On 3 September 2010 23:56, Ryan Kaldari rkaldari@wikimedia.org wrote:
*. The Foundation is trying to move away from any type of strings attached to donations (including grants) so that resources can be managed optimally and flexibly
For any charity, earmarked donations are a COMPLETE PAIN IN THE ARSE, and frequently not worth the effort. There are all sorts of reasons for this. For one, the earmarked money can't be used for all the day-to-day infrastructure needed to support the earmark project unless it sets up its own parallel infrastructure. I refer the honourable gentleman to the Usability Project for the effects and side-effects of isolating a development effort.
I do think, however, that such an earmarking system would make donating more attractive to some people, so it's worth discussing at least.
Unless the donation is really quite substantial, this may not be entirely worth the effort.
(Disclaimer: I speak only from personal experience with volunteer organisations in general, not with WMF in particular. I may be dead wrong. YMMV. etc.)
- d.