[Foundation-l] Fundraiser update

[Michael Snow]

Nathan wrote:
> Personally I appreciate that the foundation is working to make fundraising a
> year round project, particularly with respect to large donations from
> individuals and other foundations. I wonder if we can't work more closely
> with other, more established charitable foundations though. If we connected
> our fundraising drive to the fundraising of another charity, particularly
> one that is very well known (like the B&M Gates Foundation, Ford Foundation,
> Red Cross, etc.), wouldn't that make our drive more high profile in the
> press and the donor world? Right now we get a lot of online buzz, but it
> doesn't seem to translate into wider coverage. Working with them would also
> much more clearly establish our charitable credentials, which directly
> targets the major perception gap in the world about Wikimedia.
>   
Just to point out, but many charities that are well-known and have lots 
of money (including some you mention) do not actually do fundraising, so 
this wouldn't make sense. Their funds, and often their visibility, come 
entirely from one or more extremely wealthy individuals. We can't join 
in on the Gates Foundation's fundraising, because it doesn't do any - 
unless you imagine us sitting in on Bill talking to Warren Buffett about 
how to dispose of his wealth. Go to their website and see what they tell 
people who want to donate.
> We could pair our whole drive with the drive of another major organization,
> or parcel out days or weeks separately (a week where our drive is "In
> cooperation with the American Red Cross, with donations split between these
> two very valuable organizations" etc.). I don't know if we would get more
> from the dual appeal than we lose by splitting donations, but we could
> always have separate "Click here to donate to Wikimedia" and "Click here to
> donate to the Red Cross."
>   
I'm pretty confident that in our current model, any dual drive would 
siphon money away from Wikimedia to the partner, whoever that might be. 
It would basically allow them to ride along on what we've built. I 
suspect that even with the Red Cross - who have a good name, are much 
bigger than us, and deal with a much bigger volume of donations - even 
with all those factors, because the way they attract donor attention is 
not strongly web-based, we'd be giving them a benefit much more than 
they would be giving us one. There might be some other approach in which 
dual fundraising is mutually beneficial, but I'd want to know what that 
model is.

Also worth noting is that we are in fact giving multiple donation 
options already, because the drive includes a number of participating 
chapters. I would prefer to focus on improving that system and 
increasing its benefits to all sides, and I'd be concerned about how 
outside fundraising alliances might detract from it. The creative 
thinking is commendable, though, and I encourage more of it.

--Michael Snow