Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Merchandising
It's REALLY EASY for a charity to end up with boxes of T-shirts under the bed. I second that! http://www.flickr.com/photos/loopzilla/72034640/ Gordo -- Think Feynman/ http://pobox.com/~gordo/ gordon.j...@pobox.com/// ___ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediau...@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Merchandising
2009/9/14 WereSpielChequers werespielchequ...@googlemail.com: I'm not a fan of merchandising as part of a charities function. But if it is done it should have the saving grace of having a sufficient markup to help finance the organisation. It's not a matter of being a fan or not - merchandising is not part of our function, it can only legally be done for the purposes of raising funds. Raising funds by attracting more members is a possibility, but I'm sceptical that it would raise enough funds to be worth the risk of unsold stock. If there is significant risk (which, without a profit margin to help absorb losses, there would be) then it would have to be done through a trading subsidiary, anyway (without the risk it would fall under the small trading exemption so could be done directly), and that will incur admin costs. Now what would be cool would be Wikipedia calenders. Flowers, sports events historical events - we could theme quite a few and they'd make great gifts. It would also be a good article improvement process as the nominated articles for the calender would be liable to get good scrutiny and input whist we discuss which should go in the calender. OK we would need wmf agreement to do this as a fundraiser sold outside the membership, but there is a well established charity market for such things. I for one can think of half a dozen calenders that I might buy as winter solstice presents for assorted friends and relatives. Now, that is a fantastic idea! They would be very cheap to produce (in terms of money - lots of volunteer labour would be required) so could be sold cheaply while still having a decent profit margin. It would be a great way to advertise (extracts from) featured articles - showing off our best articles could do a lot of good. ___ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediau...@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Merchandising
2009/9/14 Thomas Dalton thomas.dal...@gmail.com: 2009/9/14 WereSpielChequers werespielchequ...@googlemail.com: I'm not a fan of merchandising as part of a charities function. But if it is done it should have the saving grace of having a sufficient markup to help finance the organisation. It's not a matter of being a fan or not - merchandising is not part of our function, it can only legally be done for the purposes of raising funds. Raising funds by attracting more members is a possibility, but I'm sceptical that it would raise enough funds to be worth the risk of unsold stock. If there is significant risk (which, without a profit margin to help absorb losses, there would be) then it would have to be done through a trading subsidiary, anyway (without the risk it would fall under the small trading exemption so could be done directly), and that will incur admin costs. It's REALLY EASY for a charity to end up with boxes of T-shirts under the bed. The conditions WMF have put on merchandise, as described here, sound basically onerous and no different to no, you can't do it at all. - d. ___ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediau...@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Merchandising
Thanks everyone for their responses. Back to the original questions: - what kind of thing would you, personally, be interested in buying or getting as a gift? Tshirts, mousemats, cufflinks? - how much would you be willing to spend? - what logos would you like? Wikipedia? WMUK, complete family? Discussions so far have focussed on very limited sales, order on demand only. No one wants to spend lots of effort doing this, or taking any significant levels of stock. I don't think it has any potential to be a major source of funding so I don't suggest we go down that route. We're an association, a group of people with a common interest. The best way to encourage more and more people to join is to generate an enthusiasm for what we have in common. Stuff like Wikipedia T-shirts have a great potential to do that. Please don't pile in to rubbish the idea before it even takes shape. Andrew On Sep 13, 11:04 pm, Andrew Turvey andrewrtur...@googlemail.com wrote: We've received approval from the Wikimedia Foundation to produce merchandising with Wikimedia trademarks and copyrighted logos on it for sale to our members - anything from mugs and mouse-mats to cufflinks and ties. The plan is to sell them at cost price to members only. Quick question - what kind of thing would you be interested in buying and which logos would you want to use (Wikipedia globe? Wikimedia? Wiktionery? Complete family? [1]) [1]http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_logo_family_complete... Please let me know either by personal reply or just reply to the list. Regards, ___ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediau...@wikimedia.orghttp://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK:http://uk.wikimedia.org ___ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediau...@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Merchandising
The main monetary benefits of charity status are being able to reclaim Gift Aid on donations and reduced rates on expenses like room hire and paypal fees. These are far larger than any profit on T-shirt sales would ever be. Andrew On Sep 14, 9:34 am, Gordon Joly gordon.j...@pobox.com wrote: At 23:40 +0100 13/9/09, Andrew Turvey wrote: Hopefully it will be the kind of perk that will attract people who are already active in the projects to become members. As to selling at above cost, the Foundation wasn't too keen on that - worried that we would develop into some kind of commercial arm of the Foundation, which is not really their idea of the role of chapters. Andrew Run that by me, one more time? Why then seek to gain a tax advantage? Gordo -- Think Feynman/http://pobox.com/~gordo/ gordon.j...@pobox.com/// ___ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediau...@wikimedia.orghttp://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK:http://uk.wikimedia.org ___ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediau...@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Merchandising
Re-reading my original email and the reaction to it I should clarify: - Andrew Turvey andrewrtur...@googlemail.com wrote: The plan is to sell them at cost price to members only. Cost price isn't a restriction from the Foundation - their main restriction is that it must be either sold only to members or given away for free as publicity. It's up to us what price we sell them at, although if we make significant profit margins there are certain tax and charity consequences which may be better avoiding. Also I don't want members to get the impression we're profiteering. Thinking about it again, cost+20% - which I understand is what cafepress do - sounds about right to cover waste, stock etc. As I've mentioned before, I don't think the potential volumes justify turning this into a fundraising business. However, I do think it could be a good way to attract new members and give a benefit to existing members. I love the idea of a calendar, and we already have a potential partner in this with Robbies Photographics - one of the sponsors of the Wikipedia Loves Art event. Andrew ___ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediau...@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Merchandising
2009/9/14 Andrew Turvey andrewrtur...@googlemail.com: Discussions so far have focussed on very limited sales, order on demand only. No one wants to spend lots of effort doing this, or taking any significant levels of stock. I don't think it has any potential to be a major source of funding so I don't suggest we go down that route. The final sale price would probably be lower if we bought a significant number and added a profit margin. We're an association, a group of people with a common interest. The best way to encourage more and more people to join is to generate an enthusiasm for what we have in common. Stuff like Wikipedia T-shirts have a great potential to do that. Please don't pile in to rubbish the idea before it even takes shape. I'll rubbish whatever ideas I want, thank you very much! I'm not convinced this will attract sufficient members to justify doing it. It doesn't further our charitable goals so if it doesn't raise significant funds, we can't do it. By all means, do some market research and find out for sure, but I think merchandising for profit is the way to go. ___ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediau...@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Merchandising
2009/9/14 Andrew Turvey andrewrtur...@googlemail.com: Re-reading my original email and the reaction to it I should clarify: - Andrew Turvey andrewrtur...@googlemail.com wrote: The plan is to sell them at cost price to members only. Cost price isn't a restriction from the Foundation - their main restriction is that it must be either sold only to members or given away for free as publicity. It's up to us what price we sell them at, although if we make significant profit margins there are certain tax and charity consequences which may be better avoiding. Also I don't want members to get the impression we're profiteering. Thinking about it again, cost+20% - which I understand is what cafepress do - sounds about right to cover waste, stock etc. Ok, that's better, now we're talking (20% sounds fine to me, 10% might even be enough - depends on the details). The tax thresholds are in terms of turnover, rather than profit. For a small charity the small trade exemption covers us up to £5000 pa. turnover. If we go over that (which is unlikely with t-shirts and things, although the calendar idea could be bigger), we can avoid paying tax by forming a trading subsidiary and having it donate the profits to the charity, it then giftaids them so they are tax deductible reducing taxable profits to zero. (This is all entirely legal, the HMRC website even says how to do it.) I don't think t-shirts will be a large fundraiser, but we have to call it a fundraiser in order for it to be legal. ___ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediau...@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Merchandising
2009/9/14 Jarry1250 jarry1...@googlemail.com: I agree. The only thing is to add really is that branded T-Shirts might be good for WMUK people to wear at (informal) events where they represent the friendly face of Wikipedia. Indeed. I actually need to get around to making a homemade Wikipedia shirt or two I can keep on hand for telly etc! (Inkjet-printable T-shirt transfers. Great stuff. Suitable to be worn once or twice, not really washable without *ridiculous* care. Probably worth spending a little more and getting a one-off done at a high street print shop.) - d. ___ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediau...@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Merchandising
2009/9/13 Andrew Turvey andrewrtur...@googlemail.com: We've received approval from the Wikimedia Foundation to produce merchandising with Wikimedia trademarks and copyrighted logos on it for sale to our members - anything from mugs and mouse-mats to cufflinks and ties. The plan is to sell them at cost price to members only. Cost price? What is the point of that? Merchandising is a great way of making money. I don't think the existence of members-only merchandise is going to get many extra people to sign up. I would be happy to pay a little extra for my WMUK t-shirts. ___ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediau...@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
