On Sun, Jan 6, 2013 at 8:26 PM, Zack Exley zexley@wikimedia.org wrote:
I'm very sorry I didn't answer this question earlier...
Thanks for the response! I thought that I'd get it, so I was mostly patient :)
The short answer is: credit goes to a new kind of banner that put several powerful sentences (powerful for getting donations) directly into the banner. The text in the banner included several of the ideas from the appeals that used to be on our landing pages, plus some new ideas. There were a few other design changes that increased the donations too. ...
I am happy to hear both: that the success is the product of professional work and that the cause for it is known :)
I'd also like to personally thank to the fundraising team. Gloomy perspective of Wikimedia funding was inside of the top of my first world problems (although I was consoled by the fact that I am living in the first world, finally). Everything looks better now :)
Off topic: It is really bizarre to realize that the funding of the biggest encyclopedia in the history of humans depends on design of banners. Without the context of the Internet Era, it's almost comparable to the connection between animist rituals and good harvest.