If an API license raised a meaningful amount of money then whoever bought it would have some influence over the organisation, and if it didn't raise a meaningful amount of money I doubt it would be worth doing.
There are other options that should be less contentious:
Emailing donors, explaining that we have now launched an endowment fund and inviting them to mention Wikimedia in their will. We currently email donors annually - a mid year endowment fund email should not conflict with that.
License the logos for some merchandising aimed at the public. I would happily buy a couple of Wikimedia calendars to give as Christmas/New Year gifts, and yes I appreciate that for timing reasons that would mean using the Wiki Loves Monuments 2015 winners to illustrate a 2017 calendar.
Shift from asking for one off donations to asking people to sign up for a regular donation. I don't know about other countries, but this would be an easy move in the UK - it's what every efficient charity fundraiser would do.
Where you can take legally advantage of the tax man, go for it. In the UK if you have registered charity status as WMUK does, then under the Gift Aid system the Taxman will add 25% to every donation where the donor confirms they are a UK taxpayer. I would be disappointed if WMUK couldn't get a clear majority of UK donors to tick the box if they took over fundraising in the UK. But having looked at the current WMF system I seriously doubt the WMF gets even a quarter of UK donors to go through Gift Aid.
WereSpielChequers
Message: 1 Date: Sat, 16 Jan 2016 21:59:50 +1000 From: Craig Franklin cfranklin@halonetwork.net To: Wikimedia Mailing List wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Monetizing Wikimedia APIs Message-ID: < CAHF+k39biDMp4YcDdA+7NCALKJJpigDNFFad25+46g4AsP8bXw@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
On 16 January 2016 at 19:23, Pete Forsyth peteforsyth@gmail.com wrote:
I'm interested to hear some perspectives on the following line of
thinking:
Lisa presented some alternative strategies for revenue needs for the Foundation, including the possibility of charging for premium access to
the
services and APIs,
Brace yourselves...
expanding major donor and foundation fundraising, providing specific services for a fee, or limiting the Wikimedia Foundation's growth. The Board emphasized the importance of keeping free access to the existing APIs and services, keeping operational growth in line with the organization's effectiveness, providing room for innovation in the Foundation's activities, and other potential fundraising
strategies.
The Board asked Lila to analyze and develop some of these potential strategies for further discussion at a Board meeting in 2016. Source: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Minutes/2015-11-07
Looking for additional revenue sources isn't a bad idea, but charging for premium access is likely to annoy the community to a degree that will make the great Visual Editor revolt look like some quiet and polite murmuring.
Cheers, Craig