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

[Marc Riddell]

on 6/30/10 10:06 PM, David Goodman at dgoodmanny at gmail.com wrote:

> We are secure because of the volunteers, not the funding. If the
> foundation were to disappear, the project could continue. The only
> funding actually necessary is for the physical operation of the
> project.

Yes! Excellent insight, David.

Marc Riddell

> 
> On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 8:49 PM, Birgitte SB <birgitte_sb at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> --- 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
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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> 
>