[Foundation-l] Rethinking fundraising (2): Storytelling

[cohesion]

On 10/8/07, Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell at gmail.com> wrote:
> I also think we shouldn't limit ourselves to any one donor base. ...
> and certainly not anyone who is already donating to charities.
>
> Anecdotaly, many people I encounter who *I* consider good potential
> donor material (young-middle age, tech savvy, household incomes
> soundly in the 33 and even 35% federal income tax brackets, and who
> *do* donate to things like macfound) are often completely unaware or
> misinformed of Wikimedia's non-profit status. To quote someone I spoke
> to recently: "Wikipedia, you know thats not non-profit anymore right?
> The founder Jimmy Wales ... wikia... search.." 0_o Easily corrected,
> but only if someone is actively correcting it.

Right, this isn't a bad idea by any means, I think what people fear
about this kind of thing though is that it seems *too* professional,
and disconnects from the community. And you're right, the foundation
should certainly try and broaden our donation base, possibly using
different approaches in different demographics. About misinformation,
it really is alarming, even in other semi-tech communities I use
online. "Wikipedia will be bought out..." etc

The problem of overprofessionalism is a very mild one, I don't recall
anything we have ever done as coming off *too* polished. ;) That's our
charm I guess.

Judson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Cohesion