[Foundation-l] Charity Navigator rates WMF

Thu Oct 8 20:06:05 UTC 2009

On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 3:55 PM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2009/10/8 Anthony <wikimail at inbox.org>:
>> On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 2:28 PM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 2009/10/8 George Herbert <george.herbert at gmail.com>:
>>>> The WMF is not entirely unique in that regard; many other charities
>>>> are largely volunteer (cf Red Cross).
>>>
>>> According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Cross#Activities:
>>>
>>> "Altogether, there are about 97 million people worldwide who serve
>>> with the ICRC, the International Federation, and the National
>>> Societies. And there are about 12,000 total full time staff members."
>>>
>>> That is a ratio of about 8,000 volunteers per staff member.
>>>
>>> The Wikimedia movement has perhaps 40 staff including the WMF and
>>> chapters. At the same ratio, that would give us 320,000 volunteers. I
>>> don't know how many volunteers we have, but I think it is rather more
>>> than that.
>>
>> Depends how you define "volunteers".  How many people were eligible to
>> vote in the last board election?  I have no idea the number, but I
>> guess that's a reasonable definition of "volunteers".
>
> Indeed, it is difficult to define fairly. The board election requires
> you to be an active volunteer that has already contributed
> significantly - I expect the 97 million figure is broader than that.

Probably is.  But it's probably easier to narrow down that number than
it is to expand it.  Unless they really are counting every person who
ever gave blood.

And it's not clear what that number means anyway.  Is a high ratio
good or bad?  It could be either, depending on the circumstances.