[Foundation-l] Charity Navigator rates WMF

[Anthony]

On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 4:17 PM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2009/10/8 Anthony <wikimail at inbox.org>:
>> And it's not clear what that number means anyway.  Is a high ratio
>> good or bad?  It could be either, depending on the circumstances.
>
> Of course. It isn't a useful metric in itself, it's just a factor that
> you need to account for when interpreting proportions of revenue spent
> of different areas.

Why?  If donor money is spent on administrative expenditures, but
there are lots of volunteers compared to the number of staff, is that
supposed to make donors feel better?  If there's only one staff person
and a million volunteers, does that mean that one staff member can
spend 50% of the revenue on administrative expenses?

Why do you need to account for the paid staff to volunteer ratio when
judging the ratio of administrative to total expenditures?