[Foundation-l] fundraising idea

[Brian McNeil]

I've processed direct debits from a programming perspective - i.e. written
mainframe COBOL code (don't laugh) to produce the tapes you submit to the
bank (in UK). So, there is an ongoing cost to the Foundation in setting up a
system to create a request that the bank make the payment and sending the
list of requests to the bank. There may be other implications in retaining
the data, perhaps the U.K. Data Protection Act, or similar in other
countries.

For a number of countries, the alternative is a standing order.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_order_%28banking%29

Belgium has a mechanism for setting up a recurring payment/standing order,
but that isn't in the article which is not as comprehensive as [[Direct
debit]]. Your standing order puts the processing and data protection issues
in the bank's lap. You just need to be able to publicise a bank account
number in the country.


Brian McNeil

-----Original Message-----
From: foundation-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org
[mailto:foundation-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Thomas Dalton
Sent: 18 November 2007 15:36
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] fundraising idea

> Micropayments are a possible approach. In the UK, charities like to
> get people to subscribe to a monthly direct debit - £5/month is a lot
> easier to get out of people than a single lump of £60/year. I'm
> surprised this isn't common in the US.

That's not a bad idea. We should try and encourage regular donations
using direct debits rather than just trying to get one-off donations
during a fundraising drive (a drive has it's place, though - we should
have both). How easy is it to set up direct debits, especially
internationally? Would we need to have donations all going to local
chapters, or can you pay direct debits to foreign countries (without
enormous overhead)?
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