[Foundation-l] fundraiser suggestion

[Stephen Bain]

On Sun, Jan 2, 2011 at 12:54 AM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 1 January 2011 13:45, Stephen Bain <stephen.bain at gmail.com> wrote:
>> This puts a ceiling on 'urgent' costs at $8.8 M, or 43% of the budget
>> of $20.4 M. [3]
>
> This is a worthwhile analysis, but you have neglected the numerous
> expenses involved in supporting a large organisation. You can't have
> an organisation with an $8.8M budget without managers, fundraisers,
> HR, legal counsel, etc.. The WMF could trim its budget a lot without
> harming basic site function, but not as much as your method suggests.

Sure, I don't attempt to estimate overheads. But that's probably
balanced out by the generous assumptions made, particularly the one
that all tech staff are essential for site operation, when as many as
half of them are mostly about building functionality (eg, all the
people employed in connection with the usability project).

-- 
Stephen Bain
stephen.bain at gmail.com