[Foundation-l] Resolution:Developing Scenarios for future of fundraising

[Ting Chen]

Hello dear community,

the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation passed the following 
resolution with seven approves and three abstains:


Following consultation with the Wikimedia community on meta, the 
Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees is now releasing the guiding 
principles below, which are intended to govern Wikimedia fundraising and 
funds dissemination practices.

We now ask the Executive Director to develop for the Board a 
recommendation for fundraising and funds dissemination practices that 
will align as well as possible with the guiding principles while 
consulting appropriately with stakeholders and interested parties. The 
Board asks that the recommendation be ready to be shared with the Board 
for discussion at the February 2012 Board meeting.

==== Guidelines for Fundraising Scenarios ====

* Consistency with mission, vision and values. All Wikimedia fundraising 
activities must be conducted in a manner that's consistent with our 
overall mission, vision and values. They must not create unnecessary 
legal exposure for the projects, or otherwise unduly interfere with our 
ability to achieve our mission.
* Minimal cost and minimal disruption. All Wikimedia fundraising 
activities must aim to raise the maximum possible amount of money from 
donors while minimizing administrative costs as much as possible (in 
order to reserve the largest amount of money possible for programmatic 
activity), while causing minimal disruption and annoyance for users of 
the projects.
* Transparency: All Wikimedia fundraising activities must be truthful 
with prospective donors. We need to tell people what we intend to use 
their money for, before they donate. And we need to report in a timely 
fashion on how it was actually spent.
* Responsibility: All Wikimedia fundraising activities must ensure funds 
received are safe from fraud or misuse as determined by existing 
third-party standards for appropriate financial controls, and must 
adhere to relevant laws and regulations.
* Internationalism: Our movement is international in scope, and our 
fundraising practices must support the easiest possible transfer of 
money internationally in support of the movement's priorities.
* Independence: We prefer a fundraising model in which we are supported 
primarily via the many-small-donors model, because this is the model 
that best supports our independence.
* Flexibility: We do not need to adhere to a single monolithic model for 
fundraising: multiple donation streams are fine.
* Sustainable donor relations: We must safeguard donor privacy and avoid 
slowing the "donate now" flow.
* Good faith: The Wikimedia movement assumes that all movement 
participants are acting in good faith, with regards to each other's 
actions and intentions.

==== Guidelines for Funds Distribution Scenarios ====

* Protect the core: Core activities that ensure the continuity of the 
projects need to be funded first.
* Impact: Funds should be distributed in ways that support mission work, 
agnostic with regard to where the money was raised.
* Transparency and stability: Decisions about funds distribution must be 
made transparently, in accordance with published guidelines and 
processes. The model must enable each entity to carry out financial 
planning to support efforts to be sustainable.
* Decentralization: Funds must be distributed in ways that support 
decentralized programmatic activities for furthering our mission.
* Responsibility and accountability: Funds must be distributed in ways 
that enable the Wikimedia movement to confidently assure donors that 
their donations will be safeguarded appropriately, and that spending 
will be in line with our mission and with the messages used to attract 
donors.
* Collaboration and openness: Funds must be distributed in ways that are 
collaborative and open, and which respect the diverse and international 
nature of the Wikimedia movement.

== Reference Links ==
* http://board.wikimedia.org/wiki/Chapters_fundraising/Guiding_Principles
* [[m:Draft Guiding principles with regards to funds distribution|Draft 
Guiding principles with regards to funds distribution]]
* [[m:Draft Guiding principles with regards to fundraising|Draft Guiding 
principles with regards to fundraising]]


Greetings

-- 
Ting Chen
Member of the Board of Trustees
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
E-Mail: tchen at wikimedia.org