Sue: I also hate the idea of premiums. We will never want to do lame "premiums". But there may in the future be a cool thing to offer with donations, who knows -- so why limit ourselves by saying we will "never ever" do something?
Zack On Wed, Aug 14, 2013 at 5:46 PM, Sue Gardner <[email protected]> wrote: > A supportive anecdote for you, Matt: > > Back in 2008, I got toured through the fundraising operation of one of the > major American public broadcasters. It had a large fundraising team that > included a group dedicated solely to tracking and shipping premiums. Its > boss advised us to avoid going down the premiums road: he said once you > start it's very difficult to stop, because donors grow to expect them. I > remember being reminded of a study, I think by Dan Ariely, in which he > found that if you offer people small material incentives for doing > something, they begin to see the transaction in self-interested terms, and > the incentive can end up being viewed as too small -- insulting, and not > good value. Essentially IIRC small material incentives can have the effect > of shifting people from an intrinsically-motivated mindset (donor) into a > transactional mindset (economically-self-interested rational actor). > > So, I agree with you that before we instituted premiums, we'd want to think > long and hard about what benefits they would bring, and what unintended > consequences might result. > > Thanks, > Sue > On Aug 15, 2013 4:20 AM, "Matthew Walker" <[email protected]> wrote: > > > >>Technology limitations aside, there are two things we throw around in > the > > >>team a lot; that we should not give the impression that a user *must* > pay > > >>to use a WMF property, and that we will never ever do gift premiums. > > > > >This sounds a bit like "Fundraising principles" or similar. Are these > > >documented anywhere (e.g. on Meta-Wiki)? If not, I think it'd be great > to > > >start a page. :-) > > > > In the past days there's been discussion internal to the fundraising team > > -- it appears that the 'fundraising principles' I thought we held are not > > uniformly held by others. In this particular instance it seems that gift > > premiums are not entirely off the table. I've been told that the reason > we > > have not done them in the past is mostly due to technical limitations. > The > > current view is that we should keep our options open to future > > experimentation if the situation allows. > > > > <personal hat> > > At this I'll take off my foundation hat and state that I remain firmly > > opposed to gift premiums being used as a donation incitement. I hope that > > if we do, at some point, press forward and experiment with premiums that, > > before this happens, ... > > - We show reasonable evidence that the gain in monetary income will fully > > offset the new cost in managing gifts. > > - We either have some method to ship worldwide without subsidy; or we > > communicate beforehand that we will not be able to do this in some > regions > > *and* that we understand and have a plan for the fallout that will > probably > > cause. > > - We have premiums that actually mean something to the movement; e.g. you > > do not donate $100 and get a t-shirt. > > - We show reasonable evidence that if the experiment doesn't work that we > > will not have hurt our future donation prospects. (E.g. will people > always > > expect premiums if we offer them once?) > > - That we have a solid communications plan in place to immediately offset > > any possible suggestion that you are 'buying' a piece of the foundation > > with your donation. > > > > Just my two cents. > > </personal hat> > > > > ~Matt Walker > > Wikimedia Foundation > > Fundraising Technology Team > > > > > > On Tue, Aug 6, 2013 at 11:50 AM, MZMcBride <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > Matthew Walker wrote: > > > >Technology limitations aside, there are two things we throw around in > > the > > > >team a lot; that we should not give the impression that a user *must* > > pay > > > >to use a WMF property, and that we will never ever do gift premiums. > > > > > > Hi Matt. > > > > > > This sounds a bit like "Fundraising principles" or similar. Are these > > > documented anywhere (e.g. on Meta-Wiki)? If not, I think it'd be great > to > > > start a page. :-) > > > > > > MZMcBride > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Wikimedia-l mailing list > > > [email protected] > > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > > > <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list > > [email protected] > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > > <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list > [email protected] > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> > -- Zack Exley Chief Revenue Officer Wikimedia Foundation _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe>
