[Foundation-l] The end of donations

[David Gerard]

2009/7/31 stevertigo <stvrtg at gmail.com>:

> My impression is that Wikimedia currently lives year to year on
> donations, and that reserves are sufficient to pay a skeleton crew of
> fundraisers.  I'm sure its been discussed before though, but yes, it
> would seem to make sense for Wikimedia - established as its flagship
> project is - to build an endowment or trust - donation-seeded and
> transparently managed of course - to cover most yearly costs.


My understanding is it was pretty much hand-to-mouth for ages, and
that one of Sue Gardner's big projects is making it less so, precisely
as you describe - which would be why the WMF has hired quite a few
fundraisers in the past year or so. The idea being to build up a
reserve and then make that something we might be able to live on. I
can't see donations ending, though - and remember that the last one
pulled in over its target quite nicely.


- d.