[Foundation-l] fundraising proposal #1

Sun Jul 11 20:00:00 UTC 2004

daniwo59-
> Given the increasing costs of hardware in Mav's report, it seems as if we
> have to begin taking drastic measures to keep up to speed withour growth.
> One possibility is that we begin compiling a snail mail list of potential
> donors, to whom we begin sending out solicitations.

I don't think this is the best approach. We're an online project and we  
should do our fundraising online. One key factor in raising money is  
making it as simple as possible so the amount of inhibition people have to  
overcome is minimal. The other factor is keeping people updated about the  
progress of the fundraising and giving them credit. We're an international  
project and we want to reach the maximum number of people on the planet.  
Finally, we want to encourage random acts of kindness. The Internet allows  
all this.

What I think we should do is have a fundraiser twice a year, with a  
dynamically updated progress bar (we can get this developed now by putting  
a bounty on it), a list of recent donors and a list of top donors. During  
the time of the fundraising (a week or so every year), this progress bar  
would occupy the top 10-20% of screen space on all Wikimedia projects. It  
should be possible to directly make a donation from any Wikimedia page  
during the fundraising - just a single click. We would specify the goal  
beforehand and link to the detailed budget.

We have more traffic than Slashdot. I think reaching our goals will not be  
as difficult as some people appear to think. It's just a matter of  
exposure.

Regards,

Erik