[Foundation-l] [Announcement] Release of financial statements 2006-2007

[Florence Devouard]

Dear all,

Although a bit later than we would have originally liked, I'm pleased to 
announce that the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees has approved 
the Foundation's 2006/2007 financial statements.

The financial statements are now posted on the WMF wiki at:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Finance_report. Direct link: 
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Image:Wikimedia_2007_fs.pdf


The financial statements were approved following the Audit Committee's 
careful consideration and review of the auditor's report and the 
Foundation's own records. We bring in auditors to do an analysis of the 
Foundation's financial health - which includes considerable scrutiny of 
our expenses and revenues, as well as the Foundation's overall 
administration and processes.

"Why the delay?" you might ask. We had originally hoped to post the 
statements a few months earlier, but more time was needed at the 
Foundation level to review finances and work with our Florida-based 
auditors.

And why did we need more time? It’s fairly normal for audits to take 
longer to complete than was initially predicted. The Foundation’s 
projects (and their popularity) grew significantly over the past year, 
which meant that spending (number of transactions) increased. That means 
there was more work to be done. Also, there had been some turnover in 
Foundation staff (e.g., the accountant), which resulted in some loss of 
institutional memory that made it harder to do the audit preparation. So 
it isn’t really all that surprising that the audit was fairly 
time-consuming. It's complete, and that's what matters.

To that end, the Board would like to recognize the hard work of both the 
Foundation staff who spent many hours supporting the campaign, and 
helping to concurrently move the offices and analyze our books, Oleta 
McHenry and Mona Venkateswaran. I'll would like to give a special thank 
you note to Oleta, for the endless hours spent on the books. Mona 
particularly helped strengthen (she would probably say set up...) our 
financial procedures and controls. I'd also like to personally thank our 
Audit Committee for their energies and efforts. This review overall was 
no small task - we want to thank everyone involved in getting us through 
to this stage.

With this audit under out belt, we have an exciting year ahead of us, 
and much to look forward to. There are new projects under discussion, 
new research is under way (the UNU-Merit study is a fine example), new 
staff have joined the Foundation, there is a new headquarters in the 
heart of the silicon valley, and of course the ever-expanding growth of 
all of the Foundation's projects and their respective readership.
On behalf of the Board I'd like to thank you for your patience in 
waiting for these results. I think you'll agree that it was worth the 
time to make sure we were in good shape.

Thanks for your time,

Florence Devouard, Chair Wikimedia Foundation