Mailing List Archive

Fundraiser update
This was noted a few days ago on the Fundraising FAQ, but to help spread
the word, the fundraiser is now scheduled to end on January 3. This
extension of time will allow some more testing with the new fundraising
site. Also, considering that donations increased over the weekend
following Thanksgiving in the US, if people are feeling more generous
over the holidays (or just trying to beat the end of the tax year), so
much the better.

--Michael Snow

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Re: Fundraiser update [ In reply to ]
On Dec 20, 2007 9:27 PM, Michael Snow <wikipedia@att.net> wrote:

> This was noted a few days ago on the Fundraising FAQ, but to help spread
> the word, the fundraiser is now scheduled to end on January 3. This
> extension of time will allow some more testing with the new fundraising
> site. Also, considering that donations increased over the weekend
> following Thanksgiving in the US, if people are feeling more generous
> over the holidays (or just trying to beat the end of the tax year), so
> much the better.
>
> --Michael Snow
>
>

The people planning this do realize that this takes the fund drive to 84
days, right?

The longest previous drive was 34 days.

I'd be among the first to point out that WMF needs the money, but eventually
I have imagine that several short drives is better than 1 really long one.

Also, I'd bet good money that the "Thanksgiving bump" came primarily from
launching the Fundraising blog on the 23rd and not from that holiday.
(Though the end of the tax year might actually be motivating now.)
-Robert Rohde
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Re: Fundraiser update [ In reply to ]
On 12/21/07, Robert Rohde <rarohde@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'd be among the first to point out that WMF needs the money, but eventually
> I have imagine that several short drives is better than 1 really long one.

The two main reasons for extending the drive:

* Hopefully we'll have a new fundraising site up soon, and this will
allow us to do some more testing on what difference it could make;

* We want to benefit from any increased likelihood to give over the holidays.

Obviously there are many things about this fundraiser that have been
very broken; the fact that I (still as Board member) spent my weekend
brainstorming with an old student friend of mine over the design of
the sitenotice to get the current one ready tells you something about
the bandwidth that WMF has had for the execution of this thing:
There's an audit underway, we're relocating, we're hiring, etc. So no,
simply extending the FR by another few days is not going to do
miracles, but hopefully it'll net something like another $50K-$100K,
which isn't nothing.

Erik

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Re: Fundraiser update [ In reply to ]
> Also, I'd bet good money that the "Thanksgiving bump" came primarily from
> launching the Fundraising blog on the 23rd and not from that holiday.

Easy way to check that - if the extra money was mainly in USD (does
anywhere else celebrate Thanksgiving? if so, add their currencies to
the list), it was likely from Thanksgiving, if it was spread evenly
among the currencies, it was probably the blog.

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Re: Fundraiser update [ In reply to ]
Thomas Dalton wrote:
>> Also, I'd bet good money that the "Thanksgiving bump" came primarily from
>> launching the Fundraising blog on the 23rd and not from that holiday.
>
> Easy way to check that - if the extra money was mainly in USD (does
> anywhere else celebrate Thanksgiving? if so, add their currencies to
> the list), it was likely from Thanksgiving, if it was spread evenly
> among the currencies, it was probably the blog.

Nope.
You may have missed two important factors in the analysis
1) the blog was exclusively in english, which means a rather significant
part of our readership was not able to read its content
2) the blog is only advertized at the top of all english-speaking projects.

So, if the money was mostly in US dollars, it may have been
thanksgiving, or the blog.

Ant


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fundraiser update [ In reply to ]
Thomas Dalton wrote:
>> Also, I'd bet good money that the "Thanksgiving bump" came primarily
from
>> launching the Fundraising blog on the 23rd and not from that holiday.
>
> Easy way to check that - if the extra money was mainly in USD (does
> anywhere else celebrate Thanksgiving? if so, add their currencies to
> the list), it was likely from Thanksgiving, if it was spread evenly
> among the currencies, it was probably the blog.

Nope.
You may have missed two important factors in the analysis
1) the blog was exclusively in english, which means a rather significant
part of our readership was not able to read its content
2) the blog is only advertized at the top of all english-speaking projects.

So, if the money was mostly in US dollars, it may have been
thanksgiving, or the blog.

Ant

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Re: Fundraiser update [ In reply to ]
On 21/12/2007, Florence Devouard <Anthere9@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Thomas Dalton wrote:
> >> Also, I'd bet good money that the "Thanksgiving bump" came primarily from
> >> launching the Fundraising blog on the 23rd and not from that holiday.
> >
> > Easy way to check that - if the extra money was mainly in USD (does
> > anywhere else celebrate Thanksgiving? if so, add their currencies to
> > the list), it was likely from Thanksgiving, if it was spread evenly
> > among the currencies, it was probably the blog.
>
> Nope.
> You may have missed two important factors in the analysis
> 1) the blog was exclusively in english, which means a rather significant
> part of our readership was not able to read its content
> 2) the blog is only advertized at the top of all english-speaking projects.
>
> So, if the money was mostly in US dollars, it may have been
> thanksgiving, or the blog.

Good point, you need to compare USD to other currencies from
English-speaking countries, which does reduce the sample size quite a
bit, so it's not as reliable a check.

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Re: fundraiser update [ In reply to ]
On 21/12/2007, Florence Devouard <anthere@anthere.org> wrote:

> You may have missed two important factors in the analysis
> 1) the blog was exclusively in english, which means a rather significant
> part of our readership was not able to read its content
> 2) the blog is only advertized at the top of all english-speaking projects.
>
> So, if the money was mostly in US dollars, it may have been
> thanksgiving, or the blog.

We can partially correct for this by seeing if we had a comparable
bump in GBP or AUD (and to a lesser extent CAD), I suspect.

--
- Andrew Gray
andrew.gray@dunelm.org.uk

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Re: Fundraiser update [ In reply to ]
May be it will help in analysis a bit if the donation form contained tick
boxes with predefined reasons? that is beside the comment box or make the
comment box the 'other' option.

--user:alnokta
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Re: Fundraiser update [ In reply to ]
Who is responsible for the code behind the fundraiser? I have a few
proposals he or she may like. Its too late for this fundraiser but would
help on the future ones

Additionally I think the foundation should set a donation goal for the end
of the year. Not as a begathon like the 6 mil one but something more
discrete (completely unadvertised). People will continue to donate if they
see a new goal.

- White Cat

On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 6:01 AM, Erik Moeller <erik@wikimedia.org> wrote:

> A quick update: the "Thank You" banner is currently scheduled to stay
> up until January 9, 4 PM PST. We're keeping it up a while longer in
> part because it's the first work week after the holidays for many
> people, and in part because it's an opportunity for chapters to get
> some more visibility (we may have reached our goals ahead of time, but
> the chapters were operating under the assumption that the fundraiser
> would continue until January 15). As explained in the "Thank You"
> letter, the funds donated to WMF from now until the end of the fiscal
> year will go into our reserve fund and will help us to not live from
> hand to mouth as we head into the new fiscal. We'd always planned to
> raise at least $1.3M in reserve funding throughout the fiscal year.
>
> Obviously we're thrilled by the success of the fundraiser: many thanks
> to Rand and the rest of the team here for making it happen. :-)
> Special _huge, huge_ thanks to Casey and all the translation
> volunteers for their help throughout the process. It's hard to
> overstate the value of the volunteer contributions of time and effort
> to the fundraiser, and I think it speaks to the strength of our
> sustainability model. :-)
>
> As always, there'll be lots to learn & improve as well. We'll start
> preparing some follow-up reports and analysis soon. (We still intend
> to share raw data files with the community, but we have to do some
> more clean-up, especially on check data, before it'll be useful.) In
> the meantime, if you already have some thoughts & immediate comments
> on the fundraiser -- what worked, what didn't, what we should focus on
> -- please feel free to post them in this thread.
> --
> Erik Möller
> Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation
>
> Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
>
> _______________________________________________
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Re: Fundraiser update [ In reply to ]
Hoi,
I think the foundation did great with the last fundraiser. When we
*need *something
like 6 million dollar we should ask for it and it is legitimate to ask for
it. It is really sad that people do not realise how much our aims suffer
from a lack of investment. We need to do better, we can do better and it *does
*take money to do this.

When you have proposals to make for a next fundraiser, make them. If your
ideas have merit, I am sure they will be taken up. If these ideas work out
and provide us with sufficient funding to not need what you call a
"begaton", fine. However, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. We need
to be funded for our activities and if this requires a fundraiser, we will
have one.
Thanks,
GerardM

2009/1/7 White Cat <wikipedia.kawaii.neko@gmail.com>

> Who is responsible for the code behind the fundraiser? I have a few
> proposals he or she may like. Its too late for this fundraiser but would
> help on the future ones
>
> Additionally I think the foundation should set a donation goal for the end
> of the year. Not as a begathon like the 6 mil one but something more
> discrete (completely unadvertised). People will continue to donate if they
> see a new goal.
>
> - White Cat
>
> On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 6:01 AM, Erik Moeller <erik@wikimedia.org> wrote:
>
> > A quick update: the "Thank You" banner is currently scheduled to stay
> > up until January 9, 4 PM PST. We're keeping it up a while longer in
> > part because it's the first work week after the holidays for many
> > people, and in part because it's an opportunity for chapters to get
> > some more visibility (we may have reached our goals ahead of time, but
> > the chapters were operating under the assumption that the fundraiser
> > would continue until January 15). As explained in the "Thank You"
> > letter, the funds donated to WMF from now until the end of the fiscal
> > year will go into our reserve fund and will help us to not live from
> > hand to mouth as we head into the new fiscal. We'd always planned to
> > raise at least $1.3M in reserve funding throughout the fiscal year.
> >
> > Obviously we're thrilled by the success of the fundraiser: many thanks
> > to Rand and the rest of the team here for making it happen. :-)
> > Special _huge, huge_ thanks to Casey and all the translation
> > volunteers for their help throughout the process. It's hard to
> > overstate the value of the volunteer contributions of time and effort
> > to the fundraiser, and I think it speaks to the strength of our
> > sustainability model. :-)
> >
> > As always, there'll be lots to learn & improve as well. We'll start
> > preparing some follow-up reports and analysis soon. (We still intend
> > to share raw data files with the community, but we have to do some
> > more clean-up, especially on check data, before it'll be useful.) In
> > the meantime, if you already have some thoughts & immediate comments
> > on the fundraiser -- what worked, what didn't, what we should focus on
> > -- please feel free to post them in this thread.
> > --
> > Erik Möller
> > Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation
> >
> > Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > foundation-l mailing list
> > foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
> >
> _______________________________________________
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>
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Re: Fundraiser update [ In reply to ]
2009/1/7 Erik Moeller <erik@wikimedia.org>:
> A quick update: the "Thank You" banner is currently scheduled to stay
> up until January 9, 4 PM PST. We're keeping it up a while longer in
> part because it's the first work week after the holidays for many
> people, and in part because it's an opportunity for chapters to get
> some more visibility (we may have reached our goals ahead of time, but
> the chapters were operating under the assumption that the fundraiser
> would continue until January 15). As explained in the "Thank You"
> letter, the funds donated to WMF from now until the end of the fiscal
> year will go into our reserve fund and will help us to not live from
> hand to mouth as we head into the new fiscal. We'd always planned to
> raise at least $1.3M in reserve funding throughout the fiscal year.


It is also a opportunity to further annoy our readers. IT's pretty
clear they don't like it so the sensible thing to do would be to
remove it or if you have some weird desire to keep it make it a lot
smaller.

--
geni

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Re: Fundraiser update [ In reply to ]
On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 3:11 PM, geni <geniice@gmail.com> wrote:

> 2009/1/7 Erik Moeller <erik@wikimedia.org>:
> > A quick update: the "Thank You" banner is currently scheduled to stay
> > up until January 9, 4 PM PST. We're keeping it up a while longer in
> > part because it's the first work week after the holidays for many
> > people, and in part because it's an opportunity for chapters to get
> > some more visibility (we may have reached our goals ahead of time, but
> > the chapters were operating under the assumption that the fundraiser
> > would continue until January 15). As explained in the "Thank You"
> > letter, the funds donated to WMF from now until the end of the fiscal
> > year will go into our reserve fund and will help us to not live from
> > hand to mouth as we head into the new fiscal. We'd always planned to
> > raise at least $1.3M in reserve funding throughout the fiscal year.
>
>
> It is also a opportunity to further annoy our readers. IT's pretty
> clear they don't like it


and you know this because...?



--
Michael Bimmler
mbimmler@gmail.com
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Re: Fundraiser update [ In reply to ]
I don't know. Everyone knows the fastest way to remove a begathon is through
generous donations. ;)
- White Cat

On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 4:11 PM, geni <geniice@gmail.com> wrote:

> 2009/1/7 Erik Moeller <erik@wikimedia.org>:
> > A quick update: the "Thank You" banner is currently scheduled to stay
> > up until January 9, 4 PM PST. We're keeping it up a while longer in
> > part because it's the first work week after the holidays for many
> > people, and in part because it's an opportunity for chapters to get
> > some more visibility (we may have reached our goals ahead of time, but
> > the chapters were operating under the assumption that the fundraiser
> > would continue until January 15). As explained in the "Thank You"
> > letter, the funds donated to WMF from now until the end of the fiscal
> > year will go into our reserve fund and will help us to not live from
> > hand to mouth as we head into the new fiscal. We'd always planned to
> > raise at least $1.3M in reserve funding throughout the fiscal year.
>
>
> It is also a opportunity to further annoy our readers. IT's pretty
> clear they don't like it so the sensible thing to do would be to
> remove it or if you have some weird desire to keep it make it a lot
> smaller.
>
> --
> geni
>
> _______________________________________________
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> foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org
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>
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Re: Fundraiser update [ In reply to ]
2009/1/7 Michael Bimmler <mbimmler@gmail.com>:
> On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 3:11 PM, geni <geniice@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> 2009/1/7 Erik Moeller <erik@wikimedia.org>:
>> > A quick update: the "Thank You" banner is currently scheduled to stay
>> > up until January 9, 4 PM PST. We're keeping it up a while longer in
>> > part because it's the first work week after the holidays for many
>> > people, and in part because it's an opportunity for chapters to get
>> > some more visibility (we may have reached our goals ahead of time, but
>> > the chapters were operating under the assumption that the fundraiser
>> > would continue until January 15). As explained in the "Thank You"
>> > letter, the funds donated to WMF from now until the end of the fiscal
>> > year will go into our reserve fund and will help us to not live from
>> > hand to mouth as we head into the new fiscal. We'd always planned to
>> > raise at least $1.3M in reserve funding throughout the fiscal year.
>>
>>
>> It is also a opportunity to further annoy our readers. IT's pretty
>> clear they don't like it
>
>
> and you know this because...?

Because I run daily searches of blogs for the term wikipedia. Because
complaints have turned up all over the place on wikipedia. Because or
editors who also have to read the thing have gone so far as to have a
gadget to get rid of it. Because adblock which targets banner ads
among other things has 10,850,228 dowloads.

Because people come to wikipedia to read articles rather than thankyou
messages and taking up significant significant screen space with stuff
readers don't want is not generally considered a way to maximize the
level of like for your site.



--
geni

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Re: Fundraiser update [ In reply to ]
I think you guys did a great job, all in all. We can't and shouldn't expect
it to be perfect, and obviously you can't please everyone. I'm happy to say
that the disgruntlement I described in my "strong negative reaction" thread
at the beginning of the fundraiser did not prevent a very successful outcome
for the drive. It really shows the value of a professional staff, a value
that we've seen in a number of areas around Wikimedia. There will always be
people against asking for money, against banners, etc. But they don't come
with ideas on what to replace money with... (perhaps WMF can get into
providing natural gas to EU countries?), so in the mean time money it is!

Personally I appreciate that the foundation is working to make fundraising a
year round project, particularly with respect to large donations from
individuals and other foundations. I wonder if we can't work more closely
with other, more established charitable foundations though. If we connected
our fundraising drive to the fundraising of another charity, particularly
one that is very well known (like the B&M Gates Foundation, Ford Foundation,
Red Cross, etc.), wouldn't that make our drive more high profile in the
press and the donor world? Right now we get a lot of online buzz, but it
doesn't seem to translate into wider coverage. Working with them would also
much more clearly establish our charitable credentials, which directly
targets the major perception gap in the world about Wikimedia.

We could pair our whole drive with the drive of another major organization,
or parcel out days or weeks separately (a week where our drive is "In
cooperation with the American Red Cross, with donations split between these
two very valuable organizations" etc.). I don't know if we would get more
from the dual appeal than we lose by splitting donations, but we could
always have separate "Click here to donate to Wikimedia" and "Click here to
donate to the Red Cross."

Something to perhaps consider, anyway.

Nathan
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Re: Fundraiser update [ In reply to ]
Nathan wrote:
> Personally I appreciate that the foundation is working to make fundraising a
> year round project, particularly with respect to large donations from
> individuals and other foundations. I wonder if we can't work more closely
> with other, more established charitable foundations though. If we connected
> our fundraising drive to the fundraising of another charity, particularly
> one that is very well known (like the B&M Gates Foundation, Ford Foundation,
> Red Cross, etc.), wouldn't that make our drive more high profile in the
> press and the donor world? Right now we get a lot of online buzz, but it
> doesn't seem to translate into wider coverage. Working with them would also
> much more clearly establish our charitable credentials, which directly
> targets the major perception gap in the world about Wikimedia.
>
Just to point out, but many charities that are well-known and have lots
of money (including some you mention) do not actually do fundraising, so
this wouldn't make sense. Their funds, and often their visibility, come
entirely from one or more extremely wealthy individuals. We can't join
in on the Gates Foundation's fundraising, because it doesn't do any -
unless you imagine us sitting in on Bill talking to Warren Buffett about
how to dispose of his wealth. Go to their website and see what they tell
people who want to donate.
> We could pair our whole drive with the drive of another major organization,
> or parcel out days or weeks separately (a week where our drive is "In
> cooperation with the American Red Cross, with donations split between these
> two very valuable organizations" etc.). I don't know if we would get more
> from the dual appeal than we lose by splitting donations, but we could
> always have separate "Click here to donate to Wikimedia" and "Click here to
> donate to the Red Cross."
>
I'm pretty confident that in our current model, any dual drive would
siphon money away from Wikimedia to the partner, whoever that might be.
It would basically allow them to ride along on what we've built. I
suspect that even with the Red Cross - who have a good name, are much
bigger than us, and deal with a much bigger volume of donations - even
with all those factors, because the way they attract donor attention is
not strongly web-based, we'd be giving them a benefit much more than
they would be giving us one. There might be some other approach in which
dual fundraising is mutually beneficial, but I'd want to know what that
model is.

Also worth noting is that we are in fact giving multiple donation
options already, because the drive includes a number of participating
chapters. I would prefer to focus on improving that system and
increasing its benefits to all sides, and I'd be concerned about how
outside fundraising alliances might detract from it. The creative
thinking is commendable, though, and I encourage more of it.

--Michael Snow

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Re: Fundraiser update [ In reply to ]
(Sorry for not threading my replies).

I realise (not being completely dense) that some of these large
organizations don't solicit donations, but they might be willing to co-brand
as a sort of "in-kind" donation to the WMF. My intent was more to name well
known organizations to illustrate the point than to suggest specific
candidates.

As for siphoning off money - certainly most large organizations that survive
on donations (to name better ones, the Red Cross, United Way, Salvation
Army, UNICEF, American Cancer Society, World Wildlife Fund, etc. and smaller
operations like LiveStrong, Susan G. Komen, etc. ) don't have the same
online penetration that we have. They do, however, have a far more
sophisticated offline solicitation system and cultural penetration. What
they lack, we've got - what we lack, they've got. Sounds like a recipe for a
beneficial partnership. If one group were to include us in their mailing and
other solicitation work for a period of time, for instance, in exchange for
participation in our fundraising drive... it might afford both organizations
access to groups of people they otherwise might not reach.

It would also, as I mentioned, provide the very valuable service of
reinforcing with the public that the Wikimedia Foundation is charitable
organization that depends on donations for all of its operations. That fact
is implied in the very nature of a fundraising drive, but we saw from
Jimmy's note that having a high profile advocate, a personal appeal and a
clear expression of what Wikimedia is about really encourages people to
donate.

Nathan
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Re: Fundraiser update [ In reply to ]
2009/1/7 Nathan <nawrich@gmail.com>:
> It would also, as I mentioned, provide the very valuable service of
> reinforcing with the public that the Wikimedia Foundation is charitable
> organization that depends on donations for all of its operations. That fact
> is implied in the very nature of a fundraising drive, but we saw from
> Jimmy's note that having a high profile advocate, a personal appeal and a
> clear expression of what Wikimedia is about really encourages people to
> donate.

When it comes to fundraising, non-profits tend to be jealous guardians
of their constituencies. Any kind of shared fundraising activity would
seem to me to be most likely to be successful when conducted together
with an active partner, e.g., if we deepened our relationship with
OLPC, it might make sense to join forces on some fundraising
initiatives, especially insofar as they relate to the projects both
partners pursue together.
--
Erik Möller
Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation

Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate

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Re: Fundraiser update [ In reply to ]
Sorry Geni but you are totally wrong. Each year the Foundation asks for more
money than the year before, and each year the citizens of the world give it.


I challenge you to find 1% as many negative blog posts regarding the
fundraiser as there are positive comments left by donors.

On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 8:52 AM, geni <geniice@gmail.com> wrote:

> 2009/1/7 Michael Bimmler <mbimmler@gmail.com>:
> > On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 3:11 PM, geni <geniice@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> 2009/1/7 Erik Moeller <erik@wikimedia.org>:
> >> > A quick update: the "Thank You" banner is currently scheduled to stay
> >> > up until January 9, 4 PM PST. We're keeping it up a while longer in
> >> > part because it's the first work week after the holidays for many
> >> > people, and in part because it's an opportunity for chapters to get
> >> > some more visibility (we may have reached our goals ahead of time, but
> >> > the chapters were operating under the assumption that the fundraiser
> >> > would continue until January 15). As explained in the "Thank You"
> >> > letter, the funds donated to WMF from now until the end of the fiscal
> >> > year will go into our reserve fund and will help us to not live from
> >> > hand to mouth as we head into the new fiscal. We'd always planned to
> >> > raise at least $1.3M in reserve funding throughout the fiscal year.
> >>
> >>
> >> It is also a opportunity to further annoy our readers. IT's pretty
> >> clear they don't like it
> >
> >
> > and you know this because...?
>
> Because I run daily searches of blogs for the term wikipedia. Because
> complaints have turned up all over the place on wikipedia. Because or
> editors who also have to read the thing have gone so far as to have a
> gadget to get rid of it. Because adblock which targets banner ads
> among other things has 10,850,228 dowloads.
>
> Because people come to wikipedia to read articles rather than thankyou
> messages and taking up significant significant screen space with stuff
> readers don't want is not generally considered a way to maximize the
> level of like for your site.
>
>
>
> --
> geni
>
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Re: Fundraiser update [ In reply to ]
2009/1/7 Brian <Brian.Mingus@colorado.edu>:
> Sorry Geni but you are totally wrong. Each year the Foundation asks for more
> money than the year before, and each year the citizens of the world give it.
>
>
> I challenge you to find 1% as many negative blog posts regarding the
> fundraiser as there are positive comments left by donors.
>

I challenge anyone to miss the point more than you did.


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geni

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Re: Fundraiser update [ In reply to ]
I think your point was clear, but maybe not. Please restate it for me more
clearly.

Because I run daily searches of blogs for the term wikipedia. Because
complaints have turned up all over the place on wikipedia. Because or
editors who also have to read the thing have gone so far as to have a
gadget to get rid of it. Because adblock which targets banner ads
among other things has 10,850,228 dowloads.
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Re: Fundraiser update [ In reply to ]
2009/1/7 Brian <Brian.Mingus@colorado.edu>:
> I think your point was clear, but maybe not. Please restate it for me more
> clearly.

You appear to be under the impression I'm objecting to the donation
banner ads. I'm not. I am however suggesting that while the donation
banner ads are a necessary evil (heh one of the complaints is that it
doesn't go away when you donate) does not mean that we should then
continue to have a massive banners once we've raised the money.

That people are supportive of wikipedia and donate does not in any way
shape or form suggest that they like it having massive banners across
every page.

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Re: Fundraiser update [ In reply to ]
geni <geniice@gmail.com> writes:

> Because I run daily searches of blogs for the term
> wikipedia. Because complaints have turned up all over the place on
> wikipedia. Because or editors who also have to read the thing have
> gone so far as to have a gadget to get rid of it. Because adblock
> which targets banner ads among other things has 10,850,228 dowloads.

Whiners has always been quicker to the keyboard, then those without
opinions either way. That's a human trait, i suppose. Failing to take
this fact into the equation effectively invalidates your
assesment. And since you haven't mentioned it by now, I will not
accept any delayed claims to the opposite.
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/Wegge

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Re: Fundraiser update [ In reply to ]
On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 11:57 PM, Brian <Brian.Mingus@colorado.edu> wrote:

> I challenge you to find 1% as many negative blog posts regarding the
> fundraiser as there are positive comments left by donors.

Apart from that interesting debate between you and geni, I had the
personal impression that this year's fundraising drive created a bit
more negative responses for example in the OTRS (both relative and
absolute) than last year's. I don't have numbers to prove it, so it
remains an anecdote.

Mathias

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