[Foundation-l] 2010-11 Annual Plan Now Posted to FoundationWebsite

[Birgitte SB]

--- On Wed, 6/30/10, Veronique Kessler <vkessler at wikimedia.org> wrote:

> From: Veronique Kessler <vkessler at wikimedia.org>
> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] 2010-11 Annual Plan Now Posted to FoundationWebsite
> To: susanpgardner at gmail.com, "Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List" <foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
> Date: Wednesday, June 30, 2010, 3:53 PM
> Thanks everyone for your comments
> thus far (and for the thank yous too :)).
> 
> As we progress through accomplishing the goals of the
> strategic plan, we 
> will have a better idea of what level our operating budget
> will need to 
> be to make everything happen and be sustainable.  We
> will have done some 
> experimentation with initiatives like geographic
> investments and the 
> addition of more roles to support chapters.  We don't
> know what our 
> optimal operating level will be and what fundraising level
> we can 
> sustain.  We have made some predictions based on a lot
> of factors and we 
> will be able to respond appropriately to new information,
> changes in 
> circumstances, etc. as we progress through this fiscal year
> and future 
> years.
> 
> For the endowment, Eugene really summed up the endowment
> issue well.  I 
> want to point out that typically endowments do not fund the
> ongoing 
> annual expenses of an organization.  A portion of the
> annual earnings on 
> the endowment may be allocated to help support operations
> but it is 
> usually a small percentage.  In the past, one could
> estimate 8-10% 
> earnings each year and then allocate some to operations and
> roll the 
> rest back to the endowment to continue to grow it. 
> Alas, these days, 
> 8-10% returns are hard to come by.  Just to put it
> into perspective, if 
> we were to support a $20 million budget with 5% earnings
> from an 
> endowment, we would need $400 million dollars. 
> Endowments can be very 
> useful and we will continue to analyze this option for the
> future but it 
> is unlikely that an endowment would ever provide our entire
> operating 
> budget each year.

I don't think anyone would expect an endowment to fund all that is being done in the current budget.  I have always thought of the endowment issue as being about always keeping the lights on.  Ensuring that the content will remain accessible in some worst case scenario.  Access is probably the weakest link in the whole copyleft paradigm.  I think most of us can name examples of how contract law has locked up what copyright law couldn't touch.

WMF has not always been as stable as it is right now.  Maybe it is hard for all the people who joined the movement during this upswing of stability to understand quite how some of the earlier adopters feel about the endowment. I think it is about people feeling that the work that we have all done is secure. Since the WMF is not moving in the direction of an endowment right now, it would be nice if they could highlight some other things that secure what has already been accomplished.  The endowment is not about just about funding, I think it is probably also symbolic of endurance to many people.  There is a worry about the content remaining available in the long term. If there is not an endowment to donate towards, I think people could use something else to symbolize a commitment to the future endurance of the content that has been gathered.

Birgitte SB