[Foundation-l] Charity Navigator rates WMF

[Anthony]

On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 2:28 PM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2009/10/8 George Herbert <george.herbert at gmail.com>:
>> The WMF is not entirely unique in that regard; many other charities
>> are largely volunteer (cf Red Cross).
>
> According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Cross#Activities:
>
> "Altogether, there are about 97 million people worldwide who serve
> with the ICRC, the International Federation, and the National
> Societies. And there are about 12,000 total full time staff members."
>
> That is a ratio of about 8,000 volunteers per staff member.
>
> The Wikimedia movement has perhaps 40 staff including the WMF and
> chapters. At the same ratio, that would give us 320,000 volunteers. I
> don't know how many volunteers we have, but I think it is rather more
> than that.

Depends how you define "volunteers".  How many people were eligible to
vote in the last board election?  I have no idea the number, but I
guess that's a reasonable definition of "volunteers".