[Foundation-l] Monthly Recurring Giving

[Philippe Beaudette]

Thanks, Liam.  The hope is that  this consistent income stream will provide the Foundation with a steady source of income while giving donors another method for giving that might fit their lifestyle.  it has certainly been heavily requested.

By past donors, I refer to both people who have donated this year and in the past.  I honestly don't know how far the database goes back, but i will see if I can find out.  Our database consists of about 600,000 donors, I believe, but this is a very rough number. Many duplicate records exist, and there is a definite need for some serious data clean-up work.  in addition, we have almost no information on a donor if she moves, for instance.
We began a test mailing about recurring giving today, and expect to roll it out more widely over the rest of the week.

Philippe

On Dec 15, 2010, at 4:28 AM, Liam Wyatt wrote:

> Phillipe,
> congratulations on this! I suspect this will be the beginning of a whole new
> revenue stream that might eventually surpass the "once a year" effort we
> have always relied on. I know in Australia at least that this is a very
> common method for charities to request donations as it results in a larger
> total donation from the individual over time, makes it easier to build a
> longterm relationship with the donor (through a monthly newsletter or
> whatever) and also a more assured revenue stream for the organisation. It's
> also good to see that the WMF is diversifying the methods of giving.
> 
> When you say that you'll be announcing it to "past donors" - do you mean the
> people who've donated so far during this year's fundraiser, or anyone who
> has donated going back several years? If the latter - how long does the
> database go back and how many individual donors have there been?
> 
> -Liam
> 
> wittylama.com/blog
> Peace, love & metadata
> 
> 
> On 15 December 2010 03:28, Philippe Beaudette <pbeaudette at wikimedia.org>wrote:
> 
>> One member of the fundraising team had it on her Christmas list.  Another
>> literally begged for it.  So today, I feel quite a sense of accomplishment
>> in announcing that the Wikimedia Foundation is now able to accept recurring
>> monthly contributions as a giving option for our donors.  Recurring giving
>> has been in the works for a long time - literally years.
>> 
>> We launched a limited test run of recurring donations last Thursday, and
>> have already received several thousand dollars worth of commitments using
>> this new method.
>> 
>> Over the course of the past several years, we’ve received hundreds of
>> requests from donors that we offer automatic monthly giving. Donors want the
>> ease of monthly giving, and, as many have noted, it's far more convenient to
>> give $5 a month than $60 all at once. In addition, it gives the Foundation a
>> certain amount of security to know that a base amount of money will be
>> coming every month, year round.
>> 
>> With monthly recurring giving, a donor selects the amount they wish to
>> give, and the payment is made automatically each month, for 12 months.
>> 
>> Our recurring monthly donations are processed by Paypal, so unfortunately
>> we still are unable to accept the currencies they don’t support.  However -
>> as with any PayPal transaction, you can use either your PayPal account, or a
>> credit card.
>> 
>> Our recurring giving options will primarily be targeted as "post-donation"
>> options.  Testing showed that including the option on the initial giving
>> form actually resulted in fewer transactions, but many past donors feel
>> strongly about the introduction of this system.  We will likely be
>> announcing it to past donors as a method to continue their generous support,
>> sometime this week.  Anyone is welcome to use it - we just won't be
>> advertising it on the initial donation.
>> 
>> You can sign up for recurring giving at:
>> http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Monthly_donations/en
>> 
>> With this, we gleefully delete the “sorry, we don’t have a recurring
>> donation option” template from our email response systems.
>> 
>> Best wishes,
>> Philippe
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________
>> Philippe Beaudette
>> Head of Reader Relations
>> Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
>> 
>> ofc: +1 415 839 6885 x6643
>> mobile: +1 918 200 WIKI (9454)
>> 
>> pbeaudette at wikimedia.org
>> 
>> Imagine a world in which every human being can freely share in
>> the sum of all knowledge.  Help us make it a reality!
>> 
>> http://donate.wikimedia.org
>> 
>> 
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