[Foundation-l] Monthly Recurring Giving

[Liam Wyatt]

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
>
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>
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