[Foundation-l] Relocation announcement

Sat Sep 22 16:26:56 UTC 2007

> That's not quite how it works.  The donations that are coming in aren't
> going to be changing, so WMF will still be getting most donations in
> USD.  Except, because of the poor exchange rate, it is much more
> expensive to do just about everything in the UK, including renting
> flats, renting office space, buying food, buying bandwidth, etc.  The
> donations wouldn't go nearly as far.

If hosting is staying in the US, that's quite a lot of the expenses
that will still be being paid in USD. And it's not that the pound is
strong, it's the dollar that's weak, so any non-USD donations can be
spent in the UK without problems. I haven't looked at the budgets and
donation distributions to see how well it would work, but it shouldn't
be too big a problem. Remember, WMF is non-profit - one of the biggest
problems for profit making businesses is that they have to report
profits in one currency, so even if the actual money isn't being
converted, they still have to convert it on paper - the WMF doesn't
have to worry about that.