[Foundation-l] Charity Navigator rates WMF

Fri Oct 9 20:33:37 UTC 2009

2009/10/9 Gregory Kohs <thekohser at gmail.com>:
> Nathan asks:
>
> +++++++++
>
> I'm curious what importance you attach to the Charity Navigator
> rating, and how you think it is (or should be) relevant to the
> operations of the WMF. Care to explain?
>
> +++++++++
>
> Thank you for asking, Nathan.  As always, I am eager to provide a prompt and
> direct response to questions, though that is not standard practice in some
> circles.
>
> I make charitable gifts each year that typically total between $3,000 and
> $5,000.  Some of my strict rules for charitable giving include (1) don't
> ever give on the basis of only a telephone solicitation or an in-person
> intercept, and (2) don't ever give without first looking up the organization
> on both GuideStar and Charity Navigator.  If another organization can be
> found that serves a similar need, but is doing so more efficiently with its
> dollars, then my donation goes to that organization, and other less
> stringent donors are free to fling their money at a more inefficient
> organization.
>
> For example, to help further the cause of truth and knowledge on the
> Internet, this year I made a donation to ProCon.org:
>
> http://www.procon.org/aboutus.asp#Financial
>
> ...even though it was not yet listed in Charity Navigator, I could still
> make a decision in part because I appreciated that 87% of their expenses
> were spent on program services, as opposed to 66% at the Wikimedia
> Foundation.
>
> Therefore, for me, GuideStar and Charity Navigator are important tools for
> me to help decide where my charitable contributions will be directed in a
> given year.
>

I wouldn't give money to an organization spending 54K$ in 2008 to pay
8 people. 562,5USD per month, those guys must be starving !

Or some of their salaries are considered as "programm"... But I
wouldn't dare thinking you didn't looked at the financial report
beside the nice images :)

Anyway, soif we want to have the "stars" what's needed is just to put
all the salaries and costs needed to run the servers and improve the
software in programm.

Problem solved :)

-- 
Christophe