[Foundation-l] Chapters

[Lodewijk]

2011/8/30 Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net>

> On 08/29/11 1:55 AM, Lodewijk wrote:
> >
> > It may be a logical consequence for the WMF giving out these grants (I
> don't
> > know but wouldn't be surprised if i.e. Ford Foundation has similar
> > requirements), but it clearly is a nasty side effect of the choice of the
> > board to no longer allow chapters to fundraise.
>
> How can they stop chapters from fundraising? They can certainly stop
> chapters from participating in the WMF's fundraising campaign, but they
> will still have no control over a chapter's own fundraising programmes.
> >
>

I have heard this argument too often now, so let me finally reply to it.
Perhaps I should rephrase my statement to "not allowing good faith chapters
to fundraise". Because that is basically what is happening - a chapter that
has the best with the movement in mind, will not try to compete with the
Wikimedia Foundation by fundraising on its own. I have never heard of any
international organization which had two organizations (national and world
wide) fundraising at the same time in the same country. And why would
not-online fundraising suddenly be OK if the main reasons of the WMF are
transparency and not following the WMF strategy closely enough? Why would it
be so different? Because at the same time, chapters would still be asking
donors to support those goals Wikipedia stands for: the sum of all knowledge
available for every human being. The message doesn't change, the
accountability doesn't suddenly improve and the performed activities with
the money don't change. The only thing that is different is that it is less
visible and that the fundraising agreement doesn't forbid it.

Lodewijk