3 ms·
Reproducing the table from the article with one extra column, the ratio of expenses to revenue for clarity, it looks like they're still operating with a very co
by idorosen 9y ago
Reproducing the table from the article with one extra column, the ratio of expenses to revenue for clarity, it looks like they're still operating with a very comfortable margin. Yes, the 19% margin is tighter than a 50% margin 12 years ago, and their existence depends on donations now more than ever ($23,463/yr is sustainable by a single engineer's salary, $65,947,465/yr is...not), but Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects also serve a much wider audience and broader purpose. This isn't scary in and of itself, especially if they've got cash reserves to give them time to tighten the belt later on if it becomes a problem and someone in a leadership position is monitoring their finances to act if their burn rate gets too high... I've seen plenty of nonprofits with tighter margins survive and succeed.
Year Revenue Expenses Net Assets Expense Ratio (1-margin)
2003/2004 $80,129 $23,463 $56,666 29%
2004/2005 $379,088 $177,670 $268,084 47%
2005/2006 $1,508,039 $791,907 $1,004,216 53%
2006/2007 $2,734,909 $2,077,843 $1,658,282 76%
2007/2008 $5,032,981 $3,540,724 $5,178,168 70%
2008/2009 $8,658,006 $5,617,236 $8,231,767 65%
2009/2010 $17,979,312 $10,266,793 $14,542,731 57%
2010/2011 $24,785,092 $17,889,794 $24,192,144 72%
2011/2012 $38,479,665 $29,260,652 $34,929,058 76%
2012/2013 $48,635,408 $35,704,796 $45,189,124 73%
2013/2014 $52,465,287 $45,900,745 $53,475,021 87%
2014/2015 $75,797,223 $52,596,782 $77,820,298 69%
2015/2016 $81,862,724 $65,947,465 $91,782,795 81%
How sure are we that these numbers are accurate, anyhow?
- masklinn 9y ago> it looks like they're still operating with a very comfortable margin. That's not the essay's concern, the essay's concern is that expenses grow much faster than the site's load.
- yomly 9y agoThe biggest ticket in the expenses is salaries. I wonder how much of the growing expenses is linked to growing developer salaries
- Whitestrake 9y agoI thought the essay's concern was that funding is growing too fast, allowing expenses to expand to fill the gap in a way that is unsustainable (because eventually the funding growth must come to an end).
- rawland 9y agoIt seems op-ed followed Wikimedia's Financial Statements [1] Expenses (2016/2015) 2016 2015 Salaries and wages 31,713,961 26,049,224 Awards and grants 11,354,612 4,522,689 Internet hosting 2,069,572 1,997,521 In-kind service expenses 1,065,523 235,570 Donations processing expenses 3,604,682 2,484,765 Professional service expenses 6,033,172 7,645,105 Other operating expenses 4,777,203 4,449,764 Travel and conferences 2,296,592 2,289,489 Depreciation and amortization 2,720,835 2,656,103 Special event expense, 311,313 266,552 Total expenses 65,947,465 52,596,782 -- Sources: [1]: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/4/43/Wikimedia_Foundation_Audit_Report_-_FY15-16.pdf https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/4/43/Wikim...
- cuchoi 9y ago11 million in awards and grants seems like something that you can cut easily in bad times. Also, they are still generating more income than expenses, and the margin is big enough to adapt if there is a sudden decrease.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]