[Wikimedia-l] An idea that may improve Wikipedia's fundraising

[Sue Gardner]

A supportive anecdote for you, Matt:

Back in 2008, I got toured through the fundraising operation of one of the
major American public broadcasters. It had a large fundraising team that
included a group dedicated solely to tracking and shipping premiums. Its
boss advised us to avoid going down the premiums road: he said once you
start it's very difficult to stop, because donors grow to expect them. I
remember being reminded of a study, I think by Dan Ariely, in which he
found that if you offer people small material incentives for doing
something, they begin to see the transaction in self-interested terms, and
the incentive can end up being viewed as too small -- insulting, and not
good value. Essentially IIRC small material incentives can have the effect
of shifting people from an intrinsically-motivated mindset (donor) into a
transactional mindset (economically-self-interested rational actor).

So, I agree with you that before we instituted premiums, we'd want to think
long and hard about what benefits they would bring, and what unintended
consequences might result.

Thanks,
Sue
On Aug 15, 2013 4:20 AM, "Matthew Walker" <mwalker at wikimedia.org> wrote:

> >>Technology limitations aside, there are two things we throw around in the
> >>team a lot; that we should not give the impression that a user *must* pay
> >>to use a WMF property, and that we will never ever do gift premiums.
>
> >This sounds a bit like "Fundraising principles" or similar. Are these
> >documented anywhere (e.g. on Meta-Wiki)? If not, I think it'd be great to
> >start a page. :-)
>
> In the past days there's been discussion internal to the fundraising team
> -- it appears that the 'fundraising principles' I thought we held are not
> uniformly held by others. In this particular instance it seems that gift
> premiums are not entirely off the table. I've been told that the reason we
> have not done them in the past is mostly due to technical limitations. The
> current view is that we should keep our options open to future
> experimentation if the situation allows.
>
> <personal hat>
> At this I'll take off my foundation hat and state that I remain firmly
> opposed to gift premiums being used as a donation incitement. I hope that
> if we do, at some point, press forward and experiment with premiums that,
> before this happens, ...
> - We show reasonable evidence that the gain in monetary income will fully
> offset the new cost in managing gifts.
> - We either have some method to ship worldwide without subsidy; or we
> communicate beforehand that we will not be able to do this in some regions
> *and* that we understand and have a plan for the fallout that will probably
> cause.
> - We have premiums that actually mean something to the movement; e.g. you
> do not donate $100 and get a t-shirt.
> - We show reasonable evidence that if the experiment doesn't work that we
> will not have hurt our future donation prospects. (E.g. will people always
> expect premiums if we offer them once?)
> - That we have a solid communications plan in place to immediately offset
> any possible suggestion that you are 'buying' a piece of the foundation
> with your donation.
>
> Just my two cents.
> </personal hat>
>
> ~Matt Walker
> Wikimedia Foundation
> Fundraising Technology Team
>
>
> On Tue, Aug 6, 2013 at 11:50 AM, MZMcBride <z at mzmcbride.com> wrote:
>
> > Matthew Walker wrote:
> > >Technology limitations aside, there are two things we throw around in
> the
> > >team a lot; that we should not give the impression that a user *must*
> pay
> > >to use a WMF property, and that we will never ever do gift premiums.
> >
> > Hi Matt.
> >
> > This sounds a bit like "Fundraising principles" or similar. Are these
> > documented anywhere (e.g. on Meta-Wiki)? If not, I think it'd be great to
> > start a page. :-)
> >
> > MZMcBride
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Wikimedia-l mailing list
> > Wikimedia-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> > <mailto:wikimedia-l-request at lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimedia-l mailing list
> Wikimedia-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> <mailto:wikimedia-l-request at lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>