Andreas,
Thank you for this positive feedback. I can't comment on future banner
messages because I don't have the requisite knowledge.
Here's where we are right now... I've seen Megan and the fundraising team
really apply themselves on this concern. They've interviewed many people
and they are starting to collaborate with some of the people who have not
liked our banners.
I have no promises. None. I am just filling you in on the process. We're
also headed into the busiest times of our year and we are a small team so
we may not be able to update you in a timely fashion.
/a
On Fri, Nov 13, 2015 at 5:42 AM, Andreas Kolbe <jayen466(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I see that the fundraising banners currently running
in Germany[1][2] no
longer speak of "keeping Wikipedia online and ad-free", but instead
encourage people to "give something back to Wikipedia" if they find it
useful.
That is a much, much better wording. Thank you. I trust the English banners
that will run in December will follow the same approach.
Note however that the German FAQ[3] that is linked from the German Donate
Now page[4] is several years out of date. It refers to 2013/2014 as the
current financial year, and directs readers to the 2011/2012 annual report
(!!!).
The English FAQ[5] has much less content than the German one (I'm told all
the outdated content has been commented out) and now lacks any specifics
that would give donors an idea of what the Foundation is doing with their
money.
In all languages, the link to the FAQ on the Donate Now page is in such
small print as to be barely legible. Please update the FAQs in all
languages as a matter of urgency, and change the font size of the links to
something more reasonable.
In general I would like to see the Foundation communicate more clearly,
transparently and proactively about where the money goes, and what the user
benefits are. Reports like the one last year on improving access speed[6]
are useful.
Andreas
[1]
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Spendenbanner-de-s5mini-151112_Kopie.jpg
[2]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fehlerhafte_Spendenkampagne.png
[3]
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/FAQ/de
[4]
https://donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:FundraiserLandingPag…
[5]
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/FAQ/en
[6]
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/12/29/how-we-made-editing-wikipedia-twice-as…
On Thu, Nov 5, 2015 at 11:17 PM, Pine W <wiki.pine(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I was happy to see increasing net assets and
increasing revenue. The
fundraising messages that WMF sends should to reflect the facts about
where
the money will go and about the current financial
status of WMF.
I've been told by someone whose history with the Wikimedia community is
longer than mine that many years ago, the chapters used to be in stronger
financial positions than WMF was. Eventually this flipped. As recently
as a
few years ago were consistent questions about the
effectiveness and
integrity of the chapters. In more recent history, the chapters seem to
be
doing well in terms of effectiveness and
integrity, and now the bulk of
the
revenue is going to WMF where there are more
questions about
effectiveness
and integrity. I'm particularly troubled by
the lack of responses from
WMF
to a number of questions that I repeatedly asked
about the 2015-2016
Annual
Plan, and I'd really like to see some work
done on increasing financial
transparency in WMF as well as enhancing the integrity of the online
fundraising messages.
Pine
On Thu, Nov 5, 2015 at 2:59 PM, Andreas Kolbe <jayen466(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
On October 30, the Wikimedia Foundation posted
its audited financial
statements for the year ended June 30, 2015.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/0/0b/Audit_Report_-_FY_14…
The figures contained in these statements have a bearing on the present
discussion. Some highlights:
Net assets at end of year:
$77.8 million
(up $24.3 million from $53.5 million)
Current assets include:
$35.2 million in cash and cash equivalents
$29.0 million in short-term investments.
Total support and revenue:
$75.8 million
(up $23.3 million from $52.5 million)
Total expenses:
$52.6 million
(up $6.7 million from $45.9 million)
Internet hosting costs:
just under $2 million
(down $0.5 million from $2.5 million)
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