[Foundation-l] [Announcement] Sloan awards Wikimedia USD 1m annually for three years

[Robert Rohde]

On Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 11:57 AM, Robert Rohde <rarohde at gmail.com> wrote:

>  On Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 11:15 AM, White Cat <
> wikipedia.kawaii.neko at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > So we are safe w/o ads for another three years (minimum). Enuff about
> > dat!
> >
> >
> >
>
> You don't seem to realize that the current budget is 4.5 million, which
> would be 60% growth over actual expenses in 2007.  The growth has been
> slowing; it was +80% from 2006 to 2007 and +300% from 2005 to 2006, but it
> wouldn't be unreasonable to see budgets in the $7-10 million range within
> the next several years.
>
> The $1m/yr for 3 years from the Sloan Foundation is very important, and
> will hopeful encourage other large donations, but it would be a mistake to
> assume that in and of itself this is enough to resolve all future questions
> about the WMF's financing.
>
>

Doh, I was reading off the wrong line on the financials, and understated the
growth in expenses.

The expenses growth was:

2004-2005: 650%
2005-2006: 350%
2006-2007: 160%
2007-2008 (projected budget): 115%

So we are still seeing budgets more than double year over year.

-Robert Rohde