Pixar in a Box (2015) | Hacker News Reader

Pixar in a Box (2015)

khanacademy.org

48 pointswallflower13 comments

Discussed at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10129914

2016: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11761622

Pixar in a Box was so cool! It's a shame Disney pulled funding for the program :(

“ We'll get right to the point: we're asking you to help. Khan Academy is a nonprofit that relies on support from people like you. If everyone reading this gives $10 monthly, we can continue to thrive for years.”

I would never give khan academy a penny. Sal khan makes hundreds of thousands of dollars from this non profit. They get a majority of their money through grants. I will use khan academy for free forever and you all should do the same.

This seems like a bad sign for Khan Academy. I hope they continue to exist but I'm not a fan of how they are asking for donations as a monthly subscription.

They will last a long time of Sal Khan doesn’t keep raising his f’ing salary. 2017 he made over $800,000.

You can see everything on their 990: https://pp-990.s3.amazonaws.com/10_2018_prefixes_26-27/26154...

What does he do with it? Maybe it's a worthwhile expense? Most of his life's efforts so far seem to be in the best interest of humanity, from what I have read at least.

I’m ok with that, why not? Let’s say he could make that working for a FAANG or his own for profit, this is the price that keeps him from leaving this current work. Besides, economies of scale, that’s probably pennies compared to actual operating costs. Look at any “non-profit” organization out there, most executives are pushing 7 figures.

So go donate some money to his salary. My point is that they have a ton of money and most of it is tax money We have all paid. Don’t ask me for donations under the “everyone can help” when it’s just a lie. This is the email I sent him a few years back:

Hi Sal -

Out of curiosity, what's the justification for the $200,000 pay increase from 2013 to 2014? Your salary was $348k for 3 years, so why the nearly 60% increase in pay? I, personally, find it difficult to contribute even $3 when I see executives of nonprofits commanding salaries this high. That $200k is 66,666 people donating $3 just to cover that.

I am no accountant but looking at your financials it seems like you all have a ton of cash and assets. I find emails like this to be a bit misleading in the urgency of donations.

Why is this any worse than wikipedia doing the same? Or is wikipedia asking for donations also a bad sign?

Wikipedia asking for donations isn't any better. It is well documented that Wikipedia is less than forward in their donation requests about how much money they actually need. Wikipedia is not starving for money.

I am not really familiar with the economic situation of Wikipedia but, if their goal is to be able to keep running for years to come I think it makes a lot of sense to keep asking for donations.

If Wikipedia had no money on hand and were always at the mercy of the organizations and government programs that they receive grants from, that would be a bad situation I think.

You really do need to have some runway, whether you are a commercial business or a non-profit.

Perhaps Wikipedia is asking for too much, but I would really rather see them ask for too much than too little. Wikipedia is a very important project that is doing a great deal of good simply by continuing to exist as a free and open encyclopedia that anyone can contribute to.

Wikipedia regularly misrepresents the intended use of donation funds when asking for money. They should be upfront that they are looking to keep it running for so long with such and such strategy.

The Wikipedia requests don't default to a monthly donation. The bad sign is that it seems they need more money to get by and could indicate issues with how their funding is managed.

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