[Foundation-l] Fundraising banner ad

[Anthony]

On 10/23/07, Brion Vibber <brion at wikimedia.org> wrote:
> Anthony wrote:
> > On 10/23/07, Brion Vibber <brion at wikimedia.org> wrote:
> >> For comparison, see the Mozilla Foundation's update on their finances:
> >> http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/mitchell/archives/2007/10/beyond_sustainability.html
> >>
> >> Their expenditures are much higher than ours, with a different balance
> >> (more people, less hosting), and their revenue is much, *much* bigger --
> >> and almost all from a single partnership with Google.
> >>
> > That's a combination of Mozilla Foundation *and* Mozilla Corporation,
> > which makes it incredibly misleading.
>
> Not particularly misleading, since Mozilla Corporation was spun out for
> financial reasons. In a similar situation (receiving most money from a
> commercial source), we might well do something similar.
>
The fact that Mozilla Corporation was spun out for financial reasons
is precisely why combining the two together and looking at their
financials is misleading.

> >> It's cool that they're riding high on the Google wave, but it's also a
> >> precarious position; if Google pulled out, they'd lose almost all their
> >> revenue.
> >
> > If Google pulled out, they'd find someone else to pay big bucks to be
> > the default search in Firefox.  And it's not like they'd lose revenue
> > while looking for someone new - surely they renegotiate these
> > contracts months before they expire.
> >
> > You seem to be implying that this revenue from Google is a donation.
> > It's not.  It's Google paying Mozilla Corporation (not Mozilla
> > Foundation) to get tons of traffic by being the default search
> > provider.
>
> You seem to be implying that no lessons can be learned from looking at
> other organizations. :)
>
I certainly didn't mean to imply that.  I think lessons can be learned
from looking at other organizations.  I just don't think your
description of Mozilla as being in a precarious situation is accurate.
 In fact, I'd say that Mozilla is in a more stable financial situation
than the WMF.  They don't have to worry about fundraisers coming up
short or people complaining about animated banner ads.  They just have
to rely on Google and Yahoo and and Answers Corporation not all
simultaneously going bankrupt along with everyone else related to
information search.