Here's a quick 24 hour poll on the issues surrounding WMUK accepting kit from donors. http://www.doodle.com/i2snavpc55dc95iv (the table looks better if you click "Show all 7 options")
Comments on this thread welcome. The board will be discussing a particular donation this evening, but we are more interested in the general principle of how to accept donations in-kind without any compromise on our values and how to ensure we run no future risk of being compromised in the media by appearing to support any particular "brand".
Cheers, Fae -- http://enwp.org/user_talk:fae Guide to email tags: http://j.mp/faetags
On Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 1:43 PM, Fae faenwp@gmail.com wrote:
Here's a quick 24 hour poll on the issues surrounding WMUK accepting kit from donors. http://www.doodle.com/i2snavpc55dc95iv (the table looks better if you click "Show all 7 options")
Comments on this thread welcome. The board will be discussing a particular donation this evening, but we are more interested in the general principle of how to accept donations in-kind without any compromise on our values and how to ensure we run no future risk of being compromised in the media by appearing to support any particular "brand".
Difficult to answer - I imagine (and hope) we would treat a request to endorse a press release about a donation of goods with a value of £100,000 differently to a donation worth £1,000. It would also depend rather on the reputation of the potential donor.
Chris
It's hard to make a difinitive answer with no data; my personal view would vary drastically depending on various factors:
- Is the donation intended to publicity reasons - What is being donated - What sort of publicity is expected - Are the organisation someone we would agree with
And more.
Tom
On 27/03/2012 14:07, Thomas Morton wrote:
- Are the organisation someone we would agree with
Yeah. Would we want Microsoft IIS with SharePoint on a blade?
Gordo
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gordon Joly" gordon.joly@pobox.com Yeah. Would we want Microsoft IIS with SharePoint on a blade?
So long as they hadn't required WMUK to actually *use* SharePoint or IIS (ie. were aware that the first thing which would happen to the box was the OS etc would be replaced) then possibly why not?
It is also, to a limited extent, value-dependent imho. eg. for a gift of something worth £100k it would be unreasonable to not say a public thankyou, indeed _any_ offer accepted should be acknowledged in order that it cannot be perceived as having been a 'secret deal'. What it should never be is something accepted *because* the giving party wants to make a big splash about it themselves, ie a 'pure (sic) PR stunt'.
There are also other considerations as to source, eg. I have a couple of Dell servers I no longer use*, and would be happy to donate one to WMUK should it be considered useful. I'm sure others here are in a similar position. Isn't the question therefore *why* would one accept donations of kit: what requirement would it be meeting which cannot be met in another way.
AlisonW
*don't worry - I've still ten or so more in use ;-P
Hi,
Based on the suggestions here, I have split the last question "There should be an advance discussion with members for every in-kind donation" into large and small (under £1,000). Apologies if folks need to re-visit the table.
I actually had in mind in-kind donations of less than £1,000 or so in value (like a couple of nice laptops). If an in-kind donation of kit or software licenses were awfully large (more than£20,000) I would personally look for serious engagement with members, not just trustees or staff off in some dark back-room making a deal. For example we might be offered free licenses for an on-line CRM system, there would be significant implications and getting it free is not the most significant issue for us choosing such a tool.
Link to poll: http://www.doodle.com/i2snavpc55dc95iv
Cheers, Fae
On 27 March 2012 13:43, Fae faenwp@gmail.com wrote:
Here's a quick 24 hour poll on the issues surrounding WMUK accepting kit from donors. http://www.doodle.com/i2snavpc55dc95iv (the table looks better if you click "Show all 7 options") Comments on this thread welcome. The board will be discussing a particular donation this evening, but we are more interested in the general principle of how to accept donations in-kind without any compromise on our values and how to ensure we run no future risk of being compromised in the media by appearing to support any particular "brand".
I believe WMF has accepted such donations before, e.g. Dell servers at a steep enough discount to count as a donation. How do they handle this?
- d.
I think the key question is whether the kit is something we actually want. As long as it is, and it doesn't come with any unreasonable restrictions or requirements, why would we say no? On Mar 27, 2012 1:44 PM, "Fae" faenwp@gmail.com wrote:
Here's a quick 24 hour poll on the issues surrounding WMUK accepting kit from donors. http://www.doodle.com/i2snavpc55dc95iv (the table looks better if you click "Show all 7 options")
Comments on this thread welcome. The board will be discussing a particular donation this evening, but we are more interested in the general principle of how to accept donations in-kind without any compromise on our values and how to ensure we run no future risk of being compromised in the media by appearing to support any particular "brand".
Cheers, Fae -- http://enwp.org/user_talk:fae Guide to email tags: http://j.mp/faetags
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
+1.
Harry
________________________________ From: Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com To: wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Tuesday, 27 March 2012, 17:54 Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Poll: Should Wikimedia UK accept in-kind donations of kit?
I think the key question is whether the kit is something we actually want. As long as it is, and it doesn't come with any unreasonable restrictions or requirements, why would we say no?
Thank you to everyone who took part in our quick poll or made comments about it on this list.
The feedback did help the board to come to a decision to accept a donation of equipment to support the MonmouthpediA outreach project. We will aim to ensure a range of equipment brands (and software) support our events, just to make it clear that we are not in any exclusive deal with anyone, and to demonstrate to the public / press that Wikimedia projects are accessible in a variety of ways on almost every platform.
All significant in-kind donations will be recognized on the UK wiki and declared in our accounts as part of our commitment to transparency and as advised by Charity Commission guidelines.
This seems like an area worth a bit more detail on :wmuk. Almost everyone seems happy with the idea of taking in-kind donations, and giving appropriate recognition to the donors, so long as they don't come with strings attached or might appear to exclusively align our charity with any brand or (off-mission) cause. I'm not offering to do this myself, but we might follow up on http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Water_cooler ... if someone would like to suggest improving our current policies.
PS the poll is at http://www.doodle.com/i2snavpc55dc95iv if someone can work out how to capture it nicely (my pdf export looks rubbish) it might be worth uploading to :wmuk as a record.
Cheers, Fae -- http://enwp.org/user_talk:fae Guide to email tags: http://j.mp/faetags
wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org