[Wikimedia-l] Rationale for fundraising record?

[Milos Rancic]

On Sun, Jan 6, 2013 at 8:26 PM, Zack Exley <zexley at wikimedia.org> wrote:
> I'm very sorry I didn't answer this question earlier...

Thanks for the response! I thought that I'd get it, so I was mostly patient :)

> The short answer is: credit goes to a new kind of banner that put several
> powerful sentences (powerful for getting donations) directly into the
> banner. The text in the banner included several of the ideas from the
> appeals that used to be on our landing pages, plus some new ideas. There
> were a few other design changes that increased the donations too.
> ...

I am happy to hear both: that the success is the product of
professional work and that the cause for it is known :)

I'd also like to personally thank to the fundraising team. Gloomy
perspective of Wikimedia funding was inside of the top of my first
world problems (although I was consoled by the fact that I am living
in the first world, finally). Everything looks better now :)

Off topic: It is really bizarre to realize that the funding of the
biggest encyclopedia in the history of humans depends on design of
banners. Without the context of the Internet Era, it's almost
comparable to the connection between animist rituals and good harvest.