I understand but it is still a job for them.
And I want people to be aware of these salaries. It might rub them the wrong way to think that the president can earn 1 million dollars in a span of 3 years off donations.
Discussion
We work extremely hard and produce a lot of change in the world and I am very very proud of all the things we do
If you don’t think the work we do is worth it, then simple, don’t donate
And BTW, just for clarity, any donations earmarked to the Bitcoin Development Fund go directly to developers, nothing is skimmed
Donors give us “general operating” grants when they want to support the truly awesome humans who work for us
Are funds that go to the workers, including yourself, only from the general operating fund?
General operating grants are donations made to us that aren’t earmarked for anything in particular
They support staff salaries and whole range of other things
I can assure you all of my colleagues kick major ass and are the kind of highly productive people one would want to support
Were not just sitting around doing nothing
You didn’t answer my question. Are the general operating grants the only funds that pay worker salaries?
It depends. If someone donates to our Art in Protest program for example it may cover some of the salary of the director of that program. BDF is special and any grants earmarked to that go straight into grants with nothing taken off the top.
Okay so the Bitcoin development fund is the only fund that sends 100% of its contributions to the cause with no skimming off the top?
Are there any accurate numbers you can provide as to how much of other funds are skimmed? Like this art fund, do you know what percentage gets skimmed off the top for salaries?
We have two dozen programs. They are all unique. Some programs are 100% funding a person to do research or legal work. We hire lawyers to get people out of jail for example. Some programs are grants like BDF or specific programs we have to make grants to civil society in Belarus or Hong Kong. Some are event production like the Oslo Freedom Forum. Do you have a specific question? Would you like to make a donation to something?
If I donate $1k to a fund, what percentage of that actually goes to the cause? 95%? 80%? 50%?
We aren’t the Red Cross or something. We don’t exist to give money to other people. We have some special funds that do that like the BDF but we are generally speaking an advocacy organization. If you give money to for example the Freedom Fellowship it gets split across: a) paying the people who make it happen - the main cost b) some travel and accommodations for workshops and retreats c) a stipend we give the fellows d) some equipment and other smaller misc costs