The fundraising page http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Fundraising currently carries the following disclaimer:
"Please note that neither this page nor any link on any Wikimedia site pointing to this page should be considered a solicitation to make a donation. Our license guarantees that you are, and will continue to be, free to use our content regardless of whether you can afford to donate."
To me, this is the worst kind of lawyer speak. Ubiquitous sentences like "Wikipedia needs your help", "Make a donation" etc. clearly constitute a solicitation to make a donation (OED for "solicit": "2.a To entreat or petition (a person) for, or to do, something; to urge, importune; to ask earnestly or persistently.").
I don't know why the disclaimer is there, but if for some legal reason we are not allowed to solicit for donations, then we are in deep trouble indeed, and this feeble disclaimer won't help a bit.
The second sentence of the disclaimer is also offensive. It says that people who can't *afford* to donate may nevertheless use our materials for free. But what about the people who don't *choose* to donate? I am sure that this is the large majority of those who don't donate.
Axel
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Axel Boldt wrote:
I don't know why the disclaimer is there, but if for some legal reason we are not allowed to solicit for donations, then we are in deep trouble indeed, and this feeble disclaimer won't help a bit.
In the United States, many states have requirements that you officially register with the state before you solicit donations as a non-profit organization. Since Wikimedia is only registered in Florida, it's not permitted to solicit donations elsewhere (except in a few states without that requirement). There might be requirements in other countries as well.
Historically this has meant things like being outside a mall, or mailing solicitations to people's houses; the court cases on whether having a website in state [X] that permits donations from state [Y] counts as soliciting in state [Y] seem inconclusive, at least the last time I searched for some.
But I agree, we are basically soliciting donations ("Please donate"), but saying that we're not, which is a little odd. If we really don't want to be soliciting donations, we need to change our language so that we don't say things like "please donate" or "help us reach our fundraising goals". Saying the equivalent of "Please give us money (this is not a request to give us money)" is a little bit silly.
-Mark
--- Delirium delirium@hackish.org wrote:
In the United States, many states have requirements that you officially register with the state before you solicit donations as a non-profit organization. Since Wikimedia is only registered in Florida, it's not permitted to solicit donations elsewhere (except in a few states without that requirement). There might be requirements in other countries as well.
Historically this has meant things like being outside a mall, or mailing solicitations to people's houses; the court cases on whether having a website in state [X] that permits donations from state [Y] counts as soliciting in state [Y] seem inconclusive, at least the last time I searched for some.
Yep - that is my understanding as well.
But I agree, we are basically soliciting donations ("Please donate"), but saying that we're not, which is a little odd. If we really don't want to be soliciting donations, we need to change our language so that we don't say things like "please donate" or "help us reach our fundraising goals". Saying the equivalent of "Please give us money (this is not a request to give us money)" is a little bit silly.
Where is that wording? I can't find the wording "please donate" or "help us reach our fundraising goal." Please tell me so I can rewrite it to be informational instead of pleading.
-- mav
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On 8/27/05, Daniel Mayer maveric149@yahoo.com wrote:
Where is that wording? I can't find the wording "please donate" or "help us reach our fundraising goal." Please tell me so I can rewrite it to be informational instead of pleading.
Hehe, you could change the header "Make a donation" to "How to donate"
--- Dori slowpoke@gmail.com wrote:
On 8/27/05, Daniel Mayer maveric149@yahoo.com wrote:
Where is that wording? I can't find the wording "please donate" or "help us reach our fundraising goal." Please tell me so I can rewrite it to be informational instead of pleading.
Hehe, you could change the header "Make a donation" to "How to donate"
Already caught and fixed. Hm. 'Support us' in the sidebar also needs to be fixed. I'll try to see if I can fix that.
-- mav
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Daniel Mayer wrote:
Where is that wording? I can't find the wording "please donate" or "help us reach our fundraising goal." Please tell me so I can rewrite it to be informational instead of pleading.
I might be misremembering entirely, but I thought the en.wikipedia text at the top said something about helping us reach our goal of $200,000. There's compeltely different text there now though, so it's not an issue either way.
-Mark
--- Axel Boldt axelboldt@yahoo.com wrote:
The fundraising page http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Fundraising currently carries the following disclaimer:
"Please note that neither this page nor any link on any Wikimedia site pointing to this page should be considered a solicitation to make a donation. Our license guarantees that you are, and will continue to be, free to use our content regardless of whether you can afford to donate."
To me, this is the worst kind of lawyer speak. Ubiquitous sentences like "Wikipedia needs your help", "Make a donation" etc. clearly constitute a solicitation to make a donation (OED for "solicit": "2.a To entreat or petition (a person) for, or to do, something; to urge, importune; to ask earnestly or persistently.").
We can only solicit donations within the state of Florida. Solicitation being actively *asking* people to donation. It is unclear whether doing so on servers based in Florida where other *choose* to visit via the web is in fact a solicitation. So we word things in a way that is informational. Yes, it is true that we need help. Saying so is not really a solicitation (not a direct one anyway). If instead we said, "Please donate", then that certainly would be a solicitation.
We have drifted a bit more into the gray area with this fund drive than in previous ones with sentences like "We are turning to you again to help make this happen." I've nixed this sentence from the fund drive letter.
-- mav
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