Archive:Fundraising FAQ 2007-2008: Difference between revisions

From Wikimedia Foundation Governance Wiki
Content deleted Content added
add info about Fundraising CORE
m Fixing links to Wikimedia projects and applying protocol-relative URL
(41 intermediate revisions by 12 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
: ''This FAQ was used in the 2007-2008 annual Wikimedia Foundation fundraiser. Please see [[Donations FAQ]] for an up-to-date list of Frequently Asked Questions about donating to the Wikimedia Foundation.''
{{fundraising menu}}

{{FundFAQLang}}
{{FundFAQLang}}
{{Fundraising menu}}
* '''When did the fundraiser begin?'''
October 22, 2007.


* '''When did the fundraiser end?'''
===== My country is not in your list of countries from which you accept donations, why discriminate? =====
January 3, 2008.


* '''What can I do to help you spread the word?'''
:The Wikimedia Foundation accepts donations without discrimination. However, the companies handling its credit card transactions have their own policies regarding what kind of cards and countries they accept to deal with. If PayPal does not accept transactions with your country, try MoneyBookers, or the converse. In any case, we still accept checks and direct transfers.
Spread the word any way you can! Tell your friends and family. Put [[:m:Fundraising_2007/web_buttons|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: <nowiki>http://donate.wikimedia.org</nowiki>''


* '''How do I donate? (e.g., what methods, what currencies, etc.)'''
===== Hosting a web site costs next to nothing, why do you need all that money?=====
To donate, please visit http://donate.wikimedia.org. You can donate using any major credit card (including VISA, MasterCard, Discover or American Express), 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?'''
: Hosting a personal web site, today, costs next to nothing, because such sites get very little traffic and need very little room on the provider's computers. However, Wikipedia is among the biggest sites in the world in terms of hits. The Wikimedia Foundation spent about US$430,000 on computer hardware and US$200,000 on Internet hosting during the 2005-06 fiscal year.
Send cheques to:
{{Lockbox address}}


* '''Are my donations tax-deductible?'''
===== Wikipedia is cool! I'll give you some money. But what will it be used for? =====
Donations are only tax-deductible in the United States. Canadian citizens may also deduct their contribution on any income earned in the United States.


* '''If I make a donation, how do I get my tax receipt?'''
: The money will be used for the continued operation and improvement of Wikimedia projects. This includes hardware, bandwidth, staff, events like [http://wikimania.wikimedia.org/ Wikimania], and other expenses. A successful fundraiser will mean both being able to continue and expand what we are currently doing, and to have a secure financial base for the future.
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 donate @ 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 also see how we've been using money in the past [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/2/28/Wikimedia_2006_fs.pdf here].
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?'''
===== Isn't Wikipedia supported by a billionaire, who founded it?=====
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'''?
: Wikipedia was founded by Jimmy Wales, an Internet entrepreneur. Mr Wales was able to support Wikipedia when it was a small site, had no employees, and had minor hosting requirements, but this is no longer the case. Today, Wikipedia is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, which gets money mostly through donations by individual Internet users.


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.
===== I'm told that Wikipedia is supported by Yahoo! or some other company. Why don't you solicit them?=====


* '''What amounts may I donate?'''
: Yahoo! provides the Wikimedia Foundation with hosting at another computer center located in Korea. Wikimedia also receives significant assistance with bandwidth and hosting from Kennisnet in Amsterdam. No private company or individual is "bankrolling" the Foundation &mdash; our support comes primarily from individuals on the internet. As our [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/2/28/Wikimedia_2006_fs.pdf audited financial statements] show, the Foundation spends a lot to maintain its primary computing center, in Florida. The Foundation is open to contributions from individuals, companies, private foundations and other donors from around the world.
You may donate any amount you like. We have set out some options for you (USD 200, 100, 60 and 40) to show you the kind of impact each dollar amount would have. Be aware though that 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?'''
===== I have this terrific idea: you should simply put up advertisements.=====
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 content license. Or share the love by submitting a photo to the [http://flickr.com/groups/wikilove/pool/ "Why Do You Love Wikipedia" Flickr group].


* '''What is the financial target for this year’s fundraiser?'''
: This suggestion has been made many times and debated over and over. While technically not excluded (in case other means of funding are insufficient), it is extremely controversial. In particular, it is believed that having advertisements would jeopardize Wikipedia's neutrality. The Foundation has no current plans to have paid advertising on Wikipedia or its other projects.
We are not announcing a specific financial target this year. However, we will tell you how much money we have raised.


* '''Why aren't you announcing a target?'''
===== You should be getting money from the government.=====
We had internal discussion about whether to announce a target, and good arguments were made supporting a variety of positions. Ultimately, we decided not to. We wanted instead to experiment with tracking the number of people who contributed donations, rather than the number of dollars donated. This just seems more consistent with the spirit of the projects.


* '''If you don't have a financial target, how are you measuring success?'''
:Perhaps, but we do not get any.
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 similar things.) 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?'''
===== What are matching donations exactly? =====
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 which 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 Wikipedians contributing in African languages. We hope to do more of this kind of outreach work. Our operating budget for 2007-08 is USD 4.6m. You can see how it will be spent on [[Planned_Spending_Distribution_2007-2008|our budget overview page]].


* '''What is Wikipedia Academy?'''
: For "matching donations", a company or other large donor pledges to "match" every small individual donation made up to a certain amount or period of time. For example, if you donate 50 dollars in a drive with matching funds, the sponsor will also donate 50 dollars, making the total effect a donation of 100 dollars. This encourages people to give more money knowing that their smaller donation will have twice the effect.


The Academies are public events designed to encourage people to write for Wikipedia. They are usually dedicated to a single subject area (e.g., mathematics), or a particular language, usually one that is small or threatened. They were started in 2005 by Frank Schulenburg of the German Wikipedia.
===== What is the need for Wikimedia to take on such an initiative now? =====
: Wikimedia has experienced phenomenal growth over the past year. Wikipedia now ranks as one of the top ten websites in the world[http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?site0=wikipedia.org&site1=&site2=&site3=&site4=&y=t&z=1&h=400&w=700&range=3y&size=Large&url=wikipedia.org], up from No. 28 a year ago. The Wikimedia Commons hosts over a million media files. We've hired developers and staff to keep the projects running smoothly. But what we haven't done is have a fundraiser this year.


* '''How does Wikipedia help support language diversity?'''
: We'd like to be able to do more: more projects, more features, more content, more reliable service. But that requires more hardware, more bandwidth, and more staff. We can't do that at our rate of growth unless we use the resources available to us in the most effective way possible, and soliciting matching funds from corporate donors is one of the best ways of doing that. We want to leverage the support of our community and users with money from the private sector.


Wikipedia is one of only a few reference sources available in languages such as Maori (an Eastern Polynesian language spoken in New Zealand), Swahili (a Bantu language used in sub-Saharan Africa), Upper Sorbian (a Slavic language spoken in eastern Germany), and Basque (spoken in north-central Spain and southwestern France).
===== Will donations to the local chapters be matched?=====


* '''How does Wikipedia help people in developing countries?'''
: No, they won't; matching during this drive will only cover money donations made directly to the Wikimedia Foundation, whose activities support all Wikimedia projects including those with local chapters. The local chapters may choose to do a similar arrangement for their own fundraisers. Coordinating a donation matching program at an international level is complex, but we hope to encourage wider donation matching in future fund drives.
Educational programs in developing countries use our content in phenomenal ways. Our material is available around the world on DVDs and books, and installed on low-cost laptops through the One Laptop Per Child program.


* '''Where can I find the results of the most recent audit?'''
===== What are considered "donations made directly to the Wikimedia Foundation"? =====
The 2007 audit is underway. We expect it to be finished in late November. We will post the audit report to the Wikimedia Foundation website as soon as it is done.


* '''When can I find the Form 990?'''
: There are several channels for making a donation to the Wikimedia Foundation. But beware that only donations in the form of money will matched by our sponsors;
The most recent Form 990 is for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2006, and can be found [[Image:WMF_2006_Form_990.pdf|here]]. The Form 990 for last fiscal, 2006-07, will be posted on the Foundation website once the 2006-07 audit is completed.
: # donations made with PayPal - ''the donation will be matched''
: # donations made with Moneybookers - ''the donation will be matched''
: # donations made by money transfer - ''the donation will be matched''
: # donations made by cheque sent by postal mail received during the matching period - ''the donation will be matched''
: # buying merchandise [http://www.cafepress.com/wikipedia at Cafe Press] - ''the donation will '''not''' be matched, but WMF gets 20%''


* '''Will there be matching donations this year – and if so, how will they work?'''
===== What if I know someone who might want to pledge a matching donation, now or in the future? =====
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.
: Great! Please contact Danny Wool at dwool@wikimedia.org to talk about this.


* '''How is the fundraiser being promoted to the public?'''
===== Will this affect Wikimedia's neutrality, now that money has been given by several companies? =====
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?'''
: No. We have not agreed and will not agree to any arrangement that requires us to change the content of the sites. We are committed to maintaining the neutrality of the sites and entrust the user community to ensure that these standards are upheld.
This video is available at http://upload.wikimedia.org/fundraising/2007/psa/ .


* '''If I made a mistake with my donation, what can I do?'''
=====Was the community consulted before this decision?=====
If you donated the wrong amount or made some other mistake, please send an e-mail explaining the situation to donate @ 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?'''
: The idea of having a fundraiser with matching donations has been raised publicly on several occasions, including recently [http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-November/011374.html on the Foundation mailing list]. The community is at the heart of what the Foundation does, and supporting the community is why the Foundation exists. But the community does not have the ability to receive funds; the Wikimedia Foundation does. The actions taken by the Foundation are in the spirit of a fiduciary responsibility, to do what is in all of our best interests.
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.
: Consulting the community about specific details is difficult because these are confidential by necessity; we cannot expect anyone to be able to make an informed decision without complete information. It is the Foundation's responsibility to make such decisions on behalf of all affected, including considering its effect on the community of users who build the sites.


* '''Where do the quotes at the top of the sitenotice banner come from?'''
=====If the editors and community reject the idea now, then why can't we remove the notice?=====
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.


* '''Where is your donor privacy policy?'''
: The Wikimedia Foundation is ultimately responsible for the placement of the site notice. The Foundation is obligated to maintain the notice under the terms of the agreement, which was made to gain the benefit of encouraging large donors to support our projects without having to compromise any of the important aspect: the article content.


Here is the [[Donor_Privacy_Policy|Donor Privacy Policy]].
: Fundraising is a necessity to operating a top website for free with no advertising. We are unique as a non-profit in the world in that our online space has grown on such a shoestring budget and the goodwill of the community. We believe that inviting corporate donations to support us is not an act of treason, but smart business sense.


{{fundraising menu}}
: The Foundation concerns itself by asking how to make effective use of the money the community is willing to donate. Matching funds are a smart way to provide leverage. Some may not like the corporations involved, but they are willing to put a significant amount of money in play to challenge the community to give, and the funds to buy servers that keep the projects running the way you want them to run. People opposed to site notices "on principle" need to answer the legitimate question, how then should the Foundation keep running, given the incredible demand for growth and resources? To not attempt to make the best use of donor funds seems shortsighted. If the Wikimedia Foundation is to exist perpetually, it must lay down a secure foundation both in terms of project infrastructure and organizational and financial infrastructure.
[[Category:English]]

[[Category:Fundraising]]
: The site notice is the best method of reaching the people we most want to see the message, and who will not see it otherwise: the millions of people who aren't part of the editing community, but who use Wikimedia projects every day. Removing it means removing that potential source of support, jeopardizes the success of the fundraiser, and violates our agreements.

=====If this is such a good idea, why didn't the Foundation do this before?=====

: Previously, such a concept could not have been implemented because the Foundation did not have an audited set of books to assure donors and the world at large that we were responsible and doing the right things with the money. The Wikimedia Foundation is listed with Guidestar[http://www.Guidestar.org], the Better Business Bureau [http://www.bbb.org], and similar systems as a charity.

===== Who determines what is an acceptable or unacceptable company to accept matching funds from? =====

: The board of Wikimedia Foundation has complete discretion to decide which companies may participate. Some companies may choose to participate whose goals and ideals are not completely aligned with ours. Accepting their offers to match donations does not mean that we will change how we work, or that we must endorse everything they do. It simply means that we accept their help and desire to support us and in turn, recognize their contributions.

=====How is this different from a company receiving ads (i.e. logos) if they pledge to donate money?=====

: Advertising is the placement of copy written by the advertiser, i.e., "Buy Joe's Widgets, they're the best". If we were selling pixels of space in a site notice, and the company were free to put whatever they want there, that would be advertising. We are explicitly not agreeing to do that, nor could we, without jeopardizing the tax-exempt status of these transactions.

: Instead, we are agreeing to place a thank-you notice in recognition of a pledge to match funds donated by the community: it is through "the generous support of Company X that your donation today is being matched." The money collected will directly depend on the money the individual donors are ready to offer to the project. If very little money is collected from individual donors, very little money will come from companies. If individual donors are generous, companies will be generous. This is a cooperation in financial gift.

: The presence of a logo and link in recognition and identification of the donor do not change the nature of the agreement, and the typical surfer to our site isn't going to be concerned one way or the other.

===== Is this just a slippery slope to full ads, all the time? =====

: No; we have no plans to put advertising on the site. As a nonprofit charitable organization, the Wikimedia Foundation ultimately relies on donations from the public as its primary source of funds. It is in part because we do not have advertising as a regular source of funding that we need to make our fundraising efforts as effective as possible.

===== Why did you choose these companies? Was there a competitive bid? =====

: We asked companies who we knew to be friendly to the Foundation and who are significant companies in the online space. We did not have a competitive bidding process, something that would probably be better suited to a setting that really was commercial advertising. Instead we asked companies who were willing to commit to matching at least $60,000 per day. We aren't done; if there are companies who are willing to match donations, they should contact the Wikimedia Foundation offices and speak to Brad Patrick or Danny Wool.

=====What happens if we reach the 1.5 million before the end of the four-week period? What happens if we don't reach it? Would the fundraiser be extended, or end early?=====

: We expect that the fund drive will continue long enough to leverage the available opportunities for matching donations. At the conclusion we will evaluate whether this provides the resources needed to support the Wikimedia projects in the immediate future.

: If we reach our goals early, what a great problem to have! If this happens, we will change the text of the site notices to be thank-you messages, as has been traditional in fundraisers. Such success would indicate the need to plan for a capital campaign/endowment fund drive later this year, with major corporate and foundation gifts to establish such an endowment. In the long term, an endowment would help provide a stable financial base for the Wikimedia Foundation to carry out its mission.

===== Where can I view detailed information about the progress of fundraising? =====
: We maintain [http://fundraising.wikimedia.org/ a complete listing] of contributions for both the current and previous fundraisers. You can view breakdowns based on currency and date in addition to viewing donor names and comments.

=====I have a problem or concern that isn't answered here. What should I do?=====
: If there is a technical problem with your donation, or if there is a question not answered on the Fundraising pages, you may send your questions to [mailto:donations@wikimedia.org donations@wikimedia.org].

Revision as of 15:41, 25 March 2013

This FAQ was used in the 2007-2008 annual Wikimedia Foundation fundraiser. Please see Donations FAQ for an up-to-date list of Frequently Asked Questions about donating to the Wikimedia Foundation.

Template:FundFAQLang Template:Fundraising menu

  • When did the fundraiser begin?

October 22, 2007.

  • When did the fundraiser end?

January 3, 2008.

  • 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 any major credit card (including VISA, MasterCard, Discover or American Express), 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: Template:Lockbox address

  • Are my donations tax-deductible?

Donations are only tax-deductible in the United States. Canadian citizens may 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 donate @ 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, 60 and 40) to show you the kind of impact each dollar amount would have. Be aware though that 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 content license. Or share the love by submitting 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.

  • Why aren't you announcing a target?

We had internal discussion about whether to announce a target, and good arguments were made supporting a variety of positions. Ultimately, we decided not to. We wanted instead to experiment with tracking the number of people who contributed donations, rather than the number of dollars donated. This just seems more consistent with the spirit of the projects.

  • 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 similar things.) 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 which 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 Wikipedians contributing in African languages. We hope to do more of this kind of outreach work. Our operating budget for 2007-08 is USD 4.6m. You can see how it will be spent on our budget overview page.

  • What is Wikipedia Academy?

The Academies are public events designed to encourage people to write for Wikipedia. They are usually dedicated to a single subject area (e.g., mathematics), or a particular language, usually one that is small or threatened. They were started in 2005 by Frank Schulenburg of the German Wikipedia.

  • How does Wikipedia help support language diversity?

Wikipedia is one of only a few reference sources available in languages such as Maori (an Eastern Polynesian language spoken in New Zealand), Swahili (a Bantu language used in sub-Saharan Africa), Upper Sorbian (a Slavic language spoken in eastern Germany), and Basque (spoken in north-central Spain and southwestern France).

  • How does Wikipedia help people in developing countries?

Educational programs in developing countries use our content in phenomenal ways. Our material is available around the world on DVDs and books, and installed on low-cost laptops through the One Laptop Per Child program.

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

The 2007 audit is underway. We expect it to be finished in late November. We will post the audit report 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 is available at http://upload.wikimedia.org/fundraising/2007/psa/ .

  • 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 donate @ 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.

  • Where is your donor privacy policy?

Here is the Donor Privacy Policy.

Template:Fundraising menu