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DonationCoder.com Yearly Fundraiser for 2007 - Advice Requested Please

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mouser:
I think it would help motivate people to see what their donation specifically pays for..
The only problem with that is that DC is in a very strange situation with regard to that.

Like in your example "Your donation will pay for 20% of an average coding snack" -- but there is no way to say something like that, or equate an amount with a review.

Consider that we probably have about $4,000 in yearly expenses for our servers.
If we didn't raise that amount each year (which we easily do), we would move to smaller servers.  If we raise more we can move to bigger servers.

There are no "salaries" here.. The more donations that come into DC, the more goes out to the people contributing to it.

If all donations stopped over night, what would change?  I'd still be here writing software -- I just wouldn't have nearly as much time to do so because I'd have to spend more of my time working on real paid work.  For me personally, more donations to the site means more time I can improve the site and add new software, etc.

The ideal situation is if we can raise enough donations coming into the site and then back out (via donationcredits) to people contributing to the site (as coders, forum posters, reviewers, etc.) that more and more people can afford to spend time improving the site and creating new software etc.

It's weird because it would be simpler if we could say: Ok we need to raise X dollars to pay for the salaries of the employees.  But no one here is working on salaries.  We are all working in our spare time, and the donations are just a way to help offset some of that time and fund extra optional activities we could do if we raised enough.

But maybe there is still a way to come up with some specifics that are more immediate and tangible to people.

The thing is, we want people to donate and then *decide for themselves* where their donation goes, using donationcredits.  Every donation will be in the control of the person donating to give out as they see fit, so i'm not sure we can tell them where their donation is going until they decide..

Hm.. maybe that's an idea.. we could set up a couple of "special funds" like for reviews, new software, new web services, etc, and let donors choose where to put their money.. and then pledge to devote that donation money to improving those areas of the site.  This would only be useful for people who don't want to have to specifically follow the site day by day and donate to individual people.  It would be more like pre-funding a specific area and then relying on the site administrators to parcel out that donation to members contributing to that area, or spending the money on that area, etc.

tomos:
Yeah, I'd forgotten we still have a choice where our donations go -
havent been giving out any credits in a while :-[

I like this one mouser
Hm.. maybe that's an idea.. we could set up a couple of "special funds" like for reviews, new software, new web services, etc, and let donors choose where to put their money.. and then pledge to devote that donation money to improving those areas of the site.  This would only be useful for people who don't want to have to specifically follow the site day by day and donate to individual people.  It would be more like pre-funding a specific area and then relying on the site administrators to parcel out that donation to members contributing to that area, or spending the money on that area, etc.
-mouser (November 19, 2007, 11:16 AM)
--- End quote ---

steeladept:
Personally, I was thinking the thermometer idea would work well, but don't put values on it.  Rather, just set a "secret" goal and maybe a generic line at the last amount, then make it fill by percentage of goal.  No one NEEDS to know exactly where the value is, but knowing where it is in relation to the goal will give them an idea of how much is "too much" vs. "not enough" in comparison to the organization's goals.

I also liked App's idea, which can likewise be without actual figures.  You can even give people a way to divide their donation by percentage to the various areas so the donor still gets to choose where their donations go. You can provide a pie chart to show how donations are being divided so people who care can choose to weigh their donations one way or the other based on how donations have been divided to date.

These various systems allow people to see how much has been collected as a percentage of the goal and see how it has been divided without providing specific numbers.  Just my thoughts...

Lashiec:
I would to raise a concern of mine, that is that it's December, folks. I presume people will be broken, with Christmas and everything. Then again, if you decide to wait, you'd have to delay it until February, as January is a bad month for spending money as well.

Darwin mentioned the number of members. It will be a good idea to promote even the smallest donation. If 10% of the members donate 1$, you'll get nothing less than 9,500$, which is a huge sum for planning big things for 2008.

tomos:
how much of a donation is worthwhile using paypal ?
I mean how much does paypal take?
is it a percentage or a fixed fee?

(If it's a dollar or near, the $1 per person idea is in trouble..)

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