It absolutely does, and Wikipedia gets my donation yearly for that. However there are legitimate questions about how much/few of that is dedicated to its core tasks: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Guy_Macon/Wikipedia_has...

Right, it is not like most large orgs. So the excuse "most large orgs throw parties" is not a good one, imo.

Though tbh "other orgs do it" is never a good argument, but it is especially bad here.

I've attended a bunch of Wikimedia/Wikimania conferences. These are held on a shoestring budget, and any drinking and dancing is on participants' own dime.

WMF's per-employee T&E cost is apparently $7k/year. Working in sales at a company you've heard of, I've flown single flights and attended single dinners that cost more than that.

Yes, except WMF should not be doing sales.

They're an online wikipedia. Their costs keep ballooning, and not to pay for things that I care about when I donate money to support their core mission.

Haha freudian slip there,

*online encyclopedia.