Fundraising ideas

From Meta, a Wikimedia project coordination wiki

Jump to: navigation, search

This page is for links to pages related to fundraising ideas, not for discussion of those ideas.

Contents

[edit] Links

[edit] Related pages

[edit] Ideas from the mailing list during the last fundraising drive

  1. Real-time updates via a bot
  2. Immediately visible donation comments, increasing the community feel.
  3. Progress-meter and PayPal link on every page
  4. Progressbars available to external sites
  5. Surprises at certain milestones.
  6. Something more interesting that makes people want to check the drive progress
  7. Optional email alerts
  8. More intrusive notices but with a convenient [hide] link
  9. Wikimedia affiliate program for mirrors
  10. Poll to find out if people did/didn't donate etc
  11. Let editors know about the CSS hide sitenotice option
  12. Less wordy, less NPOV, more emotional marketing

[edit] Fundraising proposal

For

  • posterity,
  • to raise money, and
  • provide local versions

would it be viable to offer, at cost with suggested donations, monthly or annual DVD subscriptions containing a snapshot of the wikipedia in various formats. In the perhaps unlikely event that wikimedia dissappears, it would be nice to have distributed preserved copies. As well, it could offer regular income for a valuable service. Educators, in particular, could certainly take advantage of this to reduce network traffic, or take advantage of it in places where internet, or high speed internet, is not available.

I do not foresee wikimedia disappearing :-) The english and the french versions of the encyclopedia will be published on CD (or DVD) for Christmas. We'll keep you informed about how to purchase them. To limit liability, the CD will be published by Mandrake. We do not foresee great benefits for the project in terms of money, but probably more in terms of visibility. Anthere 16:53, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Ideas for after the fundraising drives

Inform people better about the results of the drive and what will happen with the money. Publish a press release - best in several languages-, summarizing the results of the fundraising drive. (via Elian on foundation-l)

[edit] Potential donors to Wikimedia

One means of raising funds for Wikimedia could be to solicit donations from certain individuals or companies. See also corporate sponsorship. Small donation requests, in the region of USD 5-50 (Euro 4-40, GBP 3-30, JPY 500-5000), could be made by snail mail. An initial investment in printing and postage would need to be made. Please list of potential donors below.

[edit] Cafe press

Idea from w:User:Me at work

  • Arteecle of the month, where users would vote on an article of the month, and when the month rolled, it'd be the arteecle (tee for teeshirt) of that month. people could subscribe to a club to receive these shirts in the mail, and on them would be printed the top of that article, or the good part along with title, or something. members of the club (like a cheese of the month club or whatever) would receive a discount, of course, and normal non-members can purchase one-off tees. This gives you a wide array of wikipedia shirts, both making money for wikipedia and allowing fans to advertise for it.

We'll start a new fundraiser soon.

Please add here any suggestions or criticisms.

Neat way to keep the shop fresh. --Daniel Mayer 04:27, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Suggestions from Wikimedia site feedback

[edit] Euro Bank Transfer

It should be pointed out that a transfer to the belgium bank account from a euro account within the EU will not incur any higher charges than an inside-the-same-country transfer if the IBAN and BIC are used (up to €12.500). E.g., with in Germany I pay no charges for transfers in Euro, so will also pay no charges to send money to the Belgium account.

This could encourage more EU people to pay money, and also reduce the charges paid to the 3rd party, e.g. paypal. Anyway, have to go any transfer the money now :-)


[edit] OFFER A HARD COPY OF YOUR SITE FOR A DONATION

Like other sites who provide information free over the internet, and who's customer's would like to have a solid, hard copy--yet do not want to bother with the elaborate task of compilation, a DVD or DVD set could be offered for a small donation. For those who teeter on the border of donating, this might put them over the edge--or might make the difference between a $10 donation and a $100 donation.

[edit] A suggestion: state the beginning of the current fundraising campaign on page [[1]].

This would allow to compute the speed of donations, which, I am sure, would be impressive.

Imre Simon, 19aug05.

[edit] Please add more transparency to the purpose of the current fundraising campaign

I just modestly contributed to the fundraising and I was thinking that the message asking people to donate is quiet obscure about the aim of the fundraising.

I really think, in every language, you should add a link in the message to the 2005 Budget and the What_we_use_the_money_for pages.
A bit like you did in the Fundraising page.

On the long run, transparency is a key requirement to improve contributors' confidence in Wikimedia's projects.

fr:Utilisateur:Effco 11:19, 21 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Timing of Fundraiser

I believe the the fundraiser should either last a longer period of time or should start later when schools such as Stanford and Harvard begin and students can donate as a dorm/class/school.

[edit] Why are you emphasising the Euro?

There is no need to show Euros as well as Dollars on the fundraising report. If we must have it, can we also have British pounds, the second most used currency in the English speaking world? And what about Canada and Australia etc? And Japan, which has an important currency and provides lots of traffic. No, just go back to how it was please. Wikipedia's budget is in US dollars, so that is the relevant currency. The new version is offensive because this is the English language Wikipedia, but it degrades the status of the second most important Anglophone currency. The Pound/Euro issue is a sore and sensitive point for millions of us in the UK, and I will try to avoid Wikipedia for as long as this is thrust in my face on every page. CalJW 02:26, 28 August 2005 (UTC)

I have to say, I disagree that Euro are a bad thing to have on the English encyclopaedia. The two global currencies are USD and Euro - sterling are miniscule by comparison. If the sterling value is no more than a link away, I don't see the issue. To say that Sterling is really a major currency is foolish cutural imperialism (note: I am British). Sam Korn 21:30, 16 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] New suggestions

[edit] Accepting donations via credit card

An old suggestion, really: I, like many other people, don't an account on have PayPal or any similar other online payment system. So, I haven't yet given money to any of the past fundraisers. I'd do it in a flash if you accepted credit cards.

This has been talked about for several fundraisers, but it still hasn't happened yet. I would guess that it would raise takings from fundraisers by at least 20% if the Foundation made payment easier, so it might make sense to throw some money at setting this up before the next fundraiser.

You might want to set a lowerbound for credit card donations, say $5 or $10, in order to keep processing charges down. T

And, of course, once CC processing has been set up, you can accept CC donations all year round, not just at fundraising times.

A very old answer: You DO NOT need a PayPal account to give a one time donation to the foundation using a credit card through PayPal. --Daniel Mayer 21:55, 16 November 2005 (UTC)
You may not need to have a paypal account to pay with a credit card through pay pal. The costs however would increase and I do not like to make the man in the middle happy. GerardM 12:32, 17 November 2005 (UTC)
Also, after some limit they require you to do the nasty verification thing. So, you can donate once or twice, but then they want you to subscribe etc. Happened to me, I now give to the European account directly. --Magnus Manske (too lazy to log in)

I wish there was a way to donate with a credit card while side stepping paypal -- paypal has been controversial in its user agreement; something I don't want to contribute to.

[edit] rearange donation page

I suggest one single icon for paypal that links to a page with the ones for each country. --24.94.190.164 02:09, 17 December 2005 (UTC) Gbleem

[edit] make a detailed report about MoneyBookers too

There is a report for Paypal donations, but not for MoneyBookers. I really think MB should recieve more attention, as it's much cheaper than Paypal, is supported in more countries (e.g. Paypal only recently opened in Poland, while MB was there for a couple of years) and doesn't seem to be so evil. --Wanted 13:47, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Fundraising on ebay

Has the foundation ever done any sort of fundraising drive on Ebay? I'm sure we could get some fairly nice donations, including autographed books and the like, which could then be autographed. The Giving Works program makes things pretty easy. I've used it before with another nonprofit. Sue Anne 02:59, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ads on Wikimedia sites

Why dont put ads on Wikimedia sites? Wikimedia can get a lot of money. 213.176.161.200 16:37, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Stop useing cafepress

Their rates are less than briliant. Might be worth looking into http://www.thinkgeek.com. Used by both slashdot and penny arcade so it may be worth looking into.Geni 19:07, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Great idea. I will look into it. --Daniel Mayer 13:31, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
Has anyone looked at Goodstorm? They return up to 70% of the profits to the organizations that use their storefront. I don't know if thinkgeek gives such a return. http://marketspace.goodstorm.com/ Alex756 19:24, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Why don't we use all three, it would give people more of a choice? Lcarsdata 16:53, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

That is a good idea, give people a choice, isn't that what the internet and open content all about? Alex756 02:36, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Anon. vs. real name

When making a one-time donation, it only gives me the option of making an anonymous donation or using my real name. I don't mind using paypal to make a donation, but prefer to attribute my donation to my wikipedia name, Kmf164, instead. Can you add this as an option for donations? Thanks. --Kmf164 05:13, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

Just keep the 'Anonymous' option ticked but put your user name in the comment field. :) --Daniel Mayer

[edit] Google Grants

Google has a program which grants non-profit organizations free keyword ads on its search pages (Google Grants). Wikipedia could apply to the program to spread its message, solicit funds, or just attract more users to the site. --TidyCat 03:50, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Spreadshirt Shop, etc.

I put a lot of new ideas on /Cafe Press, not all of which are directly related to the cafepress shop. Tlogmer 08:05, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

  • Cool! I'll take a closer look this weekend. --Daniel Mayer 04:23, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit]

It would be interesting to have a set of related text and image banners (for websites) for the next fund drive that people could subscribe to or put up on their sites, linking to the donations page; there could even be a call for different campaign ideas, each with a handful of representative banners -- with the best one being selected for promotion to friends, bloggers, and partners to link back to the fund drive. If anyone has banner ideas, or sets of them, please list them below... +sj 03:34, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

If there were a banner server set up, it would be possible to identify sets of banners as belonging to one campaign or theme, and encouraging people to subscribe to that campaign. This would give them dynamically changing banners in the same spirit. +sj+ 03:36, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
This is a good idea. There are many "friends of Wikipedia (and Co)" out there who would like to but on there own website free ads to announce the fundraiser to there own visitors. --Walter Do you have news? Report it to Wikizine 23:02, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] ==Google Checkout==

https://checkout.google.com/seller/fees.html

hgbvkjhbv,jhb

I really think this should be looked at hard, and soon. I wrote to Anthere at length at User_talk:Anthere#Some_obvious_suggestions_about_Wikimedia_Foundation_finances. Google is offering no fees for 2007 - I also wrote to google asking if this offer was even open to the wikimedia foundation with the volume of donations they receive (and if they'd offer a discount). Here's the verbatim answer I got:
Hello Aerik,

Thank you for your email. I understand you have a question about using
Google Checkout to process donations for the Wikimedia Foundation at a
reduced cost. I also understand you have a question about Wikimedia
Foundation affiliated organizations using Google Checkout at reduced cost
as well.

Google Checkout does not provide discounts for 501c3 non-profit
organizations, though this may be introduced at some point in the future.
We will be taking your thoughts into account as we move forward with our
product development.

However, Google Checkout is currently offering a free transaction
processing promotion, which works as follows:

- From now through December 31, 2007, you can process Checkout
transactions for free, even if you aren't an AdWords advertiser. If you're
already an AdWords advertiser, you can process your Checkout transactions
for free regardless of your AdWords spend.

Please remember, in order to use Google Checkout to process donations,
your organization:

- Must have a legitimate tax-exempt status.
- Must clearly display the tax-exempt status on its website.

For more information about Google Checkout content policies, please visit
http://checkout.google.com/seller/content_policies.html.

Thank you for your interest in Google Checkout, Aerik, and please feel
free to reply to this email if you have any additional questions.

Sincerely,

Chris
The Google Checkout Team

---

No processing fees through the end of 2007 when you use Google Checkout
http://checkout.google.com/seller/freetransactions.html

Original Message Follows:
------------------------
From: <snipped>
Subject: Google Checkout Fees - discounts for nonprofits?
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2007 15:54:51 -0700

Visible_URL:
Question: I'm researching costs of accepting donations (on my own
initiative) to the Wikimedia Foundation, and I was wondering if Google
would consider providing this service at a reduced cost?  Also, regarding
the promotion where there are no fees through 2007 - is this also
available to organizations with the throughput of the Wikimedia
Foundation?

Thanks,
Aerik Sylvan
(a private individual trying to find ways to save the Wikimedia Foundation
some money)
So, I think we're crazy for not offering Google Checkout as a donation option as soon as possible for those interested in using it... we could easily save a few thousand dollars in fees!
--Aerik 19:35, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] E-commerce frameworks

Less immediately, there are a couple of open source storefront frameworks: w:OsCommerce and its most widespread fork, w:Zen Cart.

[edit] $5 million from Knight Foundation

Someone suggested that we told you this: "Knight Foundation plans to give a total of $5 million for projects that show how online news can transform community life."

This might be an idea to raise funds for WikiNews? --Steven Fruitsmaak (Talk) 12:31, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

I don't know if we vote on Meta, but Support Thunderhead 16:16, 14 October 2006 (UTC)
Agreed that this should be pursued. Does anyone object to this being submitted to the WMF Fundraising Committee? (BTW, posting to front page.) -- Zanimum
Isn't this closer to a one-time grant? I'd say this lies within Danny's delegation as Grants Officer. Then again... maybe it doesn't. :P Feel free to ignore me. TOR 04:30, 27 October 2006 (UTC)
Please do not involve anyone outside the wikinews community in developing this initiative. Let the wikinews community itself submit a proposal to the Knight Foundation. Dedalus 19:51, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
Only the Wikimedia Foundation should be involved with third parties like this. The WikiNews community is not a legal body that can ask for anything outside of the Wikimedia community. Helping the foundation create a propoasal is OK by me though. --Daniel Mayer 13:57, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Semipostal stamp for email

A fundraising idea could be a semipostal stamp for email. (talk) --Fasten 09:27, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Retrieved from "http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_ideas"