[Foundation-l] Charity Navigator rates WMF

[Nathan]

On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 5:10 PM, phoebe ayers <phoebe.wiki at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> Right. What's a program expense? What *should* be a program expense?
> * keeping servers online?
> * Wikimania?
> * producing how-to guides?
> * improving mediawiki?
><snip>
>
> Since all the documentation is readily available, like Mike Snow said
> it seems like a more valuable discussion to talk about what we are
> actually spending money on and what we should be spending money on (cf
> strategic planning) than to talk about what a 3rd party's rough
> assessment of what we're spending money on. What should WMF money go
> towards?
>
> -- phoebe
>

Exactly. "Program" expenses in the Wikimedia sense might be those that
go to the generation and distribution of content; technology expenses,
then, and anything the Foundation spends on events like Wikipedia
Academies. By this measure, the usability initiative is a program
expense but fundraising costs are not. It's clear that some level of
fundraising expenses is necessary; and if the expenditures on
fundraising produce reasonable returns (i.e., increased donations)
then that's great. Whether or not the spending on fundraising versus
technology meets some golden ratio isn't that relevant, and
comparisons to other (dramatically different) organizations aren't
very useful.

So the question then becomes, what should be done with the money now
that it's been raised? And that's a very important question that I
think the Foundation is grappling with, because the answers aren't
necessarily obvious and few options will have universal agreement. The
strategy project is an attempt to hammer out some good ideas and a
general direction for the Foundation. I'm not sure the wiki format
being used is really ideal, but I suppose its the best choice among
the various ways to allow engagement from the community. Either way,
folks with a serious interest in how the Foundation spends its money
should be contributing there.