[Wikimedia-l] deliberately lowered fundraising growth rate (was: Fundraising updates?)

[Samuel Klein]

James,

I forgot that you are not able to edit Meta.  I will migrate the relevant
parts of the discussion here to the wiki, since a wiki is a useful place to
break down ideas and refactor solutions; but please feel free to continue
posting thoughts to the list.

On Sat, Dec 22, 2012 at 3:25 PM, James Salsman <jsalsman at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> > our contingency allocation (6 months of reserve) has not changed this
> year.
>
> How is that possible? Per
>
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Revenue_%26_Expenses_October_2012_-_Actual_vs_Plan.png
> the year to date revenue was $150,000 over plan, the year to date
> expenses were $1,590,000 under their planned values, but the cash
> reserves were still less than six months of expenses.
>

Fair point.  6 months is the target minimum for 2012-13; up from 5.2 months
for 2011-12, but we dropped below that in October.

There is an accounting quirk here: the month before the fundraiser starts
is always the low-point for the reserves each year; and that low-point
depends primarily on how much was raised in the previous fiscal year's
fundraiser [given our current sporadic rather than continuous fundraising].
 So really we should be setting a target in 2012-13 for the low-point of
the reserve in October 2013 [which will be part of the 2013-14 plan].  I'll
talk to the treasurer and AuditCom about how to address this in next year's
plans.



> >> after the July 2012-3 Annual Plan goal was set at $46.1 million, which
> >> itself was substantially reduced after the Chief Revenue Office reported
> >
> > What gave you that idea?  It is wrong.
>
> On the contrary, it is stated clearly at
>
> http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/2012-2013_Annual_Plan_Questions_and_Answers#What.27s_the_revenue_target_for_2012-13.2C_and_how_does_it_compare_to_previous_years.3F


To be clear:
The target was $46.1M, set in the spring, and closely sticking to the
projection from 2010; not directly reduced by any recent report by the CRO.
 Nor was it "reduced again" later in the year - a target of $25M for the
fundraiser this month is in line with the total $46.1M target for the year.

> I will continue to raise these issues in specific questions

Please do.  I assume you will also follow related discussions on Meta even
if you can't post there, and don't mind my migrating some of your comments
there.

SJ