Author Topic: March 2011 DonationCoder.com Fundraiser Celebration -- Pledges? (Read 103671 times)

mouser · « **Reply #50 on:** February 21, 2011, 04:46 PM »

these have to be serious non-trivial things that we can feature on the home page that will honestly interest people.

barney · « **Reply #51 on:** February 21, 2011, 04:55 PM »

Considering timns comment - lack of buzz - would this scenario be appropriate? Say I make a monetary pledge (to be determined by my bank account

). Then some part or all of it would be reallocated to each person that contributed an app/software/script? It's rather obvious that most of the creators here do so by choice, but 'twould seem a nice incentive/recognition in regard to their efforts. Granted, that incentive/recognition would not be substantial for any given individual - more like giving children a lollipop for cleaning their bedroom(s) - but it would be concrete evidence of a task achieved.

You don't seem to be particularly fond of that concept, mouser, but my public radio station is in process of finishing up a pledge drive, and this would be somewhat in line with their process(es), so it's fresh in my mind.

I also like the thermometer concept, but with a twist. An indicator - no names attached - of pledges completed. Then link to those completions, although that might best be done when the challenge/pledge period is over, so as to avoid identifying anyone in particular. It might be presented in parallel with a dollar thermometer.

Does any of that make sense? Maybe help merge the disparate concepts that have been voiced?

Edit: six (6) new posts since I started this, but none seem to obviate it.

mouser · « **Reply #52 on:** February 21, 2011, 04:59 PM »

I think it's a very nice idea to have people be able to contribute directly to those people who helped the site during the fundraiser.

What if at the end of the fundraiser we had a page up with all the people who participated by pledging and creating something during the fundraiser, and people could then allocate their donationcredits (from when they donated) to them as well as to the site fund.

mouser · « **Reply #53 on:** February 21, 2011, 05:01 PM »

My favorite idea so far about the fundraiser was to focus on the idea of trying to get all of the people who have signed up for the newsletter and registered on the site to finally make their first donation.. If we could only think of something that would motivate these people, who probably aren't frequent visitors, to make their first donation..

barney · « **Reply #54 on:** February 21, 2011, 05:08 PM »

My favorite idea so far about the fundraiser was to focus on the idea of trying to get all of the people who have signed up for the newsletter and registered on the site to finally make their first donation.. If we could only think of something that would motivate these people, who probably aren't frequent visitors, to make their first donation..
-mouser (February 21, 2011, 05:01 PM)

Ouch! That also falls in line with the public radio fund raiser that is going on locally - maybe 5%-10% of listeners actually contribute, according to quotes, but I suspect it's closer to 3% of the listening populace ... I suspect the DC situation is much the same. A few give money, a few do work, most just browse. If you can solve that conundrum, I'd like to be your agent

.

Ath · « **Reply #55 on:** February 21, 2011, 05:11 PM »

If only all of those 233,795 members would make a $1.- donation next month...

mouser · « **Reply #56 on:** February 21, 2011, 05:29 PM »

Perhaps we could do something where we let everyone know that if we get a certain number of donations (not amount but number) then we will do something special?

Or else have something special that everyone who donates during the fundraiser gets that other people will not..

mouser · « **Reply #57 on:** February 21, 2011, 05:39 PM »

I have kind of resisted the idea of having a giveaway drawing for donors -- I always fear it may attract people for the wrong reasons.

But what if we say that everyone who donates (either a new donation or sending existing donationcredits to site account) can enter into a drawing to have an idea turned into an application? We could maybe do a multi-round thing where at the end of the month we select a couple of ideas from the donors, and then let all donors vote on which appliction(s) actually get created?

So we would encourage people to make their first donation in order to have a say in the creation of a new application.

We could combine this with a larger giveaway of things of course.

mouser · « **Reply #58 on:** February 21, 2011, 05:43 PM »

Or perhaps we could do something even simpler and ask people to donate AND tell us what direction they want to site to go in -- tell us about changes they'd like to see on the site.

The idea being that we would be reaching out to these first time donors and letting them know that we are committed to listening to their opinions about how the site can be more useful to them going forward.

barney · « **Reply #59 on:** February 21, 2011, 06:02 PM »

All good ideas. Your worst foe is lethargy/inertia. It's like starting to exercise - the hardest part is to get started. Once you're involved, it's a lot easier to keep going

. Newton's laws, donchano - he was a pretty sharp cookie (?)

. Perhaps you could add a poll to the initial contribution form - either fixed choices or a free form text box, although that latter could eat up a lot of time. This would be just for the contributors, although you could make allusion to it in the enticement section

.

Edit: you could also change the poll according to the initial donation amount, i.e., offer more, or more specific, choices - make it a graduated thing w/o mentioning it until some amount is specified by the donator.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #60 on:** February 21, 2011, 06:06 PM »

But what if we say that everyone who donates (either a new donation or sending existing donationcredits to site account) can enter into a drawing to have an idea turned into an application?
-mouser (February 21, 2011, 05:39 PM)

...I hate to be a pest...But does that mean we can do the 50/50 thing?

mouser · « **Reply #61 on:** February 21, 2011, 06:15 PM »

The 50/50 thing continues to confuse the hell out of me -- and i can see it has resonated with some of you -- can someone else take a shot at explaining the significance of it to me.

I'm all for encouraging people to donate to each other on the site -- as far as i'm concerned donating directly to someone on the site who makes the site a better place is at least as good if not better than making a donation to the site fund.

The part that confuses me is that every single donation to DC goes into your account in terms of donationcredits that you can split between the site account and other people on the site. Every donation can be split 50/50 or 75/25 or 25/75 or 100/0 or 0/100. And that's confusing enough.. I just don't understand the appeal of forcing a certain split on people and the added complexity of that.

40hz · « **Reply #62 on:** February 21, 2011, 06:50 PM »

have something special that everyone who donates during the fundraiser gets that other people will not..
-mouser (February 21, 2011, 05:29 PM)

The only minor problem with that is how a (post-fundraiser) first time visitor might feel about donating when they discover that they would have received "something special," had they only known about DC a few months earlier.

A friend of mine ran into that just last week when he dropped off a very (as in very very) substantial contribution to a local public cause. When he asked if they had any of their logo t-shirts still available (like the one I got from them for donating $25) he was told: "Oh I'm really sorry! We do - but you can't have one of those. They're only for the people who give during our annual fund drive."

To his credit, he didn't ask for his check back.

$:-\$

If you do go with a "something special" offer however, I would definitely do it as a drawing of some sort. Raffles remove the 1-to-1 link between donating and "getting something" which (in my experience with fundraising) does tend to draw in the wrong crowd.

cranioscopical · « **Reply #63 on:** February 21, 2011, 06:52 PM »

mouser,

I guess it's a nice tribute to those who do so much to keep DC interesting and informative.
I'd also bet that a large percentage of the users' 50% finds its way into the site fund.

BTW, any idea what percentage of DCredit recipients ever cash them in?

40hz · « **Reply #64 on:** February 21, 2011, 06:54 PM »

BTW, any idea what percentage of DCredit recipients ever cash them in?
-cranioscopical (February 21, 2011, 06:52 PM)

I was always curious about that myself.

mouser · « **Reply #65 on:** February 21, 2011, 06:57 PM »

I don't have numbers, but i stand by what i said in this article which is basically that DC is like a "ping pong" economy, where donations between users ping pong around until they reach someone who tends to substantially contribute to the site, at which point they are cashed out. So basically only a handful of people really get enough donationcredits that they bother to cash them out. The rest just pass them along.

40hz · « **Reply #66 on:** February 21, 2011, 07:08 PM »

Makes sense. I either flip mine to other members or drop them into the DC community chest if they've been sitting around too long.

fenixproductions · « **Reply #67 on:** February 21, 2011, 07:16 PM »

BTW, any idea what percentage of DCredit recipients ever cash them in?
-cranioscopical (February 21, 2011, 06:52 PM)

I did it* and bought TC license as gift for friend.

*) Although mouser rejected it afterwards

cranioscopical · « **Reply #68 on:** February 21, 2011, 07:19 PM »

mouser,

So, do you consider that most of the money donated to the site that's 'in circulation' between members is, in reality, already donated to the site?

Let me put that another way, if everyone holding Donation Credits allocated those to the site during the drive would that be nothing more than an empty gesture? Last time around, in order to move the thermometer we had to put in 'new' money.

That makes me wonder if there's any benefit to offering a small incentive to new donors who are the 'first past the post' at certain steps on the scale; a full license key perhaps. Would that be enough to encourage people who've never donated to 'have a go'?

cranioscopical · « **Reply #69 on:** February 21, 2011, 07:20 PM »

BTW, any idea what percentage of DCredit recipients ever cash them in?
-cranioscopical (February 21, 2011, 06:52 PM)
I did it* and bought TC license as gift for friend.

*) Although mouser rejected it afterwards
-fenixproductions (February 21, 2011, 07:16 PM)

What nice fellows you are!

fenixproductions · « **Reply #70 on:** February 21, 2011, 07:27 PM »

What nice fellows you are!
-cranioscopical (February 21, 2011, 07:20 PM)

Mouser is the better one

Spoiler

These times... I had 10 TC licenses for DC giveaway but I had also had some DC credits and friend's birthday coming along. So I had asked mouser to cash credits out and buy additional TC key. Mouser asked why don't I take 1 from 10 and just give it right away. After me saying "it ain't right, bro", mouser had found out he has a hearth and felt deeply touched so... he gave my credits back for me being so noble.

mouser · « **Reply #71 on:** February 21, 2011, 07:46 PM »

So, do you consider that most of the money donated to the site that's 'in circulation' between members is, in reality, already donated to the site?

Let me put that another way, if everyone holding Donation Credits allocated those to the site during the drive would that be nothing more than an empty gesture? Last time around, in order to move the thermometer we had to put in 'new' money.

what we say on the donationcredits page is that if your donationcredits go unused for over a year, they revert to a site donation. i think if anyone objected to that there would be no reason not to give them back -- the point is simply that many people donate to the site and never explicitly give their donationcredits away and we do consider these to default to site fund donations.

but more to your second question -- the fundraiser thermometer in the page only counted new donations into the site, and did not distinguish between donations that went into the site fund and those that went to a specific member on the site. you can see that is different in spirit to the idea of counting only donations into the site fund, and doing so regardless of whether its a new donation or transfer of donationcredits.

from my standpoint i guess i prefer the fundraiser thermometer to show new money coming into the site regardless of who it goes to. that's not to say that people sending money to the site fund isn't important, it's just to say that i would rather see new money from new members come in -- i think that's more healthy -- and i would like to see the hardcore long time involved members donate directly to members of the site that they know are producing good stuff (people writing coding snacks and mini reviews, and nany participants, etc.)

does that make sense?

mouser · « **Reply #72 on:** February 21, 2011, 07:56 PM »

superboy, your post might get a lot of debate, let's move it to someplace else -- a new thread, so it doesnt disrupt the fundraising/pledge thread ok?
here might be a better place: https://www.donation....msg237970#msg237970

wraith808 · « **Reply #73 on:** February 21, 2011, 08:41 PM »

- I assumed it was more like a fundraiser where you got sponsorship or something.
-timns (February 21, 2011, 03:28 PM)

That was my thought when I used the word pledge.

KynloStephen66515 · « **Reply #74 on:** February 21, 2011, 08:58 PM »

Heres an idea for you guys:

How about if we had the fundraiser items (Reviews, Coding Snacks etc) all posted into a special area, that only those who have pledged (and submitted one pledge to mouser, or a Fundraiser admin for sumittion into the area) and those who have donated in the month of March; can access.

This area will be something like the area that is currently only available for anybody with the "Supporting Member" title, and will act as sort of a "Pre-Release Room". Once the fundraiser has finished, one whole month will pass before the posts go public (May 1st).

This will act as an incentive for people to both Donate, AND Pledge!