Fæ <fae...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> (I must admit that i tested the job a year ago, the product was fine, the >>> shipment fast. A bit expensive for my taste.)
>> Expensive? The profit adds funds the WMF, surely. > This is a logical fallacy that many charities fall into, and end up > damaging their reputation in the tabloid press when it turns out that > 80%+ of donations "disappear" in costs such as commercial fees, paying > chugger agencies and bonuses and six-figure salaries for fundraising/marketing > directors, rather than going to the intended beneficiary. > Here's a highly likely pragmatic scenario... if, say, a $20 "donation" > to get a WMF merchandise tee-shirt disappeared as: > * $ 12.00 basic transaction and product costs > * $ 6.00 profit/fees to intermediary organizations > * $ 1.80 WMF administration costs > * 20 cents is the outcome "donation" to WMF causes (1%) > Then yes, the transaction adds funds to the WMF, but in a really > crappy way where the system probably cost several times more in WMF > staff time to set up than it will make over many years, comparatively > huge profit margins are going to unnamed parties (at least unnamed for > the purchaser or WMF volunteers), and in a non-transparent way too. Your point is made much more succinct in the Trademark Pol- icy (cf. https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Trademark_policy#policy-commercialmerch): | You may make merchandise with the Wikimedia trademarks for | commercial use, if: | - You obtain a trademark license from the Wikimedia Founda- | tion; | - You follow our Visual Identity Guidelines; and | - You truthfully advertise to customers how much of the | selling price, if any, will be donated to Wikimedia sites. The problem is the belief that a charity with a focus on distributing knowledge must have its own t-shirt shop, probably fostered by firm disciples getting free mugs. Tim _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
