Wikipedia Posts Report on Effects of Banner Appearance on Donors

[mouser]

This is an interesting piece comparing how different appeals for donations (types of banners, etc.) have various degrees of success in Wikipedia fundraisers.

Useful information for anyone doing donationware services.

Since August, a team of dedicated staff members and volunteers has worked to develop the fundraiser for this year. We committed early to radical and full disclosure of all the data we had, in keeping with the spirit of the transparent nature of the Wikimedia movement. We quickly identified three major points in the donation process that were "levers" we could pull to optimize the process: banner messaging, banner design, and landing/donation pages.

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2010/Banner_testing
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2010/What_we%27ve_learned_so_far

from http://waxy.org/links/

[KynloStephen66515]

Wow, its amazing how simple yet effective those methods are.

There might be a few things you can learn from that mouser.

[mouser]

We had a ton of fun with our Cody Thermometer Banner during our March 2009 fundraiser:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=17249.msg154958#msg154958

[sgtevmckay]

Indeed.

I remember threatening to let Cody have it if the Donations did not continue coming it.

It was an excellent time to be sure 

[mouser]

Yeah it was fun! Maybe we should try to do the fundraisers every year, or would that kill the fun?

[KynloStephen66515]

Fundraisers with themes, and random gifts (electronic or physical, either way) are always great fun, even without the gifts and such, they are always brilliant if they are themed.

[tomos]

The thermometer banner was a great idea, it worked really well

This wikipedia banner got the most click-through rates (2.85%). I can see why - it's very strong, and the body page is usually graphically very 'weak'

[attachthumb=#]

the last fundraiser was fun, exciting even
I think once every two years would be a good average - or more importantly whenever needed.

edit/ I got that wikipedia page by clicking on random on the left there...

[JavaJones]

tomos, I agree, that's the least hideous picture of Jimmy Wales they've got.

- Oshyan

[Lindaxox]

And also, we must remember that Wikipedia gives millions of people such a great service, for free, that it feels very natural to donate.
I am using it every day, I had no problem parting with 35 USD for all the value it is giving me.
L.