Hi Anna,
Thanks for your note. For what it's worth, Lisa Seitz Gruwell[1] said[2] a
couple of days ago on Meta, in response to Liam Wyatt,
Thanks for the feedback. I think you are referring to
language about
"keeping Wikipedia ad-free." We have taken that language
out of the banner.
She added, in response to myself,
Thanks for the suggestions. Here is the language we
are now using to
summarize costs: "If Wikipedia is useful to you, please take
one minute to
keep it online and growing. We're a small non-profit with costs of a top
website: servers, staff and programs."
I personally like the simple German wording about "giving something back to
Wikipedia" very much. I think many of us started editing with that sort of
sentiment in mind.
However, "to keep it online and growing", too, is a vast improvement over
"to keep it online and ad-free". I am very happy to see Lisa confirming
that "ad-free" has been dropped.
Andreas
[1]
On Sun, Nov 15, 2015 at 6:49 AM, Anna Stillwell <astillwell(a)wikimedia.org>
wrote:
Andreas,
Thank you for this positive feedback. I can't comment on future banner
messages because I don't have the requisite knowledge.
Here's where we are right now... I've seen Megan and the fundraising team
really apply themselves on this concern. They've interviewed many people
and they are starting to collaborate with some of the people who have not
liked our banners.
I have no promises. None. I am just filling you in on the process. We're
also headed into the busiest times of our year and we are a small team so
we may not be able to update you in a timely fashion.
/a
On Fri, Nov 13, 2015 at 5:42 AM, Andreas Kolbe <jayen466(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I see that the fundraising banners currently
running in Germany[1][2] no
longer speak of "keeping Wikipedia online and ad-free", but instead
encourage people to "give something back to Wikipedia" if they find it
useful.
That is a much, much better wording. Thank you. I trust the English
banners
that will run in December will follow the same
approach.
Note however that the German FAQ[3] that is linked from the German Donate
Now page[4] is several years out of date. It refers to 2013/2014 as the
current financial year, and directs readers to the 2011/2012 annual
report
(!!!).
The English FAQ[5] has much less content than the German one (I'm told
all
the outdated content has been commented out) and
now lacks any specifics
that would give donors an idea of what the Foundation is doing with their
money.
In all languages, the link to the FAQ on the Donate Now page is in such
small print as to be barely legible. Please update the FAQs in all
languages as a matter of urgency, and change the font size of the links
to
something more reasonable.
In general I would like to see the Foundation communicate more clearly,
transparently and proactively about where the money goes, and what the
user
benefits are. Reports like the one last year on
improving access speed[6]
are useful.
Andreas
[1]
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Spendenbanner-de-s5mini-151112_Kopie.jpg
https://donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:FundraiserLandingPag…
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/12/29/how-we-made-editing-wikipedia-twice-as…
On Thu, Nov 5, 2015 at 11:17 PM, Pine W <wiki.pine(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I was happy to see increasing net assets and
increasing revenue. The
fundraising messages that WMF sends should to reflect the facts about
where
> the money will go and about the current financial status of WMF.
>
> I've been told by someone whose history with the Wikimedia community is
> longer than mine that many years ago, the chapters used to be in
stronger
financial
positions than WMF was. Eventually this flipped. As recently
as a
few years ago were consistent questions about the
effectiveness and
integrity of the chapters. In more recent history, the chapters seem to
be
doing well in terms of effectiveness and
integrity, and now the bulk of
the
revenue is going to WMF where there are more
questions about
effectiveness
and integrity. I'm particularly troubled by
the lack of responses from
WMF
to a number of questions that I repeatedly asked
about the 2015-2016
Annual
Plan, and I'd really like to see some work
done on increasing financial
transparency in WMF as well as enhancing the integrity of the online
fundraising messages.
Pine
On Thu, Nov 5, 2015 at 2:59 PM, Andreas Kolbe <jayen466(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
On October 30, the Wikimedia Foundation posted
its audited financial
statements for the year ended June 30, 2015.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/0/0b/Audit_Report_-_FY_14…
> >
> > The figures contained in these statements have a bearing on the
present
> > discussion. Some highlights:
> >
> > Net assets at end of year:
> > $77.8 million
> > (up $24.3 million from $53.5 million)
> >
> > Current assets include:
> > $35.2 million in cash and cash equivalents
> > $29.0 million in short-term investments.
> >
> > Total support and revenue:
> > $75.8 million
> > (up $23.3 million from $52.5 million)
> >
> > Total expenses:
> > $52.6 million
> > (up $6.7 million from $45.9 million)
> >
> > Internet hosting costs:
> > just under $2 million
> > (down $0.5 million from $2.5 million)
> > _______________________________________________
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--
Anna Stillwell
Major Gifts Officer
Wikimedia Foundation
415.806.1536
*www.wikimediafoundation.org <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org>*
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