QUOTE(thekohser @ Sat 18th December 2010, 3:28pm)
I'd like to try something here.
Moderators, if you will be kind enough to help maintain that this page remain
100% free of sniping, snarking, trolling, and bile, we might have an interesting result.
I have a simple question:
Why doesn't the Wikimedia Foundation consider and adopt a "100% model" for its own charitable organization?Some charities that do this include:
I'd like to discuss the reasons why and why not here, then invite the Wikimedia Foundation to weigh in on the discussion, with the assurance that it won't turn into a hate-fest.
I can see some potential advantages in a 100% model, but a base level it's really only a marketing tool. At some point the administrative costs of the organisation have to be paid and all that a 100% model does is hypothecate the income from a given set of donors or income sources other than from donors to meet those costs. On balance I see the 100% model as a sleight of hand because it actually serves to disguise the overall costs of the organisation, this is particularly problematic where the 'charity' operates a 'for profit' business. If the income from the business is the sole source of funding for the adminstrative functions of the non profit, the business operation can become the predominant activity because without it there would (notinally) be no non profit.
There is a different issue (which I think, if I've understood him properly, that PD has picked up on) which is organisations identifying a core activity and giving a commitment to donors that it is that core activity which will be the focus of funding, and not some other activity which may (or may not !) happen to be allowed under the organisation's document of incorporation/governance. Certainly making an orgaisation like Wikipedia stick to a tightly defined activity is more likely to protect the donor interest, if that itself is defined as "money for purpose". In the case ofWikiedia however I'm not sure it's donors have a clear sense of the purpose that they are donating to achieve, nor even tha they are concerned that here should be one. It's more that they are paying dues to a club so that they have a sense of membership and Wikimedia has fulfilled all expectations merely by accepting the money.
Puting Wikimedia into a 100% model would force it to be more explicit about what Wikimedia is for and how it uses its $millions, but it is precisely that which I suspect would make the 100% model unattractive to the Wikimedia board. As it stands Wikimedia is answerable to no one, and so long as it avoids the most egregious breaking of IRS regulations, then the board is free to continue to operate how it pleases.
A.virosa