2009/9/14 WereSpielChequers werespielchequers@googlemail.com:
I'm not a fan of merchandising as part of a charities function. But if it is done it should have the saving grace of having a sufficient markup to help finance the organisation.
It's not a matter of being a fan or not - merchandising is not part of our function, it can only legally be done for the purposes of raising funds. Raising funds by attracting more members is a possibility, but I'm sceptical that it would raise enough funds to be worth the risk of unsold stock. If there is significant risk (which, without a profit margin to help absorb losses, there would be) then it would have to be done through a trading subsidiary, anyway (without the risk it would fall under the small trading exemption so could be done directly), and that will incur admin costs.
Now what would be cool would be Wikipedia calenders. Flowers, sports events historical events - we could theme quite a few and they'd make great gifts. It would also be a good article improvement process as the nominated articles for the calender would be liable to get good scrutiny and input whist we discuss which should go in the calender. OK we would need wmf agreement to do this as a fundraiser sold outside the membership, but there is a well established charity market for such things. I for one can think of half a dozen calenders that I might buy as winter solstice presents for assorted friends and relatives.
Now, that is a fantastic idea! They would be very cheap to produce (in terms of money - lots of volunteer labour would be required) so could be sold cheaply while still having a decent profit margin. It would be a great way to advertise (extracts from) featured articles - showing off our best articles could do a lot of good.