2009 Winter Fundraiser

This is curently in development - please help!

This page describes the plans for the joint winter fundraiser between Wikimedia UK and the Wikimedia Foundation. The Foundation will be putting banners on its projects asking for donations - donors from the UK will be given the choice of donating to us.

The legal framework for the fundraiser will be in the Chapter Fundraising Agreement

Also see Fundraising.

WMUK Lead

Tom Dalton (Head of Fundraising)

Fundraising back-end

To be developed by Tom Dalton, liaising with Tom Holden (ultimately responsible for the donations) and Mike Peel (technical aspects) with creative design by TBD?

• Current system is to have donations via Paypal; the donations page is at Donate.
• Need to have a substantially better donations page (using CiviCRM rather than a wiki page?), and form via PayPal
• Need to have a donors privacy policy
• Need to have sufficient details to follow up later to ask for Gift Aid (currently can't ask for Gift Aid declaration at the same time as the donations are received)
• Need to know where the donation is coming from (is it via the WMF projects, or seperate?)
• Need to write thank you emails
• Need to form a plan for handling repeat donations
• Way of easily subscribing donors to the newsletter if they want
• PayPal, cheques, bank transfers, money orders
• Easy way of becoming a member at the same time as donating? Need to decide how easy we want it to be.

Surrounding publicity

To be lead by Mike Peel, with assistance from <add your name here>?

• Blog post
• Twitter posts
• Press release? Highlight initiatives that would be funded
• Radio(/TV) interviews
• Radio/newspaper/magazine adverts (to be run later in the fundraiser, using funds from start of fundraiser?)
• Discussion on local news programs (e.g. Northwest Tonight with Gordon Burns and Ranvir Singh)

Use of funds

Under the Fundraising Agreement, Wikimedia UK must provide:

The Chapter will, within 4 weeks of signing the agreement, provide the WMF with a schedule of planned events, programs, and/or expenditures that the Chapter will be executing with the fundraising revenue. The schedule should have a brief description of the program, a projected time line, and a budget for each program. On the Chapter's Fundraising webpage, the Chapter will publish similar information about its programs, how donations are used, and ways to donate

When drafting the text of this schedule, it is important that we retain the flexibility to change plans if necessary. We must be careful that we do not create "designated funds", which the chapter is legally obliged to spend on a particular item. Given that the Agreement asked for "events, programs and/or expenditures", we retain the maximum flexibility if we specify expenditures only.

The text should be drafted to inspire people to give to us and to give generously, stressing the importance of having an active UK chapter.

The items listed should be sufficient to cover the upper end of our range of expected income. The 2008 Fundraiser raised $266,000 [1] (about £175,000 at average December 2008 rates) [2]. Assuming 50% give direct to the Foundation and 50% give via us, that would raise around £87,500. In order to cater to the top end of the range, we should have sufficient items to cover £100,000.

The United Kingdom is host to an enormous wealth of cultural heritage. Museums, art galleries, tourist venues and ..... literature ... architecture ... legal system ... global influence over British commonwealth ... high penetration of Wikipedia use ...

Having a presense "on the ground" in the United Kingdom means that we can influence decision makers who are able to help the Wikimedia cause; from lawmakers and newspaper writers to museum curators and archivists, engaging with opinion formers and forming partnerships with cultural institutions is a great way of promoting and supporting the Wikimedia projects and open content generally.

The following list shows the thing that Wikimedia UK would like to spend our income on in 2010, and your help in this Fundraiser will make this possible:

First, at least 50% will be donated to the Wikimedia Foundation, for use on items including technology and legal support.

Then, no more than 2% will be used to support governance and administrative activities, such as trustees' travel costs, telephone and postage.

Up to £10,000 will be retained in reserves, to protect the chapter from variations in income and unexpected expenses in future years.

Up to £10,000 will be spent on a project to develop better technology, in partnership with the Usability Project.

• GLAM-WIKI conference? Cost ~ £4,000?
• Funds for getting members to events to talk about Wikimedia - ~£1,000?
• Developer Drive? (bring developers together with new people + get them coding!) ~ £4,000?
• Hire professional services - legal, accounting, etc. - ~£3000?
• Purchase equipment for general use (computing/telephony/digitization equipment/video recording) ~ £5,000?
• ... (ideas from Initiatives/Proposals and Initiatives/Ideas?)
• 2010 AGM. £4000?
• Bi-yearly board meetings £500?
• If we've done everything else and have lots left over - buy a bus!