[Foundation-l] Fundraising ideas - bursting the bubble

Tue Jun 13 22:59:29 UTC 2006

I think this raises some important questions. I am giving only partial  
answers right now, but they should be some indication of the direction, at least  
as I see it.

In a message dated 6/13/2006 6:21:28 AM Eastern Daylight Time,  
eloquence at gmail.com writes:

On  6/12/06, daniwo59 at aol.com <daniwo59 at aol.com> wrote:
> 1 Are we  allowed to solicit funds anywhere? Not quite as simple as you may
>  think.

I remember that we've had those discussions before about  the
fundraising page and the way it should be worded. In recent  fund
drives, however, we've become more aggressive, with a personal  appeal
from Jimmy, slogans like "Help empower the world", and so on. We  still
have a disclaimer that this does not constitute a solicitation, but  is
that sufficient? Are we currently registered in any U.S. state  other
than Florida for solicitation of funds? If not, would such  a
registration make sense?
Yes, however, I would hope that a genuine fundraising campaign would extend  
beyond placing a banner on our websites. It would involve solicitation and,  
especially, donor cultivation, especially of people making large gifts. The  
registration process to do this outside of Florida is complicated. It is well  
underway, but requires time and oversight, as it must be done annually in each  
state individually.

> 2 What is the cost of a direct mailing? Try multiplying  postage costs by 
1000s,
> add printing costs, then add hourly rates. We  can either do the mailing 
in-house
> (at which point you must consider  whether it is worth paying my salary to 
have
> me stuff envelopes) or a  service (which adds to the costs).

How about trying to decentralize the  "licking envelopes" part? Allow a
large number of reasonably trusted  volunteers to send "thank you"
notes (add some legal disclaimer about the  sender not being a
Wikimedia employee etc. if necessary). Compensate them  for postage,
but not for time. I'm not sure this is a viable model, but it  may be
worth trying out.

I agree that this may not be a viable model but worth trying out. Note that  
in an earlier email, I asked for volunteers and specifically mentioned this. 
So  far one person has volunteered. Regardless, there are some other issues 
taht  should be considered, such as the uniformity of the thank you note. This 
would  mean shipping cards, letters, printed envelopes, and what have you to  
people--another cost that should be considered. There is also the issue of  
oversight. I can imagine people pushing off the tedious stuffing of envelopes  for 
any number of valid reasons. What assurance do we have that the proper  
mailings get sent. Note that I do not believe these problems are  
insurmountable--just that they should be considered. There are also other  options, such as 
paying a commercial service to do this, however, this is an  added expense.

>  3 Are there any mails that we are required to send by law? Yes

That's a  good point. How good are we presently at complying with these
regulations,  e.g. notifying people who make >$200 donations outside
regular fund  drives? Does the applicable law already allow for the use
of digitally  signed e-mails, or do we have to send snail mail?
To date, this has been done in time. I have even instituted a policy that a  
letter is now sent immediately upon receipt by  snail mail of  any gift over 
$200. I also have PDFs of each letter for our own  records. One practical thing 
to note is that the bulk of larger donations is  sent via bank transfer or 
personal check mailed to the office, not by Paypal. As  such, even if we were 
able to send such letters electronically (and I was under  the impression that 
we could not), the only contact information we often have is  a snail mail 
address, so the question is moot.

Danny