On 10 November 2011 14:47, Strainu strainu10@gmail.com wrote:
Plus, it looks to me that WMF does just what you say non-profits do: they get a series of grants to do things and set goals for major upgrades. There are many small improvements "forgot" because the team is concentrating on big features.
Mm, this is partially true but not fully true. It's probably correct that the Wikimedia Foundation focuses mainly on big features or major upgrades rather than small improvements. (Depending how you define those terms.) But, the problem that plagues lots of non-profits is that they seek restricted grants to fund specific projects that they otherwise would not do. That's a problem because it means external organizations are influencing, sometimes heavily, your priorities and plans. We didn't want to do that, so about two years ago we made the decision that we would no longer seek or accept restricted grants for specific types of work. Instead, we set our own agenda, and seek only unrestricted funding to offset our costs.
I hope that makes sense. It was a deliberate decision that we made. We didn't want external organizations influencing our roadmap, because we didn't think external organizations were in the best position to know what's most useful for Wikimedia. So, we decided to handle things differently from many non-profits. We build our own roadmap, and seek only grants that will support the work we've already decided to do.
Thanks, Sue
-- Sue Gardner Executive Director Wikimedia Foundation
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