It has been revealed that 'secret-spilling' website WikiLeaks only spends 10% of its budget - which is made up of donations by individuals who use and support the site.
Perhaps not exactly in keeping with the group's mission of supporting transparency within society and the organizations that operate within it, both the website and its founder, Julian Assange, have been reluctant to comment with regard to the economics of the website.
According to Wired:
[Via Wired Magazine/Threat Level]Wikileaks has received 400,000 euros (U.S. $500,000) through PayPal or bank money transfers since late December, and spent only 30,000 euros (U.S. $38,000) from that funding, says Hendrik Fulda, vice president of the Berlin-based Wau Holland Foundation.The money has gone to pay the travel expenses of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and spokesman Daniel Schmitt, as well as to cover the costs of computer hardware, such as servers, and leasing data lines, says Fulda. Wikileaks does not currently pay a salary to Assange or other volunteers from this funding, though there have been discussions about doing so in the future, Fulda adds. The details have not yet been worked out.“If you are drawing from volunteers who are basically doing stuff for free and if you start paying money, the question is to whom, and to whom not, do you pay, and how much?” Fulda said. “It’s almost a moral question: How much money do you pay?”
