[Foundation-l] Chapters

[rupert THURNER]

2011/8/28 Delphine Ménard <notafishz at gmail.com>:
> On Sun, Aug 28, 2011 at 12:53 AM, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:
>
>> If the question is one of "minimum standards of accountability" the
>> WMF's first obligation would be to publish the standards which it
>> requires, presumably consistent with IFRS. Chapters incorporated within
>> particular jurisdictions will be subject to the financial reporting laws
>> of their respective jurisdictions.  These are more important than the
>> FUD and distrust at the heart of recent proposals.  There is no doubt
>> that a small band of individuals unaccustomed to large infusions of cash
>> will have challenges to face, but in these cases the WMF would do better
>> to help these chapters find competent help in their own countries than
>> to play the role of a distrustful parent.
>
> +1
> I'm still baffled at the Wikimedia Foundation wanting to go against
> what other international organisations are doing, ie. they fundraise
> locally. (Take a look at the international pages of oxfam, wwf,
> médecins sans frontières, etc.). Who are we to know better than these
> people who've been around for like... ever? Surely there is a reason
> for them doing this the way they do?

+1.
in switzerland we feel that a good target is to get 1 CHF per user and
year as donation. not having a better means of calculating the users,
we took 10% of the working population as guess. for switzerland that
means, 8 mio inhabitants, 4 mio working, 400'000 users, i.e. 400'000
donation.

any measure that brings down the donations means that we are failing
to make the people happy about wikimedia projects, and thats a path we
probably do not want to walk.


>>> If it were only the chapters themselves at stake (as is the case when
>>> they raise funds independently), then they could get money first and
>>> organization second. But the WMF shares in the risk, and is offering
>>> organizational support to chapters, so cart before horse does not make
>>> sense.
>>>
>>
>> There's a difference between organizational support and organizational
>> takeover. One possible solution might be to not allow chapters to
>> participate in the global fundraiser unless they already have a suitable
>> organization in place, but that could make it more difficult for the WMF
>> to take a piece of the chapter's action.
>
>
> Which brings up the question: how do chapters ever get to the point of
> being organisationally ready if they never take a crack at doing
> fundraising on their own? Pleasing donors near you brings on an
> incomparable motivation to do great things and adapt our mission to
> what is expected and needed in a given region. Pleasing the Wikimedia
> Foundation somehow does not, seem to me to have the same potential.
> You know, the very old parable of giving a fish and teaching to
> fish...

i like that :)

additionally we should not forget the entry point to reach a person.
building up additional fundraising procedures means additional ways to
contact people. do people really want to get spam mail from wikimedia
affiliated organizations, plus see people on the street asking to sign
long term donation contracts, plus experience other means common with
other NGO's? currently i did not hear the foundation is unhappy about
the income. so why bother so much tinkering with the status quo?

but i heard that wmf is, at least in some cases, unhappy with
spending. there should be more intelligent ways to improve spending
than micro managing the chapters spending via grant requests, also at
a timeline more appropriate to wikipedia ... which is made to stay
around at least for a couple of years.

imo, it would be wise to take our assets into account when designing
the next steps, no matter if it is on the donation side, or on the
spending side:
1. a globally visible web page, where a banner is sufficient to reach everybody
2. a culture of byte sized volunteering, everybody doing a little bit
but it fits at the end
3. "wiki", i.e. make quick, small, non interruptive improvements to
finally become the best

rupert