,
> Richard Nevell
>
> --
> Richard Nevell
> Assistant Office Manager
> Wikimedia UK
> +44 (0) 20 7065 0753
> Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
> Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimedia UK mailing list
> wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org
> http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
> WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk


_______________________________________________
Wikimedia UK mailing list
wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org
http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk



--
Jon Davies - Chief Executive Wikimedia UK.  Mobile (0044) 7803 505 169
tweet @jonatreesdavies

Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).

Telephone (0044) 207 065 0990. 
 
Visit http://www.wikimedia.org.uk/ and @wikimediauk

_______________________________________________
Wikimedia UK mailing list
wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org
http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk