We're trying out a new fundraising site:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate/en
Big thanks to Frank Schulenburg from the German chapter, who designed it, and to Tim Starling and Brion Vibber, who implemented it. Thanks also to David Strauss and others who helped along the way. Special thanks to PediaPress.com for creating a gift certificate PDF generator on very short notice on a pro bono basis. :-)
Obviously this is too late to make a big difference, but parts of it will hopefully be re-usable. There's still some work to be done -- translations, integrating chapter donation methods, etc. -- but I think the core of it is sound. I'm copying Frank's rationale for the design, and some more thoughts of my own below:
- - - - -
[Story box:]
People love to hear stories. We have great stories to tell. I'm convinced that people are more likely to donate after reading one of our stories around Wikipedia. But we are talking about a webpage and therefore our stories have to be short and they need to have a clear plot.
Just have a look at the example of Patricio Lorente. The story has four parts:
1) Introduction of Patricio as a normal kind of guy. There seems to be nothing unusual to tell about him. 2) Something happened in the life of Patricio. Something that changes his attitude towards life in general. 3) Patricio gets involved with Wikipedia. He begins to do something very special and useful. 4) You don't want him to stop his very special and useful work just as a result of a lack of money, don't you? Donate.
Each story we are telling should have the same or a similar plot, but if it's necessary you can change the sequence:
1) Jaan-Cornelius, one of millions of pupils on earth. 3) He does something very special. 2) Something happens (terrorist blasts) and Jaan-Cornelius' work suddenly proves to be very useful. 4) You should donate to give him the opportunity to continue his work (properly meaning: donate to keep the servers running)
In the next days and weeks we should collect as many good stories as we can. Perhaps another example could be the story of one of our volunteers who helps to keep the servers running. Or one of our technical staff who cares about the usability of Wikipedia. Or one of our volunteers of the e-mail support team...
We should jump at the chance and try to involve the communities. We all know: Wikipedians love to get involved. They strongly dislike not being asked. Let's have a posting at the village pump, illustrate our new fundraising concept and ask the community members to tell us "their" Wikipedia stories.
[Donate box:]
The fastest route to donate: let visitors enter the amount and the currency on the _first_ page. Enable them to "donate now". Nobody likes to click through four or five webpages before he gets the sign to "donate now". Let's keep things simple.
As tax deductibility is a key interest for most of our donors we provide a short text which points out that the Wikimedia Foundation is a tax exempt charitable corporation. This part of the webpage is planned to be variable. The dutch version should have a notice like "If you want to deduct your donation from your taxable income please donate to Wikimedia Netherlands".
[Additional donation methods:]
What's the most common way to donate in the Netherlands? or in France? At this part of the page we can provide information about how to deposit money in our bank account, how to send a cheque, and so on...
That means: we really need information about the most common payment options in each country. Perhaps Delphine as a chapter coordination can help with that.
- - - - -
I might find some time over the holidays to work on some additional stories for the site. But if you have any ideas yourself, feel free to post them, to me or to the list. :-)
Technically, the entire design is served through a wiki, which hopefully will make it reasonably straightforward to make changes as needed.
Any feedback is appreciated. :-)
Happy holidays to all! Erik
Looks pretty good. Minor design bug though. I'm on Firefox 2.0.0.11 on Windows XP SP2 with a 1920x1200 resolution. If you go to the links on the very bottom of the page, 2 of them stick outside the design (Fundraising FAQ and Planned Spending Distribution) on the left and right, respectively. Just a heads up.
Chad H.
On Dec 25, 2007 5:53 AM, Erik Moeller erik@wikimedia.org wrote:
We're trying out a new fundraising site:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate/en
Big thanks to Frank Schulenburg from the German chapter, who designed it, and to Tim Starling and Brion Vibber, who implemented it. Thanks also to David Strauss and others who helped along the way. Special thanks to PediaPress.com for creating a gift certificate PDF generator on very short notice on a pro bono basis. :-)
Obviously this is too late to make a big difference, but parts of it will hopefully be re-usable. There's still some work to be done -- translations, integrating chapter donation methods, etc. -- but I think the core of it is sound. I'm copying Frank's rationale for the design, and some more thoughts of my own below:
[Story box:]
People love to hear stories. We have great stories to tell. I'm convinced that people are more likely to donate after reading one of our stories around Wikipedia. But we are talking about a webpage and therefore our stories have to be short and they need to have a clear plot.
Just have a look at the example of Patricio Lorente. The story has four parts:
- Introduction of Patricio as a normal kind of guy. There seems to be
nothing unusual to tell about him. 2) Something happened in the life of Patricio. Something that changes his attitude towards life in general. 3) Patricio gets involved with Wikipedia. He begins to do something very special and useful. 4) You don't want him to stop his very special and useful work just as a result of a lack of money, don't you? Donate.
Each story we are telling should have the same or a similar plot, but if it's necessary you can change the sequence:
- Jaan-Cornelius, one of millions of pupils on earth.
- He does something very special.
- Something happens (terrorist blasts) and Jaan-Cornelius' work
suddenly proves to be very useful. 4) You should donate to give him the opportunity to continue his work (properly meaning: donate to keep the servers running)
In the next days and weeks we should collect as many good stories as we can. Perhaps another example could be the story of one of our volunteers who helps to keep the servers running. Or one of our technical staff who cares about the usability of Wikipedia. Or one of our volunteers of the e-mail support team...
We should jump at the chance and try to involve the communities. We all know: Wikipedians love to get involved. They strongly dislike not being asked. Let's have a posting at the village pump, illustrate our new fundraising concept and ask the community members to tell us "their" Wikipedia stories.
[Donate box:]
The fastest route to donate: let visitors enter the amount and the currency on the _first_ page. Enable them to "donate now". Nobody likes to click through four or five webpages before he gets the sign to "donate now". Let's keep things simple.
As tax deductibility is a key interest for most of our donors we provide a short text which points out that the Wikimedia Foundation is a tax exempt charitable corporation. This part of the webpage is planned to be variable. The dutch version should have a notice like "If you want to deduct your donation from your taxable income please donate to Wikimedia Netherlands".
[Additional donation methods:]
What's the most common way to donate in the Netherlands? or in France? At this part of the page we can provide information about how to deposit money in our bank account, how to send a cheque, and so on...
That means: we really need information about the most common payment options in each country. Perhaps Delphine as a chapter coordination can help with that.
I might find some time over the holidays to work on some additional stories for the site. But if you have any ideas yourself, feel free to post them, to me or to the list. :-)
Technically, the entire design is served through a wiki, which hopefully will make it reasonably straightforward to make changes as needed.
Any feedback is appreciated. :-)
Happy holidays to all! Erik
foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
I was wondering when this was going to be announced. ;-) Very ambitious plan, some nice ideas, and definitely a better look. :-)
On Dec 25, 2007 5:53 AM, Erik Moeller erik@wikimedia.org wrote:
We're trying out a new fundraising site:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate/en
Big thanks to Frank Schulenburg from the German chapter, who designed it, and to Tim Starling and Brion Vibber, who implemented it. Thanks also to David Strauss and others who helped along the way. Special thanks to PediaPress.com for creating a gift certificate PDF generator on very short notice on a pro bono basis. :-)
Obviously this is too late to make a big difference, but parts of it will hopefully be re-usable. There's still some work to be done -- translations, integrating chapter donation methods, etc. -- but I think the core of it is sound. I'm copying Frank's rationale for the design, and some more thoughts of my own below:
Awesome points and I hope we incorporate these into future fundraisers.
[Story box:]
People love to hear stories. We have great stories to tell. I'm convinced that people are more likely to donate after reading one of our stories around Wikipedia. But we are talking about a webpage and therefore our stories have to be short and they need to have a clear plot.
Just have a look at the example of Patricio Lorente. The story has four parts:
- Introduction of Patricio as a normal kind of guy. There seems to be
nothing unusual to tell about him. 2) Something happened in the life of Patricio. Something that changes his attitude towards life in general. 3) Patricio gets involved with Wikipedia. He begins to do something very special and useful. 4) You don't want him to stop his very special and useful work just as a result of a lack of money, don't you? Donate.
Each story we are telling should have the same or a similar plot, but if it's necessary you can change the sequence:
- Jaan-Cornelius, one of millions of pupils on earth.
- He does something very special.
- Something happens (terrorist blasts) and Jaan-Cornelius' work
suddenly proves to be very useful. 4) You should donate to give him the opportunity to continue his work (properly meaning: donate to keep the servers running)
In the next days and weeks we should collect as many good stories as we can. Perhaps another example could be the story of one of our volunteers who helps to keep the servers running. Or one of our technical staff who cares about the usability of Wikipedia. Or one of our volunteers of the e-mail support team...
We should jump at the chance and try to involve the communities. We all know: Wikipedians love to get involved. They strongly dislike not being asked. Let's have a posting at the village pump, illustrate our new fundraising concept and ask the community members to tell us "their" Wikipedia stories.
This is good, like you said we can solicit some more stories but we should also use some of the things we already have. I've compiled a short list of some feedback-related pages at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Cbrown1023/Feedback, but I'm sure there are more. We really need to start collecting all of this good feedback so we can use it later. :-) One of the key pages from that list that would fit into this "story box" idea is "Success stories" http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Success_stories.
[Donate box:]
The fastest route to donate: let visitors enter the amount and the currency on the _first_ page. Enable them to "donate now". Nobody likes to click through four or five webpages before he gets the sign to "donate now". Let's keep things simple.
As tax deductibility is a key interest for most of our donors we provide a short text which points out that the Wikimedia Foundation is a tax exempt charitable corporation. This part of the webpage is planned to be variable. The dutch version should have a notice like "If you want to deduct your donation from your taxable income please donate to Wikimedia Netherlands".
I really like this. :-) The only thing we'd need to do is get the chapters involved themselves (they probably know their country, its laws, their language, and their status best ;-)).
[Additional donation methods:]
What's the most common way to donate in the Netherlands? or in France? At this part of the page we can provide information about how to deposit money in our bank account, how to send a cheque, and so on...
That means: we really need information about the most common payment options in each country. Perhaps Delphine as a chapter coordination can help with that.
Same comments as directly above, chapters should prove very helpful in this and this is a good plan.
I might find some time over the holidays to work on some additional stories for the site. But if you have any ideas yourself, feel free to post them, to me or to the list. :-) Technically, the entire design is served through a wiki, which hopefully will make it reasonably straightforward to make changes as needed.
Any feedback is appreciated. :-)
Happy holidays to all! Erik
and to you too! :-)
foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
On 12/25/07, Erik Moeller erik@wikimedia.org wrote:
We're trying out a new fundraising site:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate/en
Big thanks to Frank Schulenburg from the German chapter, who designed it, and to Tim Starling and Brion Vibber, who implemented it. Thanks also to David Strauss and others who helped along the way. Special thanks to PediaPress.com for creating a gift certificate PDF generator on very short notice on a pro bono basis. :-)
Obviously this is too late to make a big difference, but parts of it will hopefully be re-usable. There's still some work to be done -- translations, integrating chapter donation methods, etc. -- but I think the core of it is sound. I'm copying Frank's rationale for the design, and some more thoughts of my own below:
[Story box:]
People love to hear stories. We have great stories to tell. I'm convinced that people are more likely to donate after reading one of our stories around Wikipedia. But we are talking about a webpage and therefore our stories have to be short and they need to have a clear plot.
Just have a look at the example of Patricio Lorente. The story has four parts:
- Introduction of Patricio as a normal kind of guy. There seems to be
nothing unusual to tell about him. 2) Something happened in the life of Patricio. Something that changes his attitude towards life in general. 3) Patricio gets involved with Wikipedia. He begins to do something very special and useful. 4) You don't want him to stop his very special and useful work just as a result of a lack of money, don't you? Donate.
Each story we are telling should have the same or a similar plot, but if it's necessary you can change the sequence:
- Jaan-Cornelius, one of millions of pupils on earth.
- He does something very special.
- Something happens (terrorist blasts) and Jaan-Cornelius' work
suddenly proves to be very useful. 4) You should donate to give him the opportunity to continue his work (properly meaning: donate to keep the servers running)
In the next days and weeks we should collect as many good stories as we can. Perhaps another example could be the story of one of our volunteers who helps to keep the servers running. Or one of our technical staff who cares about the usability of Wikipedia. Or one of our volunteers of the e-mail support team...
We should jump at the chance and try to involve the communities. We all know: Wikipedians love to get involved. They strongly dislike not being asked. Let's have a posting at the village pump, illustrate our new fundraising concept and ask the community members to tell us "their" Wikipedia stories.
[Donate box:]
The fastest route to donate: let visitors enter the amount and the currency on the _first_ page. Enable them to "donate now". Nobody likes to click through four or five webpages before he gets the sign to "donate now". Let's keep things simple.
As tax deductibility is a key interest for most of our donors we provide a short text which points out that the Wikimedia Foundation is a tax exempt charitable corporation. This part of the webpage is planned to be variable. The dutch version should have a notice like "If you want to deduct your donation from your taxable income please donate to Wikimedia Netherlands".
[Additional donation methods:]
What's the most common way to donate in the Netherlands? or in France? At this part of the page we can provide information about how to deposit money in our bank account, how to send a cheque, and so on...
That means: we really need information about the most common payment options in each country. Perhaps Delphine as a chapter coordination can help with that.
I might find some time over the holidays to work on some additional stories for the site. But if you have any ideas yourself, feel free to post them, to me or to the list. :-)
Technically, the entire design is served through a wiki, which hopefully will make it reasonably straightforward to make changes as needed.
Any feedback is appreciated. :-)
Happy holidays to all! Erik
Hi. This may be all by the bye, but what happened to the old Berlios site with all the Wikipedia Status pages and all. There were some real old time good moments there "For Auld Lang Syne!" which it would be a very bad shame to lose altogether...
-- Jussi-Ville Heiskanen, ~ [[User:Cimon Avaro]]
Erik Moeller wrote:
People love to hear stories. We have great stories to tell. I'm convinced that people are more likely to donate after reading one of our stories around Wikipedia. But we are talking about a webpage and therefore our stories have to be short and they need to have a clear plot.
Ooh, this sounds fun. Can I try?
Just have a look at the example of Patricio Lorente. The story has four parts:
- Introduction of Patricio as a normal kind of guy. There seems to be
nothing unusual to tell about him. 2) Something happened in the life of Patricio. Something that changes his attitude towards life in general. 3) Patricio gets involved with Wikipedia. He begins to do something very special and useful. 4) You don't want him to stop his very special and useful work just as a result of a lack of money, don't you? Donate.
Hmm. Sounds to me like it's Patricio I need to donate to, not the Wikimedia Foundation. If enough people get together and raise him a years' salary, he can take time off work to edit Wikipedia! On the other hand, if the money goes to the Foundation, he needs to be back behind his desk on Monday. And his employer has a strict policy against personal use of the Internet.
Clearly there is room for improvement here.
In the next days and weeks we should collect as many good stories as we can.
Now that's a good idea.
I might find some time over the holidays to work on some additional stories for the site. But if you have any ideas yourself, feel free to post them, to me or to the list. :-)
I tell you what, you can have my story for free. Of course I'd normally demand royalties for an epic of this magnitude, so I hope you appreciate my generosity.
----
Bored university student discovers Wikipedia, as most university students do; finds it to be a useful source of information and, being bored, wonders if making the odd edit here and there might not be a good way to while away the time. Edits some pages, then a few more, then a few hundred more; decides this Wikipedia thing seems to be going places, unlike self; still bored, starts getting more involved with the project. Contributes, maintains obscure project pages, eventually gets made administrator. Attempts to brag about this to friends, is labelled as nerd, loses friends.
Starts using IRC channels, subscribes to mailing lists, deletes pages, blocks vandals. Becomes caught up in drama, semi-forced into resignation of adminship, decides to leave. Fails to do so due to lack of self-control; returns under alternative name, writes anti-vandalism tool, reverts vandalism. Remembers "university student" part too late; fails exams, is annoyed, quits. Does not edit for a month, is labelled "missing".
Relocates education; resolves only to edit when sufficient time presents itself; returns under original name. Finds time is short, limits extent of contribution to vandalism reversion, failed adminship requests, jokes that aren't funny, borderline trolling, and sarcastic mailing list posts. Watches English Wikipedia community dig itself deeper into hole, decides association with said community was a bad idea in the first place.
With your hard-earned cash safely in the Foundation's grubby mitts, can go on to fail exams yet again and live a life of poverty!
----
Actually come to think of it, this, er, might put people off donating. Perhaps best not to use it.
Any feedback is appreciated. :-)
Happy holidays to all! Erik
Indeed. Have a great time, everyone.
-Gurch
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org