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My estimate was figurative, not literal. It is meant to show that thinking for the future is what we should be doing.


----- Original Message ----
From: Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton@gmail.com>
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List <foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 2:01:41 PM
Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] [Announcement] Sloan awards Wikimedia USD 1m annually for three years

On 26/03/2008, Geoffrey Plourde <geo.plrd@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Yes, saving for the future is wise, even if it is just $100 a month.

I'm not sure $100/month is going to cut it... it might help for
building up a contingency fund (slowly), but not an endowment. For an
endowment you need enough so that you get enough interest that you can
get by without having to touch the capital - that requires quite a
large sum.

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So we are safe w/o ads for another three years (minimum). Enuff about dat!

- White Cat

On Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 7:20 PM, Sue Gardner <sgardner@wikimedia.org> wrote:

> Hi folks,
>
> I'm delighted to tell you that yesterday, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
> board of directors voted to award the Wikimedia Foundation USD 1 million
> annually for the coming three years. A total of USD 3 million, spread over
> three years.
>
> This is what Sloan characterizes as "institutional funding" - meaning, a
> form of grant designed to help us work towards our general goals – in our
> case, financial and operational sustainability, increasing quality,
> increasing and broadening participation, and distributing our material
> beyond the wiki environment. As you know, we've recently expanded the staff
> from 10 to 15, and we still have a few more positions to fill: this funding
> will offset those increased costs.
>
> This is _fabulous_ news. Sloan is high-profile and widely-respected: this
> donation is financially significant for us, and it also signals that Sloan
> sees our work as important and our organization as trustworthy.
>
> I'd like to take a moment to thank Erik Moeller, who developed our first
> contact with Sloan through his work representing Wikimedia on the
> Encyclopedia of Life's institutional council. (Sloan is an EOL funder.)
> Based on that initial relationship, in January Sloan invited Erik to
> present to them about Wikimedia, after which they asked us for a formal
> request for funding. Without Erik, this would not have happened. Yay, Erik
> :-)
>
> We will be sending out a press release in a few hours, and I will also
> send this note to foundation-l soon. Meanwhile, please join the staff and
> board of the Wikimedia Foundation in celebrating this terrific news!
>
> Thanks,
> Sue
>
>
> --
>
> Sue Gardner
> Executive Director,
> Wikimedia Foundation
>
>
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On Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 11:15 AM, White Cat <wikipedia.kawaii.neko@gmail.com>
wrote:

> So we are safe w/o ads for another three years (minimum). Enuff about dat!
>
>
>

You don't seem to realize that the current budget is 4.5 million, which
would be 60% growth over actual expenses in 2007. The growth has been
slowing; it was +80% from 2006 to 2007 and +300% from 2005 to 2006, but it
wouldn't be unreasonable to see budgets in the $7-10 million range within
the next several years.

The $1m/yr for 3 years from the Sloan Foundation is very important, and will
hopeful encourage other large donations, but it would be a mistake to assume
that in and of itself this is enough to resolve all future questions about
the WMF's financing.

-Robert Rohde
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On Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 11:57 AM, Robert Rohde <rarohde@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 11:15 AM, White Cat <
> wikipedia.kawaii.neko@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > So we are safe w/o ads for another three years (minimum). Enuff about
> > dat!
> >
> >
> >
>
> You don't seem to realize that the current budget is 4.5 million, which
> would be 60% growth over actual expenses in 2007. The growth has been
> slowing; it was +80% from 2006 to 2007 and +300% from 2005 to 2006, but it
> wouldn't be unreasonable to see budgets in the $7-10 million range within
> the next several years.
>
> The $1m/yr for 3 years from the Sloan Foundation is very important, and
> will hopeful encourage other large donations, but it would be a mistake to
> assume that in and of itself this is enough to resolve all future questions
> about the WMF's financing.
>
>

Doh, I was reading off the wrong line on the financials, and understated the
growth in expenses.

The expenses growth was:

2004-2005: 650%
2005-2006: 350%
2006-2007: 160%
2007-2008 (projected budget): 115%

So we are still seeing budgets more than double year over year.

-Robert Rohde
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