Thanks, Liam. The hope is that this consistent income stream will provide the Foundation with a steady source of income while giving donors another method for giving that might fit their lifestyle. it has certainly been heavily requested.
By past donors, I refer to both people who have donated this year and in the past. I honestly don't know how far the database goes back, but i will see if I can find out. Our database consists of about 600,000 donors, I believe, but this is a very rough number. Many duplicate records exist, and there is a definite need for some serious data clean-up work. in addition, we have almost no information on a donor if she moves, for instance. We began a test mailing about recurring giving today, and expect to roll it out more widely over the rest of the week. Philippe On Dec 15, 2010, at 4:28 AM, Liam Wyatt wrote: > Phillipe, > congratulations on this! I suspect this will be the beginning of a whole new > revenue stream that might eventually surpass the "once a year" effort we > have always relied on. I know in Australia at least that this is a very > common method for charities to request donations as it results in a larger > total donation from the individual over time, makes it easier to build a > longterm relationship with the donor (through a monthly newsletter or > whatever) and also a more assured revenue stream for the organisation. It's > also good to see that the WMF is diversifying the methods of giving. > > When you say that you'll be announcing it to "past donors" - do you mean the > people who've donated so far during this year's fundraiser, or anyone who > has donated going back several years? If the latter - how long does the > database go back and how many individual donors have there been? > > -Liam > > wittylama.com/blog > Peace, love & metadata > > > On 15 December 2010 03:28, Philippe Beaudette <[email protected]>wrote: > >> One member of the fundraising team had it on her Christmas list. Another >> literally begged for it. So today, I feel quite a sense of accomplishment >> in announcing that the Wikimedia Foundation is now able to accept recurring >> monthly contributions as a giving option for our donors. Recurring giving >> has been in the works for a long time - literally years. >> >> We launched a limited test run of recurring donations last Thursday, and >> have already received several thousand dollars worth of commitments using >> this new method. >> >> Over the course of the past several years, we’ve received hundreds of >> requests from donors that we offer automatic monthly giving. Donors want the >> ease of monthly giving, and, as many have noted, it's far more convenient to >> give $5 a month than $60 all at once. In addition, it gives the Foundation a >> certain amount of security to know that a base amount of money will be >> coming every month, year round. >> >> With monthly recurring giving, a donor selects the amount they wish to >> give, and the payment is made automatically each month, for 12 months. >> >> Our recurring monthly donations are processed by Paypal, so unfortunately >> we still are unable to accept the currencies they don’t support. However - >> as with any PayPal transaction, you can use either your PayPal account, or a >> credit card. >> >> Our recurring giving options will primarily be targeted as "post-donation" >> options. Testing showed that including the option on the initial giving >> form actually resulted in fewer transactions, but many past donors feel >> strongly about the introduction of this system. We will likely be >> announcing it to past donors as a method to continue their generous support, >> sometime this week. Anyone is welcome to use it - we just won't be >> advertising it on the initial donation. >> >> You can sign up for recurring giving at: >> http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Monthly_donations/en >> >> With this, we gleefully delete the “sorry, we don’t have a recurring >> donation option” template from our email response systems. >> >> Best wishes, >> Philippe >> >> >> _______________________ >> Philippe Beaudette >> Head of Reader Relations >> Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. >> >> ofc: +1 415 839 6885 x6643 >> mobile: +1 918 200 WIKI (9454) >> >> [email protected] >> >> Imagine a world in which every human being can freely share in >> the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality! >> >> http://donate.wikimedia.org >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> foundation-l mailing list >> [email protected] >> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l >> > _______________________________________________ > foundation-l mailing list > [email protected] > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
