Financial Sustainability Task Force Question 1

Make use of country/cultural specific grant opportunities

Sweden/Swedish make up 1-2% of the WMF community/activiies, and being a rich country it would be fair we would support WMF with a higher share of the financing, say 100-150 k$ yearly. The stream of giftdonations from here though is only around 15 k$ a year, which probably if it was promoted more heavily could double, but this revenue source from here would never come close to the 100 k$. (the tradition of gift giving exists in Sweden but lees and involving far smaller sums then in US for example).

On the other hand, Sweden (and the Nordic countries) have a long traditon of revenue opportunities for non-profut organsaition from grants from some cultural specific funds, some totally independant from governement, other semi-dependent. For eaxmple when no will or close relatives exist, the inheritance after a death goes into a special fund, giving away grants to "good causes". I would think grants in the magnitude of 0,5 - 1 M$ yearly would be quite realistic to receive, which would allow both appropriate funding to WMF as well as funding a small office (two persons?) to be able to suport the WMF cause more professional then by only volunteers organized as today in the Chapter.

To be able to go this road, costs neeed to be more dedicated to Swedish usage then today. But, for example a dedicated cost for servers (not necessary for them to be placed here) could be allocated to Sweden, I would think the funds here would love it to be a common Nordic one, also supporting the Baltic states and perhaps som other language version in the poorer parts of the world.

Anders Wennersten 09:11, 19 November 2009 (UTC)