Hi all,
Over the past two months, the fundraising team has started testing new
messages from WMF staff members, donors, and editors. We're really excited
that we've found new messages that perform at the same level as the "founder
appeal" from Jimmy Wales. This year, the fundraiser will rely as much as
possible on voices of many different members of our community.
Doing in-person interviews and then writing appeals using people's exact
words is the key to making these appeals work as well as the Jimmy appeal.
Victor Grigas, Aaron Muszalski, and Matthew Roth -- three Storytellers
working on the 2011 Fundraiser -- are doing the interviews. They will be
attending Wikimania to interview attendees who would like to have their
personal appeal run during the fundraising campaign. While on this story
gathering mission, they will also be taking photos to be used in fundraising
banners.
We would like to feature editors for as much of the fundraiser as possible.
But we've found that editor appeals are the hardest to make work. So we're
really looking for people who think they can explain in their own words why
donating to WMF or a chapter is important. If you'd like to get involved,
please get in touch by emailing wikistory(a)wikimedia.org. We'll be
interviewing throughout Wikimania, so please come talk to us about the
importance of Wikipedia and tell us your own personal story of how you're
connected to the Wikimedia movement.
You don't have to attend Wikimania to get involved. We will be interviewing
people from all different areas of the world over the next several months.
If you're interested in sharing your story, please send a message to
wikistory(a)wikimedia.org
If you'd like to see a review of our weekly testing and read the new
appeals, check out our test updates page:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2011/Updates
Looking forward to seeing you next week and hearing your stories,
Megan
--
Megan Hernandez
Community Officer
Wikimedia Foundation