Fundraising Update - Wikimedia-l

20 Nov 2015

Hi all,

We are just a few weeks away from the launch of the December English
fundraiser.  The end of the year is the most critical time of the year for
Wikimedia’s fundraising: The goal this year is $25 million.  The campaign
will launch in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland on Giving
Tuesday <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giving_Tuesday>, December 1st.

In these past months of preparation, we have relied on feedback from the
volunteer community, readers, and staff through discussion pages, feedback
sessions, phone calls, interviews, user testing, surveys and A/B tests.
Thank you to everyone for participating! It has truly been a helpful
experience and wonderful to hear from so many voices from all different
parts of the movement.

In just the last two weeks, an independent research firm conducted a new
survey of Wikipedia readers. (You may remember that we did a similar survey
last February.) We heard from you last spring that there were some
additional concerns that you would like us to explore with readers.  We
tried to look into those concerns in this survey. We have uploaded the survey
report on Commons
<https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Wikimedia_Reader_Survey_November_2015.pdf>
for anyone who is interested in reading it. We have also setup a section on
the Fundraising Meta page
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Fundraising#Reader_Survey_November_2015>
to discuss the survey.

The feedback from readers, the volunteer community and staff has been
critical to shape the campaign. Several improvements have been made so far
as a direct result of this input.  We have changed a few specific sentences
of the message that were discussed heavily on meta pages and also tried a
variety of design ideas based on comments.

We also have some fresh banner ideas that came about through a recent
workshop with staff.  We will be testing those new banner ideas in small
runs throughout the campaign as well.  And we’re still gathering ideas! To
see the latest version of the message and submit your ideas, please visit
the fundraising ideas meta page
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising/2015-16_Fundraising_ideas>.

Since last year, we have made improvements to our banner targeting and
analytics systems with the goal of raising the budget, while limiting the
number of banners and disruption for our readers. We aim to run the
campaign for roughly two weeks at a high traffic level and then at a much
reduced level for the rest of December.

The fundraising team faces a great challenge this year: the highest revenue
target in WMF history along with a decline in page views – particularly in
desktop pageviews where readers are more likely to donate. The team has and
will continue to work hard to make improvements needed to reach this goal.
We cannot do this alone.  Thank you to everyone who has offered input,
expertise, time and energy into helping make this fundraiser a success.

We look forward to your ideas and questions. Since the team experiences an
incredibly high volume of seasonal work, we will not be able to respond
immediately to questions or feedback.  We will review feedback and bug
reports regularly and we have dedicated time to post an update by
mid-December and again at the end of the campaign.  Here’s how to get
involved:

   -

   To file a bug report or technical issue, please create a phabricator
   ticket
   <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/maniphest/task/create/?template=118862>
   or email problemsdonating(a)wikimedia.org
   -

   To see the latest news from the team, see the fundraising meta page
   <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising>
   -

   To suggest a banner idea, visit the test ideas meta page
   <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising/2015-16_Fundraising_ideas>
   -

   To read the latest reader survey, see the

<https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Wikimedia_Reader_Survey_November_2015.pdf>full
   report on commons

<https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Wikimedia_Reader_Survey_November_2015.pdf>
   -

   To learn more about the fundraising program and last year’s campaign,
   see the 2014-15 fundraising report
   <https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/2014-2015_Fundraising_Report>

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the campaign preparations.
More importantly, thank you to the entire Wikimedia community for building
this incredible project that readers love and support with their
donations.  None of this would be possible without you.

Megan

-- 

Megan Hernandez

Director of Online Fundraising
Wikimedia Foundation