Jimmy Wales wrote:
Dan Grey wrote:
Is it reasonable to believe that donations will
increase in line with
readers? Has anyone analysed the available data to see if this is
happening?
I think it is reasonable _to an extent_, yes. It is far from certain.
Mav can perhaps give you some statistics on this, but I believe he is
more pessimistic than I am about this.
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.
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. 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.
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.
--Michael Snow