[Foundation-l] Regarding the Fundraising Banner

[Florence Devouard]

Casey Brown wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 6, 2008 at 5:10 PM, Florence Devouard <Anthere9 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> Talking about the banner and currencies, I am not quite sure why some
>> languages are in dollars and others are in euros. It might make sense in
>> Deutsch (mostly Deutsch people will donate and of course, they will
>> donate in euros preferably), but not really in French (canadian, french,
>> swiss, algerian etc... all use different currencies). I expect the
>> Foundation receive quite a lot from canadians... who will find odd to
>> find an american organization propose a donation in euros.
>>
>> But beyond this, I noted an oddity.
>> The banner is currently suggesting donating 30 dollars, 75 dollars or
>> 100 dollars per default. Thank god, people can choose to give other
>> values and in particular less. Given that the average donation in the
>> past was 30 dollars, suggesting 30 dollars as minimal value is... bold.
>>
>> But other languages, such as german, also propose 30/75/100, but not in
>> dollars... in euros. Unfortunately, a 30 dollars today is below 20 euros
>> today. So, a minimal gift of 30 euros is more about 40-45 dollars.
>> I do not think it is a good idea to suggest different values according
>> to languages. Somehow, it strikes me as "unequal". I think we should
>> stick to dollars in any cases. Imho.
>>
>> (I am not going to scream about this, I just find it is not a good idea).
>>
>> Ant
>>
>>
> 
> I rely on the translators and the people who *live* in the country to
> figure out what amount to give.  For example, for Bulgarian we were
> definitely not going to do 15 Euros... that's a *lot* of money for
> people in Bulgaria (where most of the Bulgarians are).
> 
> There really isn't a reason to complain about the currency, there's a
> drop-down where you can select the one that you prefer. :-)  We had to
> pick the one that fit best with the speakers of the language *and*
> that was offered by PayPal (if there was no available option, we'd use
> the default: USD).  Within those parameters, I think we are doing a
> pretty good job.
> 
> If you have any comments about a specific language and find that it
> would be way too much to ask of the local people (not something like
> "they are asking more of Europeans!" because I agree with Sebmol as he
> said earlier), please drop me a line. ;-)
> 


Yeah. The line has been dropped in the past two messages already, I am 
not going to repeat myself. But as I said, this is my opinion, and I am 
not going to make a drama of that. To a certain extent, I do not care.



However, I care about French and I care about not trying to show that 
France is the center of the world.

I switched the French speaking page to dollars instead of Euros.
Now, IF you have a good argument for the Foundation, an american 
organization, to decide to fundraise in euros rather than any other 
currency WHEN the interface is in French, I'll listen carefully.
What I know is that there are essentially four French speaking countries 
in Europe. One is France and we suggest they give to the chapter. One is 
Switzerland and we suggest they give to the chapter (and their currency 
is not euro anyway). Granted, Belgian and Luxembourg people will give to 
WMF in euros perhaps. But I am pretty sure the addition of Belgian and 
Luxembourg will end up less than French canadian or African 
contributors. So, there is no sense putting euros by default.

I wish I, a French, would not have to explain others that France is not 
the center of the French speaking world...

Oh wait... but maybe it is ? Jeee, sorry :-)