[Foundation-l] Re: Our exponentially increasing costs

[Michael Snow]

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