[Foundation-l] Grants -- a proposal

Mon Jun 20 02:59:59 UTC 2005

--- daniwo59 at aol.com wrote:
> I therefore suggest that donors have the possibility of earmarking their  
> donation. That is to say, they will have the ability to specify where they
> want their money to go. In that case, one donor may give specifically for
> servers, while another donor may give specifically to promote a language,
> print a  particular wikibook, or whatever.  

Hm. This type of thing locks up funds and makes running organizations much more
difficult than necessary, IMO. The board in consultation with its various
officers are the body by which budgeting is done. Feedback from donors can and
should be collected in a systematic and easy to parse way, but should not tie
the hands of the board (grants excepted). That type of information should
*inform* the board's decision - not dictate it. 

Most of the annual California state budget, for example, has been dictated by
various voter initiatives. Thus lawmakers have very little to work with while
crafting budgets. This is one reason often cited for California's on-going
financial crisis. 

So while this at first sounds like a neat idea, in practice it just makes our
budgeting less flexible and thus less able to adapt to changing conditions,
IMO. 

-- mav

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