[Foundation-l] fundraising idea

Tue Nov 20 17:30:24 UTC 2007

Hi Colin

I think this is a fantastic idea!  Am I allowed to borrow it for another
project I am involved in! :-)

Best regards

Debbie

> -----Original Message-----
> From: foundation-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org
> [mailto:foundation-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf
> Of Colin Maroney
> Sent: 18 November 2007 07:49
> To: foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> Subject: [Foundation-l] fundraising idea
>
> Hi.  I have just this minute subscribed to the list and read
> about your fundraising difficulties, discussed in early Nov.
> I came after having thrown $25 your way, the average donation
> i see.  I have an idea as to how you guys could make money
> ethically, unobtrusively, wiithout alienating customers, and
> it's cheap to implement.
>
> Micropayments.  Ask people to voluntarily become subscribers
> to a micropayment system.  They give you $5 up front.  You
> charge them .01 a page, or maybe .05 tops.  I like $.01
> better, because it is literally the least you can ask.
> Charge their account, you don't need to ask for a credit card
> each time, you have $5, just take it out of that until it's gone.
>
> You can embellish the program a bit.  Don't charge for
> contributions or edits or other "giving" activities, only for
> article views.  In fact giving activities could earn you a
> credit, although there are "cheating" issues with that.  Make
> sure you remind them that they just donated a penny, and hey,
> thanks for that, we appreciate it.
>
> When they use up the $5, which will probably take a while,
> it's 500 articles, but they will use it up eventually, and
> then you start  by emailing them a reminder and then nagging
> them at the bottom of the article that they need to refill
> their account.  DO NOT STOP SERVING THEM PAGES.
> Anyone can still see Wikipedia for free, but you should make
> your point that hey, it costs money, and you're asking for a
> friggin penny a hit, so come on.
>
> How many articles do you serve a day?  a buck a hundred will
> add up fast.
> And it is an ongoing source of funding, permanent really, as
> long as people are willing to do it.  So you have to sell
> them on it, but i think it could work.  It's technically easy
> to implement, i would think, you'd need a login and then just
> track session hits.  You'd want to make real sure to avoid
> double-charges or other BS that could piss people off, and
> you'd need to be careful that people couldn't get in and
> force payments from the wrong account, although there's not
> much incentive to do that, since you can still see if free if
> you want to.
>
> what do you all think?
>
>
>
> --
> == -- == -- == -- == -- ==
> Colin Maroney
> cjmaroney01 at gmail.com
> -- == -- == -- == -- == --
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