Task force/Financial Sustainability
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The task force process is completed. Some task forces may be reconstituted to discuss incomplete issues. Please discuss on the Village Pump. |
Relevant Wikimedia-pedia Articles
Participants should be sure they're familiar with the relevant background material. They should also work to identify gaps and collect and summarize more information as it becomes available.
Recommendations
Recommendations should follow Template:Recommendations. The following are stub pages for this task force's recommendations:
Task force/Recommendations/Financial sustainability 1
Task force/Recommendations/Financial sustainability 2
Task force/Recommendations/Financial sustainability 3
Task force/Recommendations/Financial sustainability 4
Task force/Recommendations/Financial sustainability 5
Members
- Paul Youlten
- User:Anders Wennersten
- Theo10011
- Rand Montoya, Head of Community Giving, Wikimedia Foundation
- Stu West, Board member and Board Treasurer of Wikimedia Foundation
- Richard Boult
- Rebecca Handler: Head of Major Gifts, Wikimedia Foundation
Supporting: John Fowler and Philippe Beaudette
Mandate
As the size and scope of Wikimedia’s projects have grown, so too have the resource requirements to support the technology infrastructure and conduct activities that depend on paid staff (e.g., communications, fundraising). These additional costs have been supported principally by donations from the Community and supporters. Growth of both costs and revenues has occured in the absence of a clearly defined business model.
The task force should develop answers to these questions to help guide their work:
- What revenue streams could support Wikimedia in an ongoing, sustainable manner (i.e. grants, licensing, reciprocal agreements)? This includes in-kind streams (e.g. free bandwidth, free servers).
- What business model options are available for Wikimedia to pursue to cover its costs? What can we learn from other organizations that have pursued these models?
- Should Wikimedia create an endowment, if so what will those funds be used for?
- What would it take in terms of capacity and capabilities for Wikimedia to pursue each business model? Which group, Foundation or Chapters, should own each part of the business model and how should they interact?
- Which models are most appropriate given the Wikimedia Foundation's mission and the strengths of the community?
- Who is needed to support this strategy (e.g., Wikimedia Foundation, chapters, individual volunteers, external partners), and what do they need to do?