[Foundation-l] Putting the Foundation back in WMF

[Robert Rohde]

On Nov 17, 2007 7:54 PM, Anthony <wikimail at inbox.org> wrote:

> On Nov 17, 2007 5:04 PM, GerardM <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hoi,
> > As I am of the opinion that there is a causal relation, and as I am
> equally
> > allowed to express my opinion, I can and do blame. When you are of the
> > opinion that this is not nice. Well, it only proves that it is not a
> zero
> > sum game. I hope we will get enough money to cover the budget if not
> their
> > will necessarily be cuts.
> >
> The budget wasn't met last time either, was it?  Looking back it seems
> like less than half the budget was raised during the entire fiscal
> year, and the foundation only spent about half of that ($1.4 million
> raised, only 0.7 million in expenses).
>
> These supposed budgets look completely unrealistic to me.  I assumed
> that was intentional.  Ask for way more than you need, and then settle
> for half that.  It's a common strategy.


One can pad the budget with programs that you might hope to pursue if there
was enough money, but you can't simply inflate the numbers for no reason.
Soliciting donations with a budget you know is misleading constitutes
fraud.  I'd like to assume that the $4.6M in "planned spending" is not so
ridiculous that it would still be reasonable to have less than $1.5M in
fundraiser income.

-Robert Rohde