[Foundation-l] Report to the Board April 2009

[Sue Gardner]

2009/8/11 Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com>:
> 2009/8/11 Sue Gardner <sgardner at wikimedia.org>:
>> FUNDRAISING, GRANTS, & PARTNERSHIPS
>>
>> During April, the Wikimedia Foundation received 922 donations, with a
>> combined total value of USD 78,453.   Year-to-date, the Wikimedia
>> Foundation has raised USD 5,491415 in donations from individuals, 37%
>> above the full-year target of USD 4,000,000.
>
> As always, thanks for these reports. I'm curious - 37% is a lot of
> extra money, is there a plan for how to spend it? Has this year's
> spending been increased or will the extra just be carried over to next
> year or just kept as reserves?

As always, you are hugely welcome -- it's my pleasure :-)

I will ask Veronique to reply a little more fully, but here's the gist:

1) That paragraph of the report doesn't cover our full financial
picture -- total revenues weren't up 37%, just individual donations as
a subset of total revenues. So, there was not a USD 1.49 million
"surplus" -- it was less than that, because other areas
under-performed against plan in the same period.  Also bear in mind
that spending varied relative to plan, as well.

2) #1 notwithstanding, we are indeed thinking about what to do with
money unspent in a given year. In general, I do not want the Wikimedia
Foundation to accumulate massive reserves -- generally, because donors
give money in hopes it will be spent usefully. But at the same time,
it would be imprudent to have no financial cushion at all. This is one
of the issues Veronique and I think about quite a bit, and I know she
is hoping that the strategy project will work on it too. How much
reserve is enough, when is it time to build towards an endowment.

I'll ask Veronique to comment further :-)

Thanks,
Sue