[Foundation-l] Re: Our exponentially increasing costs

Sun Oct 23 23:38:24 UTC 2005

--- Michael Snow <wikipedia at earthlink.net> wrote:
> I would add that the correlation between readership and donations is 
> more apparent during the periods when we are explicitly having a 
> fundraiser. We may be able to support the sites to a large extent that 
> way for now, but having fundraisers too frequently will desensitize 
> people to them. Getting into a position where we have to run intrusive 
> sitewide notices every other month would lead to a vicious cycle of 
> diminishing donations leading to declining performance.

Having monthly fund drives would be very bad for the reasons you give. But a
week or two each quarter should be fine. So far our fund drives have been a bit
on the long side. I'd like to maximize giving in shorter periods of time to
lessen that (a 3 week long drive is 1 to 2 weeks too long, IMO).

> Mav can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure routine donations 
> during non-fundraising periods are nowhere near enough to maintain 
> normal operations. 

You are absolutely correct. But we can also do a few small things to help
maximize day-to-day donation rates (mostly feeback-related). 

> We need to do a lot more to establish ongoing revenue 
> streams, whether it's through this partnership or others. I've passed 
> along and pushed for a few ideas in that regard. It would be nice to 
> have more people doing that, and then we could more easily dispense with 
> those to which people end up raising objections.

Yep - I saw your email about the eBay thing. Just haven't had time to look it
over closely yet. 

> Volunteer to help Danny finding grants and preparing applications. Get 
> the Wikimedia Foundation added to your employer's matching program for 
> charitable donations if you have one. Do some research and come up with 
> other ideas to produce income. Just because we're a nonprofit doesn't 
> mean we can disregard the importance of money.

This is all planned to happen.

-- mav

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