[Foundation-l] Fwd: [Internal-l] Wikimedia Foundation's Audited Financial Statements on the Foundation Wiki

[Michael Snow]

Thomas Dalton wrote:
> Thank you very much. It looks like the foundation's finances are in
> excellent order.
I agree that they're in better shape than they have been in the past. 
Veronique and her team deserve a great deal of credit for putting a good 
system in place.
> A few things that jump out at me - despite the size
> of the foundation in pretty much every respect increasing dramatically
> over the last year, the money spent on travel (which is something I
> remember some people thought was too high last year) has only
> increased 16% (and that's including inflation, so in real terms it's
> even less).
The concerns about travel expenses are something we've taken to heart 
and will continue to be watchful about. Given the nature of this as an 
international undertaking, that doesn't necessarily mean we will cut 
travel expenses drastically, but they need to have a purpose. For 
example, the chapters will be having a meeting in Berlin next April. The 
location helps minimize the cost because many of the chapters are nearby 
in Europe, but we'll need to provide financial support to ensure that 
the more distant chapters can also be represented at the meeting. So our 
travel costs will probably always be a bit higher than at an average 
American nonprofit.
> Also, despite the hiring of new executives, hiring
> fundraisers, moving to new offices, an increase in support required
> for the increased staff and who knows what else, the percentage of
> spending on projects is still 63%, down from 77% last year, a pretty
> small drop considering (and obviously that's not including the
> $billions worth of work done by volunteers on the projects).
The functional allocation of expenses was still a matter of some concern 
as discussed in our October board meeting. You're right in identifying 
some of the issues that make the percentage of project spending lower 
than would be ideal. Essentially, it has seemed prudent to build up the 
organizational side for a while, to correct past problems and put a 
structure in place that's capable of effectively securing and 
administering funds for project-specific spending. We're beginning to 
see progress in that regard, though it will take time to build up to 
"full" capacity, however we might interpret that. (An interesting 
question, actually - what would full capacity really mean for our projects?)
> All in
> all, it appears the foundation is doing an excellent job and making
> very good use of the contributions it receives. Thank you, and well
> done!
>   
Thank you for the kind words, we hope to continue this in the future.

--Michael Snow