On Fri, Dec 4, 2015 at 3:25 PM, James Heilman jmh649@gmail.com wrote:
- Yes everyone realizes that using a non free image in our fundraising
banners is not okay. It was a mistake. These things happen and we correct them.
Funny how the first response from a WMF employee was that they thought using stock images was OK.
https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2015-December/080112.html
Im not sure the Fundraising team are on board with your 'free content only' expectations. Lisa indicated that contractors are also allowed to use WMF owned media that hasnt been released as free content, and 'upload to Commons' is not part of their processes before media is used in worldwide campaigns.
Some declared fundraising principles, which everyone agrees and adheres to, would be good.
- When is it okay to run smaller commercial ads rather than larger
fundraising banners? Never.
I think the acceptable model for 'commercial' ads worth exploring is to run 'thank you' ads for large corporate donors, provided those 'ads' are not targeted based on content or user. e.g. targeting only based on time segments or countries.
Would you find a donation matching 'ad' acceptable, like was done for Virgin Unite in 2006?
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Wikimedia_thanks_Virgin_Unite
I would much rather see the WMF become smaller than to see ads run.
'smaller' isnt a good way to look at it. reduced expenditure may be achieved by being more efficient, especially by using volunteers more effectively.
Are you doing any planning around that possibility?
My understanding is the WMF management + fundraising costs are ~30% of expenditure, which is below the American Institute of Philanthropy (AIP) 's best practise of 80% program spend. The current rate is still in acceptable efficiency ranges according to the AIP. If the revenue decreases, as is a credible concern that has been raised by WMF Fundraising team, fundraising costs will need to decrease to avoid that percentage moving into the unacceptable range.