Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2008-07-07/Wikimedia 2009 plan

Last week, the Wikimedia Foundation released its annual plan for FY2009, spanning the period from July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2009. During that period, the Foundation expects to spend about US$5.97 million, on revenues of $7.34 million.

Along with this plan came estimated figures from FY2008. The Foundation estimated $4.57 million in revenue in FY2008, just short of the FY2008 budgeted expenditures of $4.61 million, but well over the $2.94 million in actual expenditures. The main reason for this discrepancy is a significant under-spending in technology, where a budgeted $2.57 million of expenditures far outstripped the $900,000 in actual expenditures. This discrepancy was explained as due to a few reasons: General caution in purchasing, delays in hiring personnel due to the office's move to San Francisco, and pending sponsorship deals that may help defray some new server costs.

In FY2009, $2.7 million is budgeted for technology; of this, about $1 million will go toward servers and other hardware costs. Hosting costs account for about $860,000, and the remainder will go toward salaries and contractor payments. That figure includes a $500,000 anticipated "donation in kind", likely referring to the pending sponsorship deal(s) mentioned above.

Other budget changes mainly deal with increased personnel, with new hires throughout FY2008 and anticipated hires throughout FY2009. Included in the plan is a timeline for estimated hires; the hires currently planned for FY2009 include:


 * August: Software developer
 * August: Development specialist
 * October: Software developer
 * October: Systems administrator
 * January: Chief Programs Officer
 * February: Software developer

The position of "Head of Partnerships" was originally scheduled to be filled around January, but was actually filled this week (see below). By the end of FY2009, the Foundation is expected to employ 26 people, including nine developers/technical staff, six people in the programs department, eight dedicated to finance and administration, and the general counsel and executive and deputy directors.

Erik Zachte, Sara Crouse hired
Meanwhile, the Foundation made its first two hires of FY2009 last week, officially hiring Erik Zachte as a part-time contractor to the Wikimedia Foundation as of September 1, and hiring Sara Crouse as Head of Partnerships and Foundation Relations.

Zachte, a long-time member of the Wikimedia community and the developer of WikiStats, will focus primarily on providing the Foundation with statistics and metrics about the projects; CTO Brion Vibber indicated that an immediate project would be integrating traffic statistics formally into WikiStats.

Crouse, meanwhile, has been working with the Foundation on a contractual basis for several months, helping the Foundation to build its strategies for attracting major donors. Her hiring as Head of Partnerships and Foundation Relations is apparently effective immediately.