--- Michael Snow wikipedia@earthlink.net wrote:
I would add that the correlation between readership and donations is more apparent during the periods when we are explicitly having a fundraiser. We may be able to support the sites to a large extent that way for now, but having fundraisers too frequently will desensitize people to them. Getting into a position where we have to run intrusive sitewide notices every other month would lead to a vicious cycle of diminishing donations leading to declining performance.
Having monthly fund drives would be very bad for the reasons you give. But a week or two each quarter should be fine. So far our fund drives have been a bit on the long side. I'd like to maximize giving in shorter periods of time to lessen that (a 3 week long drive is 1 to 2 weeks too long, IMO).
Mav can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure routine donations during non-fundraising periods are nowhere near enough to maintain normal operations.
You are absolutely correct. But we can also do a few small things to help maximize day-to-day donation rates (mostly feeback-related).
We need to do a lot more to establish ongoing revenue streams, whether it's through this partnership or others. I've passed along and pushed for a few ideas in that regard. It would be nice to have more people doing that, and then we could more easily dispense with those to which people end up raising objections.
Yep - I saw your email about the eBay thing. Just haven't had time to look it over closely yet.
Volunteer to help Danny finding grants and preparing applications. Get the Wikimedia Foundation added to your employer's matching program for charitable donations if you have one. Do some research and come up with other ideas to produce income. Just because we're a nonprofit doesn't mean we can disregard the importance of money.
This is all planned to happen.
-- mav
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