QUOTE(SB_Johnny @ Tue 19th July 2011, 5:58pm)
Mind just quoting the relevant part for us Greg?
QUOTE
The 2010 WMF fundraiser was our shortest and most successful to date, raising $15 million (up 72% from 2009's $8.7 million) in 50 days (25% fewer than 2009's 67 days). If you include the $6.5 million received by 12 chapters which acted as payment processors in 2010, the total raised by the movement was $21.5 million.
In 2010-11, the WMF refocused from a mixed revenue model towards a primary focus on the fundraiser. That paid off. Other revenue sources dropped by about a quarter, but community giving is up strongly. In part due to increased community involvement, (including experimentation with appeals from community members), the campaign was much less unpopular with the Wikimedia community than in the past.
That said, in 2010 we began to see indicators of banner and Jimmy fatigue expressed in mainstream and social media. We interpret this as a warning: we expect donations to continue strong growth, but a ceiling may be coming into view. And we will need to find alternatives to over-utilization of Jimmy, in order to preserve his appeal.
And that's nothing. Start reading at slide 17. Let me summarize:
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1) Editor decline is an intractable problem.
2) Escalating movement tensions distract from program work.
3) Readership begins to flatten or decline.
4) External events distract from programmatic work.
5) Revenue targets are not met.
6) Revenue targets are met, but at the cost of significant goodwill.
7) Openness about editor decline makes the problem worse.
8) International expansion results in unacceptable legal risk.
9) A shortage of Silicon Valley technical talent hurts our ability to recruit and retain technical staff.
11) Wikimedia's ability to implement positive change is constrained by actual or perceived lack of community acceptance.
Point 7 is absolutely right---they are learning to cover up statistics about new-editor decline, because it harms the thing's public image. And it's only getting started.