[Foundation-l] Fundraising and Anonnotice

[Daniel Mayer]

--- db <djbaniel at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 1. This notice is not an effective means at raising
> funds.

Donations have always dropped way off after fund drives end. The big difference this time was that
Jimmy's appeal cushioned that drop a bit for a few weeks after the end of this drive. Even so, the
current daily average is still well over twice that of the last whole month without any
fundraising drive, November 2005 ($438 vs $1190). The notice is simply a reminder that we need and
accept donations; not much more than the plain [Donations] link in the sidebar but slightly more
noticeable. In fact, simply thanking people for their continued donations may cause less donor
fatigue than even the current message. 

> The conclusion here is that Jimmy's personal appeal is
> FAR FAR more effective at raising funds.

See the anonnotice talk page. There was an edit war over having Jimmy's name on every page on the
English Wikipedia since that was showing up on Google search results. It did make 'Jimmy Wales'
more popular than 'Jesus Christ' for a while, according to GoogleFight. :) 

> Therefore: if enough people are insisting on keeping
> this notice up, AT LEAST change the link back to
> Jimmy's personal appeal until we find something else
> that is even more effective. Not doing so is only
> going to have a negative impact on long term
> fundraising for Wikimedia.

I'm not opposed to that. But at the same time we have to consider donor fatigue and the fact that
Jimmy's appeal is just about the best kind of weapon we have during an actual fundraiser. Using
the same weapon all the time may tire potential donors. Thus the simple statement that donations
keep Wikipedia running. Simple stuff like that will tend to prime the well instead of running it
dry, IMO. 

> The personal appeal is well written, sincere, and
> effective. The general fundraising page leaves a lot
> to be desired. Also, we should set it up so that
> people can sign up for ongoing monthly donations, e.g.
> $10 taken out of my PayPal account or credit card each
> month.

Yeah, the general fundraising page needs a lot of help. It has been a long while since it was last
overhauled and doing that is on my ToDo list. Please visit the copy on meta to help improve it.
 
> There is a comment on
> http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Anonnotice&action=history
> by mav stating "(de-link month-old appeal as promised
> and replace with 'Your [continued donations] keep
> Wikipedia free!')"
> 
> I don't know where or to whom this was promised, and I
> can assure you that the majority of nonregistered
> users don't either.

The edit comment right before that one. 



-- mav

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