> Why are they still fundraising so aggressively in such a situation?
They've got many millions of users and billions of page views, so if all it takes is a little banner to bring in millions of dollars, and a little, slightly deceptive tweak to the language to bring in millions more...do you really expect them to decline that opportunity? What real, measurable incentives do they have to not fundraise? You can hardly blame those grant applicants when they ask their really, really rich friend for some support or a day or two of fundraising to achieve that support.
There aren't financial or legal consequences, especially for the smaller group doing the asking.
It's really hard, especially in 2022, at the level of a global multi-million dollar, multi-billion page view organization to make decisions on vague, difficult to measure concepts like ethics and reputation.
> They've got many millions of users and billions of page views, so if all it takes is a little banner to bring in millions of dollars, and a little, slightly deceptive tweak to the language to bring in millions more...do you really expect them to decline that opportunity?
Yes, because destroying your credibility risks destroying future fund raising potential.
I think most people "really expect" Wikipedia/Wikimedia to act ethically and responsibly, yeah -- which is why their fund-raising is so successful. If they lose that reputation, it will be less so.
Certainly I don't donate money to organizations I don't "really expect" to act ethically and responsibly. Do you?
"When being unethical brings in so much money, how can you expect them to act ethically?"
How is this materially different than if I started a GoFundMe saying I needed money for my mortgage and other bills, but actually using it to take a huge vacation? You see, if I didn't take that vacation, I would have burned out from my job, lost it, and then been unable to pay my bills (after my savings ran out).
Do I expect a non-profit organization with a charitable mission to decline opportunities to aggressively browbeat the public for money it doesn't need? Yes, yes I absolutely do.
They've got many millions of users and billions of page views, so if all it takes is a little banner to bring in millions of dollars, and a little, slightly deceptive tweak to the language to bring in millions more...do you really expect them to decline that opportunity? What real, measurable incentives do they have to not fundraise? You can hardly blame those grant applicants when they ask their really, really rich friend for some support or a day or two of fundraising to achieve that support.
There aren't financial or legal consequences, especially for the smaller group doing the asking.
It's really hard, especially in 2022, at the level of a global multi-million dollar, multi-billion page view organization to make decisions on vague, difficult to measure concepts like ethics and reputation.