Archive:Fundraising FAQ 2007-2008

• When does the fundraiser start?

October 22, 2007.

• When will the fundraiser end?

December 22, 2007.

• What can I do to help you spread the word?

Spread the word any way you can! Tell your friends and family. Put buttons and banners on your blog. Use this text as the sig file on the bottom of your e-mails: Your continued donations keep Wikipedia running! Support the Wikimedia Foundation today: http://donate.wikimedia.org

• How do I donate? (e.g., what methods, what currencies, etc.)

To donate, please visit http://donate.wikimedia.org. You can donate using PayPal, Moneybookers, direct deposit into our Belgian bank account, or by sending a cheque to the Foundation. You can send cheques in any currency you like, and our other donation options also support multiple (although not all) currencies.

• Where do I send cheques?

Send cheques to Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., P.O. Box 919227, Orlando, FL 32891-9227, United States.

• Are my donations tax-deductible?

Donations are only tax-deductible in the United States. Canadian citizens can also deduct their contribution on any income earned in the United States.

• If I make a donation, how do I get my tax receipt?

Anyone who donates $100 or more will automatically receive a tax receipt as long as their contact information was included with the donation. You may request a tax receipt for a smaller amount, by sending an e-mail to donations @ wikimedia.org. Please specify your contact information and tell us the method you used to donate, and the amount of your donation.

• What if I’m not in the United States?

You can request a tax receipt, however, donations are only tax-deductible in the United States.

• If I send you a huge donation, do I get anything special?

Yes. This year, people who donate between USD 10,000 and 24,999 will get a personal phone call from Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia. (You will need to include your phone number with your donation.) People who donate USD 25,000 or more will be treated to dinner with Jimmy.

• Can I give you a targeted or restricted donation -- meaning, can I give you money to do something very specific, that can't be used for other purposes?

Charities based in the United States -- like the Wikimedia Foundation -- are required to honor restrictions requested by donors. That means if you specify your donation needs to be restricted for a specific use, we will either honor your request or return your donation. But before you decide to do that, please consider that unrestricted donations are much more useful for us. As quickly as Wikimedia's projects evolve, Wikimedia needs unrestricted donations to remain agile.

• What amounts may I donate?

You may donate any amount you like. We have set out some options for you (USD 200, 100, 65 and 40) to show you the kind of impact your donation would have. Please note though that these are metaphors to show the kind of way your donation may be used; they are not literal truths. Unless you specify otherwise, your donations, regardless of the amount, will be put in a general pool and not restricted for specific usages.

• If I can’t afford to donate, or don’t want to, what else can I do to support the Foundation?

There are many ways to show your support, and your time is just as important as a monetary contribution. You can teach a friend to edit Wikipedia. Upload some of your photos to Commons under a free license. Or, share the love by submiting a photo to the "Why Do You Love Wikipedia" Flickr group.

• What is the financial target for this year’s fundraiser?

We are not announcing a specific financial target this year. However, we will tell you how much money we have raised.

• If you don't have a financial target, how are you measuring success?

This year, we're trying something new. We are proud of the fact that 96% of the Foundation's budget comes from individual donations, mostly quite small ones. (The remainder comes from a small number of additional revenue streams, including sales of live feeds, T-shirt sales, and that kind of thing.) This tells us we are serving lots of different people. This year, for the first time, we will track the success of the fundraiser not by the number of dollars donated, but by the number of people who donate. We think this is very much in the spirit of the projects, and their collaborative ethos.

• What do you plan to do with the money?

First, we need money to keep our projects online: to pay for servers, bandwidth, office space and other necessities. Second, we want to focus more attention on program development, particularly in communities underrepresented in the projects, some of whom have little or no access to educational resources. For example, in early November we will hold several Wikipedia Academies in South Africa, with the hope of increasing the number of Wikipedias contributing in African languages. We hope to do more of this kind of outreach work.

• Where can I find the results of the most recent audit?

The 2007 audit is underway. We expected it to be finished in late November. We will post it to the Wikimedia Foundation website as soon as it is done.

• When can I find the Form 990?

The most recent Form 990 is for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2006, and can be found here. The Form 990 for last fiscal, 2006-07, will be posted on the Foundation website once the 2006-07 audit is completed.

• Will there be matching donations this year – and if so, how will they work?

Yes. As always, a site notice will be placed on top of each project page on the days that donations will be matched. The site notice will be removed at the end of the day, once the targeted amount has been met.

• How is the fundraiser being promoted to the public?

We are promoting the fundraiser in many different ways. First, we are putting a banner on the top of each page, across all projects. Second, we are sending out a press release to media outlets around the world, and Jimmy and Florence will be doing media interviews. Third, we are asking community members to promote the fundraiser in various ways to their friends and family.

• Where can I find the video of Jimmy?

This video will be available very soon.

• If I made a mistake with my donation, what can I do?

If you donated the wrong amount or made some other mistake, please send an e-mail explaining the situation to donations (at) wikimedia.org. Please ensure you include all your contact information, and everything you can remember about the donation process (e.g., amount, method used, etc.).

• What is the counter at the top of the sitenotice banner?

That counter represents the total number of donations made during the fundraiser. This year, we are tracking and promoting total number of donations instead of number of dollars donated. We think this is truer to the participatory, volunteer-driven nature of the projects.

• Where do the quotes at the top of the sitenotice banner come from?

Those are all real quotes from real users of the projects. We have put them in the sitenotice to demonstrate that real people use and appreciate the projects, and to give them a voice telling us why.