2009 Winter Fundraiser

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Comment 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 use for a particular item. Given that the Agreement asked for "events, programs and/or expenditures", we may retain the maximum flexibility by "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 - 8,750 people giving an average of £10 each. [3] In order to cater to the top end of the range, we should have sufficient items to cover £100,000. I have not assumed any income from Gift Aid as we are not expecting a response from the Charity Commission until early December. If we do get approval then we will be able to reclaim a further 28% on the donation (or 14% if the Wikimedia Foundation donation is disallowed under UK Tax rules)

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 ... [expansion needed]

Having a presence "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.

This is the range of activities that Wikimedia UK would like to run in 2010, and your help in this Fundraiser will make this possible:

  • First, at least 50% will be remitted to the Wikimedia Foundation, for use on items including technology and legal support
  • Then, no more than 2% will be used to support general 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 used to develop better technology in Wikimedia, in partnership with the Usability Project
  • Up to £10,000 will be used to purchase equipment for general use by the chapter such as digitization equipment and video recording
  • Up to £5,000 will be used to host a GLAM-WIKI conference, bringing together Wikimedia enthusiasts and professionals from the "Galleries, Libraries and Museums" sector. [link to WMAU event]
  • Up to £5,000 will fund legal and professional advice, particularly on charitable status and copyright law reform
  • Up to £5,000 will support Wikipedia projects centred on the UK, such as the Celtic Wikipedias project [4]
  • Up to £4,000 will fund a developers meetup and support their work to improve Wikimedia projects
  • Up to £1,000 will be allocated to a microgrant programme to fund small initiatives for individual members to help Wikimedia projects
  • Up to £1,000 will subsidise members who would not otherwise be able to go to attend the Open Knowledge Conference, which coincides with our AGM
  • Up to £1,000 will support various initiatives that build relations with other institutions who may be able to release content under free content licenses
  • Up to £1,000 will support media relations
  • Up to £1,000 will support members who give talks on Wikimedia to schools, colleges and workplaces
  • Up to £1,000 will be used to create an exhibition showing off the best of Wikimedia
  • Up to £500 will be used to fund members attending other free content conferences
  • Up to £500 will support the creation and development of Wikimeets
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