Liam Wyatt wrote:
*Effectiveness != Efficiency*
One of the official WMF Fundraising principles
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_principles> is "*minimal
disruption*...aim to raise money from donors *effectively*" [emphasis is
original].
I believe that this wording has been interpreted by the fundraising team
to mean *"*do the fundraising as quickly as possible". However, I contest
that "less disruption" and "more effective" is not the same as
"shorter
fundraiser". i.e.: Effectiveness != Efficiency.
Thanks for this e-mail. I agree with you that these donation solicitation
e-mails are terrible and unbecoming.
In my opinion, the fundraising principles are simply too weak. They seem
to have been designed with maximum flexibility, which for guiding
principles would typically be fine, but the fundraising team needs much
stricter boundaries. Harder rules, backed by a Wikimedia Foundation Board
of Trustees resolution, are required. Repeated and repeated misbehavior on
the fundraising team's part makes it clear that the current guidelines
aren't enough. New rules would specifically address, for example, how
big and obnoxious in-page donation advertising can be, with hard maximums.
The fundraising rules also need to make explicit that lying is flatly
unacceptable. Having the first rule be "don't lie" might be the easiest
solution here, though it's shocking that this needs to be written down.
The fundraising teams, past and present, regularly lie to our readers in
an effort to extract donations. Specific examples of lying include calling
Sue Gardner the "Wikipedia Executive Director", calling Brandon Harris a
"Wikipedia programmer", and repeatedly making manipulative and misleading
suggestions that continued donations keep the projects online.
The Wikimedia Foundation recently raised $20 million. Assuming a generous
$3 million to keep the projects online per year, that's over six _years_
that the projects could continue operating before needing to ask for money
again. Contrast with e-mails and in-site donation advertising that
suggest that the lights will go off soon if readers don't donate today.
MZMcBride