5 ms·

Throwing money at an organization has diminishing efficacy. What do you think $2 million or $10 million or $100 million would have done for the Wikimedia organ

Throwing money at an organization has diminishing efficacy. What do you think $2 million or $10 million or $100 million would have done for the Wikimedia organization, you think they would hide the donation <div> next year?

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
fullshark 8y ago
Establish an endowment to ensure they are not fighting for survival in the future.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- IshKebab 8y ago
  They could do that themselves and in fact they are - $5m/year goes into their endowment. Take a look at their budget: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2017-2018/Final/Financials https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_... Quite a lot of waste in there, e.g. $850k on "brand strategy" - kind of looks like they have more money than they know what to do with.
  - insertnickname 8y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2017-02-27/Op-ed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2...
    - komali2 8y ago
      I never saw these "Signposts" before, interesting. Was there ever an opposing view released to this, uh, blogpost? Signpost? edit: apparently there is a kind of discussion section at the bottom
- xyzzyz 8y ago
  In 2017 WMF had $120M in assets. It's probably closer to $150M today, since they are making over $20M a year in "profit" (revenues minus expenes). The cost of actually running Wikimedia projects (servers + network + salaries of dev ops and salaries of code maintainers) should easily fit below $10M, because it did in 2012. There has been growth since then in terms of usage, but this is very scalable growth that's cheap to handle: it's not servers and network expenses that's been skyrocketing, these are pretty much constant since 2012. It's the salaries, grants and awards. Look at their financial reports[1], and especially compare the growth in expenses over time. Suffice to say, if WMF struggles in the future, it's only due to mismanagement of its cancerous growth. [1] - https://wikimediafoundation.org/about/financial-reports/ https://wikimediafoundation.org/about/financial-reports/
  - gsnedders 8y ago
    > It's the salaries, grants and awards. Salaries for who? Grants to who and for what? Awards to who and for what? Like, can someone provide a summary, for those of us who don't really have the time to dive into the reports?
    - pc86 8y ago
      The reports are the summary.
    - tibbon 8y ago
      They have around 300 FTEs. It might sound high, but they are the 5th most visited website in the world. Of others in the top 10, I think Reddit is the only other company with under 1,000 employees (at around 250). In comparison, Taobao which is also in the top 10 has over 30,000 employees. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_popular_websites https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_popular_websites https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2017-2018/Final/Staff_and_Contractors https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_...
      - xyzzyz 8y ago
        It was already top 8 in 2012, and had less than half of the headcount it has today, spending a third of what it spends today in salaries.
- blattimwind 8y ago
  WMF has been throwing out money for virtually everything except the actual *pedias.
overcast 8y ago
Whatever it takes not to see Jimmy Wales' sad puppy dog mug begging for $5 donations at the top of every page.
- nojvek 8y ago
  I think no matter how much you donate to Wikimedia, they still like having the sad puppy dog. Wikimedia has a huge endowment, with the way the stock market did in recent years, it has grown significantly too. Your money could have more impact elsewhere.
- AnssiH 8y ago
  You can move to Finland, they don't ask for donations here. In fact, trying to donate gets you a "Thank you for your interest" page: https://donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:LandingPage&country=FI&uselang=en https://donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Landi... The legislation could use modernization, but progress is slow...

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

fullshark 8y ago

Establish an endowment to ensure they are not fighting for survival in the future.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
IshKebab 8y ago
They could do that themselves and in fact they are - $5m/year goes into their endowment. Take a look at their budget: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2017-2018/Final/Financials https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_... Quite a lot of waste in there, e.g. $850k on "brand strategy" - kind of looks like they have more money than they know what to do with.
- insertnickname 8y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2017-02-27/Op-ed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2...
  - komali2 8y ago
    I never saw these "Signposts" before, interesting. Was there ever an opposing view released to this, uh, blogpost? Signpost? edit: apparently there is a kind of discussion section at the bottom
xyzzyz 8y ago
In 2017 WMF had $120M in assets. It's probably closer to $150M today, since they are making over $20M a year in "profit" (revenues minus expenes). The cost of actually running Wikimedia projects (servers + network + salaries of dev ops and salaries of code maintainers) should easily fit below $10M, because it did in 2012. There has been growth since then in terms of usage, but this is very scalable growth that's cheap to handle: it's not servers and network expenses that's been skyrocketing, these are pretty much constant since 2012. It's the salaries, grants and awards. Look at their financial reports[1], and especially compare the growth in expenses over time. Suffice to say, if WMF struggles in the future, it's only due to mismanagement of its cancerous growth. [1] - https://wikimediafoundation.org/about/financial-reports/ https://wikimediafoundation.org/about/financial-reports/
- gsnedders 8y ago
  > It's the salaries, grants and awards. Salaries for who? Grants to who and for what? Awards to who and for what? Like, can someone provide a summary, for those of us who don't really have the time to dive into the reports?
  - pc86 8y ago
    The reports are the summary.
  - tibbon 8y ago
    They have around 300 FTEs. It might sound high, but they are the 5th most visited website in the world. Of others in the top 10, I think Reddit is the only other company with under 1,000 employees (at around 250). In comparison, Taobao which is also in the top 10 has over 30,000 employees. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_popular_websites https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_popular_websites https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2017-2018/Final/Staff_and_Contractors https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_...
    - xyzzyz 8y ago
      It was already top 8 in 2012, and had less than half of the headcount it has today, spending a third of what it spends today in salaries.
blattimwind 8y ago
WMF has been throwing out money for virtually everything except the actual *pedias.

overcast 8y ago

Whatever it takes not to see Jimmy Wales' sad puppy dog mug begging for $5 donations at the top of every page.

nojvek 8y ago
I think no matter how much you donate to Wikimedia, they still like having the sad puppy dog. Wikimedia has a huge endowment, with the way the stock market did in recent years, it has grown significantly too. Your money could have more impact elsewhere.
AnssiH 8y ago
You can move to Finland, they don't ask for donations here. In fact, trying to donate gets you a "Thank you for your interest" page: https://donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:LandingPage&country=FI&uselang=en https://donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Landi... The legislation could use modernization, but progress is slow...