[Foundation-l] [announcement] new staff member in business development

[Anthony]

On 5/18/07, George Herbert <george.herbert at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 5/18/07, Anthony <wikilegal at inbox.org> wrote:
> > The WMF is not a business.  It's a publicly supported charity.  As
> > such, I think the proper solution is to limit business activities as
> > much as possible.
>
> This is insane and irresponsible; any organization with this much
> activity and financial throughput not run as a business (in terms of
> professionalism), specifically INCLUDING real charities, is insane.
>
> The charities and nonprofits I know of all enthusiastically hire
> professional business people to do business stuff... because it's how
> you get things done at that level.
>
This is really a matter of terminology, which I'm not interested in
getting into.  However, the job description of the business developer
makes it clear that this position goes beyond the necessities of
running a charity.

Obviously the WMF needs to be responsible and professional.  Obviously
they need to hire experienced professionals to do things which can
casually be referred to as "business stuff" (collecting donations,
applying for grants, producing financial statements, writing to
donors, reviewing contracts, etc.)  If the announcement was the hire
of a new grants coordinator, or a controller, or a new legal
coordinator, my reaction would have been completely different.  I'm
not objecting to the job title, I'm objecting to the job description.

Anthony