Hi Thomas and others following this thread, I am following up with a more detailed response. Since the Board report was for the month of April, but our fiscal year ended June 30, I'd like to re-cap the fiscal year's results for the operating budget. The plan for 2008-09 called for $7.3 million of revenue and $5.9 million in expenses which would have resulted in a reserve of $1.4 million. Our current estimate (we are still closing up the books) are that we will have revenue of $7.7 million and expenses of $5.2 million which will result in a reserve of $2.5 million. This is good news, but at the beginning of the last online fundraiser, back in October and November 2008, it looked like we might not make our target for community gifts which was $3 million for the entire year (much of it concentrated from October through January). Thanks to a few different factors and the personal appeal from Jimmy, the situation turned around and we found not only that community gifts would well exceed the $3 million, they would be the largest source of revenue for the 2008-09 fiscal year and would help make up for shortfalls in other revenue areas.
Meanwhile, our expenses were lower than plan because we slowed spending and stopped some spending altogether from October to January. This was in response to both the global economic crisis and concerns that donations might be impacted significantly by the crisis. Instead, we had a strong year and now have the task of making the best decisions regarding reserve amounts. As Sue said, we can't and do not want to continually grow reserves as donors like to see their money going towards productive work. At the same time, we want to have a certain level of security that when unforeseen events occur, we can be confident that we can keep the servers running, keep the lights on and all will be well with Wikimedia's projects. Feel free to email with other questions, Veronique Thomas Dalton wrote: > 2009/8/12 Veronique Kessler <vkess...@wikimedia.org>: > >> Your comment is very timely. We are, and have been, thinking about the >> best solution regarding extra money. First, we want to consider an >> appropriate "reserve" amount, i.e. this can range from 3 months of >> expenses for some organizations to 2 years for others. So, we are >> discussing this; there are lots of theories of the perfect amount. >> Beyond that, we are considering things like investment strategy, the >> creation of an endowment, etc.-things that can help towards ongoing >> financial sustainability. >> > > Thank you both for your replies. I drafted a Reserve Policy for > Wikimedia UK so I have some idea of the challenge facing you there! > I'm really glad you are giving the subject of an endowment serious > thought, I think it would be really good to have that kind of > sustainability in the future. > > _______________________________________________ > foundation-l mailing list > foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l > _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l