What’s your first impression? Is the page appealing or interesting for you to read?
Can you find the information you expect to find? Is there something missing?
Imagine yourself as a complete newcomer (if you’re not a newcomer yourself :)). Is the information clear? Are some parts difficult to read or understand?
In order to increase the Sustainability of Our Movement, a revenue generation policy and a fundraising strategy should be created to apply for all Wikimedia Movement entities. This policy will not only apply to the Wikimedia Foundation, but to all affiliates as well. The goals of this policy are to identify how the Foundation and affiliates can raise money, to allow affiliates around the world to take part in fundraising, and to diversify the revenue sources of the movement.
Create a policy applying to all Movement entities to outline rules for revenue generation and to define what may be adapted to local context and needs. This policy will balance sustainability, our mission and values, and financial independence. In accordance with this policy, we will:
Distribute the responsibility of revenue generation across Movement entities and develop local fundraising skills to increase sustainability.
Increase revenue and diversify revenue streams across the Movement, while ensuring funds are raised and spent in a transparent and accountable manner.
I think the policy should be also applied to the Wikimedia Foundation. The Wikimedia Foundation is the biggest entity. I wish discussions about investment of money about what increase through investment is acceptable. So if you invest 1 Dollar what is the maximum acceptable to get back after one year. In the last years some stock markets increased at 20 percent within one year. This is from my point of view very much. After that is clear the revenue generation policy can be set up. I wish that the yearly raised money decreases drastically. Not more money as the expected expenses for one year plus a amount to be discussed should be raised. Currently I think there is much more money raised as neccessary for a sustainable operation of the Wikimedia project. I would stop fundraising banners and emailing campaigns. So people need to search for the Donate option. The amount of funding would decrease through that option but propably not too much. Another important part is the transparency through a fundraising campaign. I have found for some years daily aggregated values from the Wikimedia Foundation what money was raised per day. This is something I wish that it is generated again and per campaign. I am interested in this policy and hope that there are more detailed discussions about how many money should be raised.
Money is raised to achieve goals. We have not achieved our goals, we could do more. It is easy to point to goals not achieved because we did not have the bandwidth or priority to achieve what can be achieved.
The monies we have are not spend equally among our public. Fifty % of out traffic is English, the majority of our potential public is not in an Anglo speaking country.
Over 50% of our funds are raised in an Anglo speaking country. Remember, Gapminder; in every country there are people with money and by raising money in every country, we share in the “ownership” of our efforts.
We are not Wikipedia. It is high time to cut the perceived ownership of English Wikipedia of Wikimedia efforts. We would do so much better in every other Wikipedia and Wikimedia project.
We have not considered adopting projects that did not originate in our communities. We are about free knowledge, we can adopt projects financially and have them thrive. Projects that will add value in our own projects as well.
The notion that we should spend less is highly exclusionary. We should spend more and as we do we can be intelligent about it.
I think the budget for the local communities should increase. In Germany there is a good support for volunteers and I wish this level of support in other countries too. When I talk about spending less I think about decreasing salaries costs and in other areas like the budget for local communities I support and wish a increase. The salaries at the Wikimedia Foundation are at the moment from my point of view very high.
Hi, we have prepared a report summarizing strategic data and activities related to the recommendation Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement, focusing on projects led by the Wikimedia Foundation. It includes a section about this initiative that I’m copying here for convenience and automatic translations.
Implementing this initiative requires the creation of a revenue-generation policy, the diversification of revenue streams, and the development of local fundraising skills.
The drafting and discussion of the Movement Charter, a project supported by the Foundation, are expected to foster a coordinated effort to produce a revenue-generation policy for all Wikimedia entities during 2023. Alongside the work of the Movement Charter Drafting Committee, there are several activities done in the context of this MS initiative:
The Advancement department launched the Wikimedia Endowment in 2016 as a permanent safekeeping fund, and it reached its initial $100 million goal in 2021. In 2022-23, the Endowment started to offset its own costs with a payment of $1,8 million to the Foundation. It also distributed $3,2 million in grants to Wikimedia projects for the first time. A Planned Giving program has been developed as a way to collect pledges for future donations.
Since 2018, the Foundation has developed a revenue strategy to build a secure financial future for Wikimedia based on the diversification of revenue channels. Examples of the implementation of this strategy include the implementation of local payment methods in India and Latin America, the increase of monthly recurring donations, and the strengthening of email-based outreach to potential donors. For details, see the annual Fundraising Reports (i.e. FY2021-22)
An informal group of European fundraising specialists in the movement meets regularly, inviting Foundation staff and some affiliates’ executive directors and fundraising staff. The group exchanges information and provides peer support on fundraising topics relevant to them.
