On 28 September 2012 23:20, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On Sep 28, 2012 11:11 PM, "Deryck Chan"
<deryckchan(a)gmail.com> wrote:
There is, an will always be, the option to donate to WMUK rather than
WMF even if
WMUK isn't the default payment processor anymore.
What I can certainly see is a fragmented 2012 fundraiser, with certain
donors
staying with WMUK and others switching to WMF because that's where
the default landing page now points them to. Lots of returning donors will
be very very confused either because they can't gift-aid their donations,
or because two "Wikipedia organisations" are asking for their money at the
same time.
What will happen is exactly the same as what happened in the countries
where the foundation took over fundraising last year which was, indeed, los
of people being very confused and not understanding who it was they had
just given money to.
The foundation will need to be very clear about its messaging. I would
recommend a prominent notice on the landing page that the WMF is not a
registered charity in the UK, so that there can be no claims that they have
misled donors.
The main difference here is, I believe, that the UK donor base is much
larger than the countries whose payment processing was taken over by WMF
last year. And they speak English. Therefore the media outcry from the
confusion is likely to be much louder.
From a regular reader-donor's point of view, being
confused about where
their money went to is almost certainly worse than learning
that some
trustee is involved with a conflict of interest scandal, weirdly, between
multiple projects all to do with Wikipedia.