[Foundation-l] Fundraising Community Appeal

[Megan Hernandez]

Hello Wikimedia contributors,

The fundraising team has been testing new messages over the past couple of
months and we're happy to report we've found some new voices that will allow
us to move away from our dependence on Jimmy to appeal to readers for
donations. This year we want the fundraiser to rely as much as possible on
voices of many different members of our community. So far, we've only tested
messages from individuals, but we'd like to test a group appeal from the
community. *That's where you come in!* Please help out by editing this page
together. <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2011/communityappeal>

Here are a few *successful appeal principles* we've found in our most
effective appeals:

   - *Authenticity*: We need to tell stories from amazing passionate
   Wikipedians in their own real words about why they are passionate about
   Wikipedia and what is great about Wikipedia.
   - *Beauty*: Wikipedia is an amazing, beautiful thing run by volunteers
   doing it out of the goodness of their hearts.
   - *Story*: Clarify people's understanding of Wikipedia and that it needs
   them to keep the story going.
   - *Free and ad free*: People love that it's free to use, free to be used
   in any way, and ad free.
   - *Importance*: We're #5 and everyone uses us!
   - *Efficiency*: Compared to the other top sites, we run on a shoestring
   budget.
   - *Strong, quick start*: It must have a catchy first line.
   - *Ask*: tell people where the money goes, be specific and concrete.


*Examples* of the most effective appeals - so far :

   - Trusty Jimmy <http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/L11_0209_Jimmy/en>
   - Brandon Appeal<http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/L11_BR2_Junetest_1/en/US>
   - Maryana Appeal<http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/L11_3009_Maryana_1/en/US>
   - Wikipedia editor Alan
Sohn<http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/L11_0209_Alan-a/en>
   - Steven Walling
appeal<http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/L11_JMvSW_Julytest_SW/en/US>


Please help come up with some ideas and drafts here:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2011/communityappeal

Really looking forward to seeing what we come up with!

Megan


-- 

Megan Hernandez

Head of Annual Fundraiser
Wikimedia Foundation