[Foundation-l] Membership fees proposal

Fri Jul 30 15:55:57 UTC 2004

Delirium wrote:

> Anthere wrote:
>
>> The proposal is available at 
>> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Membership_fees.
>>
>> This proposal was set based on discussions with many editors, on 
>> meta, on irc, by email. Though it is probably not perfect, I believe 
>> it is a fair proposal trying to take into consideration all comments 
>> made.
>
>
> I haven't followed most of the discussions, so this is just a first 
> impression, but a fee of $60 seemed a little bit steep, so it 
> surprised me when I first saw it.  I'm not sure it's actually a bad 
> idea, but it was a bit surprising.  I'm not 100% sure, but I think 
> it's more common to have a somewhat lower minimum membership fee, and 
> then have higher levels with additional mini-benefits for those who 
> can afford them.  Of course, part of that is my personal budgeting: I 
> can see myself buying a $20-$30 membership right now without too much 
> thought, but a $60 one would require a bit more consideration, and I 
> might end up just not joining at all if there's no intermediate $30 
> option.  If that's something that a lot of other people would also do, 
> that could be a problem.  (Of course, it might also be balanced by 
> some people who maybe would've only given $30 but are now encouraged 
> to give $60, so I'm not sure which one results in the foundation 
> raising more money overall.) 

No organization should depend on membership fees as a major revenue 
source.  If memberships produce a small net income over the cost of 
administration we should be happy.  What we would probably want from 
memberships is the sense of commitment that tells us that these people 
are here for the longer term.  When membership fees are kept low, it 
gives us a pool of people who can be asked to contribute when needed.  
Those members may be more generous when asked.

Ec