[Foundation-l] Accepting airline miles as donations

[Michael Snow]

Dan Rosenthal wrote:
> On Mar 5, 2008, at 12:48 AM, Brianna Laugher wrote:
>   
>> I am grateful and pleased that the Foundation takes its commitment to
>> being a worldwide organisation seriously. It really shows respect for
>> the community. That's necessarily going to mean more travel than other
>> not for profits that don't have such a global angle.
>>     
> To be clear, the foundation (that is not in the most secure of  
> financial positions) giving grants for people to attend a conference  
> is respect for the community/commitment to being a worldwide  
> organization? I'd think things like having projects in every possible  
> language, greater translational support etc, are better metrics of a  
> commitment to being a worldwide organization. The Wikipedia Academies  
> in Africa are a commitment to being a worldwide organization. I fail  
> to see how paying for people to go to Wikimania is the same thing.
>   
Perhaps you missed Phoebe's explanation, not very long ago, that the 
foundation did not use its general funds to pay for scholarships to 
attend Wikimania, but only administered the money of outside 
organizations donated specifically for that purpose? (I take it the 
foundation did cover travel of officers and staff directly, which is 
worth evaluating, but that doesn't seem to fit under this complaint.)

--Michael Snow