The Wytham project doesn’t fundraise from anyone now (having decided to shut down); the rationale for releasing at least some of the requested information is to evaluate EVF, which did and does solicit public donations. Its board was intimately involved with the controversial Wytham grant in the first place, and likely the decision to shut down a project also was ultimately a board-level decision. (There are also reasons for non-donors to want to evaluate EVF, given its leadership role in the ecosystem.)
This does push us a bit back toward the Apple Watch example. But I think entities with a tub-based structure will ordinary experience both significantly lower costs and risks to releasing more detailed information. Almost by definition, the tub-based model requires a more significant degree of internal accounting than a joint-pot model. While that may be of little significance for one of the world’s largest companies, I think the extent to which added transparency would require incurring additional costs / cause diversion is pretty relevant when we have small-to-midsize nonprofits in mind.
Also, Apple faces a risk of divulging competitively valuable information—e.g., how much it thinks watch R&D is worth investing in, line items for specific research projects, etc. And divulging competitively valuable information is antithetical to the main reason (shareholder interests) for Apple’s existence which is also related to why one might expect more detailed disclosure in the first case. It’s not clear what the analogous risk to a tub-based (or really any) nonprofit in terms of its reason for existence (i.e., the public interest).
Sure, if EVF released more detailed information about Wytham Abbey, that would help people evaluate EVF a little bit, in the same way that if Apple released more detailed information about Apple Watch, that would also help shareholders evaluate Apple. It could also help bondholders, consumers, academics and policymakers make decisions. In both cases the impact is limited by the fact that the aggregate numbers are already released, so if EVF/Apple had an especially bloated cost structure on Wytham/Watch, that implies some other EVF/Apple division was extra-efficient.
I don’t know exactly how Apple is internally organized, but I strongly suspect there is an Apple-Watch-level P&L calculated for planning purposes and compensating management. I would expect Apple Watch to have more professional accounting than Wytham, and to be more able to bear the additional costs involved in publishing (bringing internal numbers up to GAAP/IFRS standards etc.).
You’re right that by publishing information Apple could help competitors, and this is a significant disincentive. It’s less clear to me however that this should be a considered a cost from a social point of view; helping competitors make decisions could help increase competition and the spread of good practices in the market.
The Wytham project doesn’t fundraise from anyone now (having decided to shut down); the rationale for releasing at least some of the requested information is to evaluate EVF, which did and does solicit public donations. Its board was intimately involved with the controversial Wytham grant in the first place, and likely the decision to shut down a project also was ultimately a board-level decision. (There are also reasons for non-donors to want to evaluate EVF, given its leadership role in the ecosystem.)
This does push us a bit back toward the Apple Watch example. But I think entities with a tub-based structure will ordinary experience both significantly lower costs and risks to releasing more detailed information. Almost by definition, the tub-based model requires a more significant degree of internal accounting than a joint-pot model. While that may be of little significance for one of the world’s largest companies, I think the extent to which added transparency would require incurring additional costs / cause diversion is pretty relevant when we have small-to-midsize nonprofits in mind.
Also, Apple faces a risk of divulging competitively valuable information—e.g., how much it thinks watch R&D is worth investing in, line items for specific research projects, etc. And divulging competitively valuable information is antithetical to the main reason (shareholder interests) for Apple’s existence which is also related to why one might expect more detailed disclosure in the first case. It’s not clear what the analogous risk to a tub-based (or really any) nonprofit in terms of its reason for existence (i.e., the public interest).
Sure, if EVF released more detailed information about Wytham Abbey, that would help people evaluate EVF a little bit, in the same way that if Apple released more detailed information about Apple Watch, that would also help shareholders evaluate Apple. It could also help bondholders, consumers, academics and policymakers make decisions. In both cases the impact is limited by the fact that the aggregate numbers are already released, so if EVF/Apple had an especially bloated cost structure on Wytham/Watch, that implies some other EVF/Apple division was extra-efficient.
I don’t know exactly how Apple is internally organized, but I strongly suspect there is an Apple-Watch-level P&L calculated for planning purposes and compensating management. I would expect Apple Watch to have more professional accounting than Wytham, and to be more able to bear the additional costs involved in publishing (bringing internal numbers up to GAAP/IFRS standards etc.).
You’re right that by publishing information Apple could help competitors, and this is a significant disincentive. It’s less clear to me however that this should be a considered a cost from a social point of view; helping competitors make decisions could help increase competition and the spread of good practices in the market.