Raising money you don't need would be a gross breach of a charity trustee's fiduciary duties... On Dec 21, 2012 3:55 PM, "James Salsman" <[email protected]> wrote:
> Sj, > > I appreciate your kind words because I am somewhat frustrated. > > > thank you for your nuanced statistical comments; something we could use > more of. > > Well, I have two additional questions for you and your colleagues > concerning fiduciary duties relative to the observed growth rates. I'm > not going to go into my issues with the volunteer contributed > messaging not being tested, or whether multivariate testing can or can > not measure donations. My previous message should make my sentiment on > those issues clear. > > This year, after the Chief Revenue Officer claimed that it would be > unlikely to "significantly" exceed last year's fundraising,[1] the > Annual Plan was adjusted to reflect a much slower growth rate in > fundraising.[2] However, page views grew from 16.4 billion last > December to 20.8 billion last month in line with their longstanding > exponential trend,[3] and it became immediately apparent from the > first days of presenting banners to all readers on November 27th that > fundraising was occurring at about double last year's rate.[4] In > spite of that, fundraising was deactivated just over a week later.[4] > Then, on December 14, the fundraiser goal was announced for the first > time as $25 million.[5] And now, apparently, fundraising has been > discontinued for the year.[6] > > Would you and the other members of the Board of Trustees please state > whether, and why or why not, deliberately slowing fundraising while > page views continue to grow at the same exponential rate they have > been over the past several years, is compatible with the fiduciary > duty of the Board and employees? Would you please request comment > concerning whether the community has confidence in this deliberate > slow-down? Thank you. > > Best regards, > James Salsman > > [1] > http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2012/How_Wikimedia_revenue_grows#So_how_much_more_can_we_raise_in_2012.3F > > [2] > http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/2012-2013_Annual_Plan_Questions_and_Answers#What.27s_the_revenue_target_for_2012-13.2C_and_how_does_it_compare_to_previous_years.3F > > [3] http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/graphs/pageviews > > [4] http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Special:FundraiserStatistics > > [5] > http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2012-December/123043.html > > [6] > http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Fundraising_2012&diff=4885494&oldid=4884949 > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list > [email protected] > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l > _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
