[Foundation-l] Fundraising idea

[lars]

James Forrester wrote:

> One particularly powerful way in which we can increase funds is 
> to see if we can get "matching donation" - that is for every x 
> units, so-and-so promises to donate y, up to a limit.

> [...] I think that a line (in the site notice), saying something 
> like "Foo have pledged to match up to US$200,000 in our 
> [[current fund-raising drive]]" instead of the current text 
> ("Your [[continued donations]] keep Wikipedia running!") would

First Jimbo's $100 million and now this.  I must warn against 
spending too much time thinking about money.  If you like money, 
do business.  Money is not what brought me here.  Money is an idea 
that infests your brain, and after a while you start to think that 
you cannot do anything if you don't have money.  That is a trap. 
Wikipedia is and should be a monument to how much good can in fact 
be done with almost no money.

I do not agree that matching donations increase funds.  If someone 
has $200 thousand to spend, let them donate it without waiting for 
a match.  Their donation is added to everybody else's.  That's 
simple addition, not a multiplication.

So, why would anybody want to do a matching donation rather than 
just silently submit what they have?  To get their name and 
logotype displayed?  If they want this kind of display, tell them 
to buy advertising from companies that sell advertising space.  
If they want to help Wikipedia, the way to do so is to donate.  
There are lots of people who silently donate.  Why should WMF give 
special treatment to people who want to make this process more 
complicated?  If silent donors don't get this special treatment, 
why should they continue to be silent?


-- 
  Lars Aronsson (lars at aronsson.se)
  Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se