[Foundation-l] Omidyar Network Commits $2 Million Grant to Wikimedia Foundation

Anthony wikimail at inbox.org
Tue Aug 25 20:31:15 UTC 2009


On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 4:22 PM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com>wrote:

> 2009/8/25 Nathan <nawrich at gmail.com>:
> > This is good news. It doesn't seem strange to me at all that a major
> donor
> > gains a limited voice on the Board, particularly when the donor can offer
> > expertise and connections in addition to funding. It also serves as a
> more
> > plausible explanation for Halprin's appointment than the conspiracy
> theory
> > about Wikia, corrupt practices and misuse of tax-free funds.
>
> The cash is obviously useful, and I think this kind of arrangement is
> fairly common in the charity world, but it will inevitably cause drama
> in the community.


That fight was lost years ago when the Wikimedia Foundation became a
non-membership organization.  I doubt this is "fairly common" among
membership organizations.  Wales was right when he said that the community
is irrelevant.

> We voted for these Board members, in most cases repeatedly; it does them a
> > disservice to essentially accuse them of abusing the trust granted them
> by
> > the community.
>
> I don't recall an intention to sell seats on the board being mentioned
> in any of their candidate statements...


We don't even know (yet?) which board members voted for and which voted
against this arrangement.


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