[Foundation-l] [Announcement] New Head of Business Development: Kul Wadhwa

[Sue Gardner]

Casey Brown wrote:
> We've already begun expanding: the job openings have already been
> posted, we've already moved the office.  These are more "done-deals"
> that I am sure Anthere would have taken into account when saying what
> she did.  I could be wrong, of course.
>
> On Jan 4, 2008 9:04 PM, Chad <innocentkiller at gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>> Doesn't mean we have enough money to suddenly start expanding the staff.
>> Just means the lights aren't going dark for another year. Enough money to
>> sustain and enough money to expand are two different things.
>>
>> Chad H.
>>
>>
>> On Jan 4, 2008 8:58 PM, Casey Brown <cbrown1023.ml at gmail.com> wrote:
>>     
>>> Maybe see this might give a little insight?
>>>
>>> <http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Summary_of_a_year-_2007>, 5th line:
>>>
>>> "We successfully were able to collect enough funds to run through the
>>> year, whilst retaining our independence;"
>>>
>>>
>>> On Jan 4, 2008 8:50 PM, Chad <innocentkiller at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>       
>>>> This is great and all Sue, but I'd love to know how we're financing
>>>> all this. I mean,
>>>> the fundraiser did great, but not quite as high as we'd like. Things
>>>> like keeping the
>>>> servers online would be a slightly higher priority in my book.
>>>>
>>>> But maybe that's just me.
>>>>
>>>> Chad
>>>>
>>>>         

Yeah, it's a reasonable question, Chad. And the answer is pretty simple: 
the purpose of hiring a biz dev person is to make money. That role 
creates revenue, it is not a net cost.

All the initial hires fall into one of two categories: they are either 
basically core & essential (we cannot function without, for example, an 
accountant). Or they are revenue-generating (e.g., the biz dev position, 
the fundraising position).

I certainly aspire, later, to be able to expand into hiring people whose 
work will be more directly mission-focused - for example, people to 
create distribution partnerships with other non-profits, or people to 
support community members who want to write grant proposals. But the 
priority obviously needs to be the core stuff.