2015–2016 Q1 fundraising update sparks mailing list debate
The Wikimedia Foundation has published its fundraising update for the first quarter of the 2015–2016 financial year, covering the months of July, August and September 2015 (the Foundation's financial year runs from July 1 to June 30):
| “ | Over these past three months, the fundraising team [...] ran campaigns in Japan, Brazil, Malaysia, South Africa, Belgium and Luxembourg and prepared for the upcoming year-end English fundraising campaign. The online fundraising team missed the $6 million goal for the quarter due to postponing the Italy fundraiser to October to support the Wiki Loves Monuments campaign. We raised roughly $5.7 million in the first quarter of the year and plan to make up for the loss in the next quarter. | ” |
The Italian fundraiser, originally scheduled for September, had been postponed following a complaint from Wiki Loves Monuments organizer Romaine, which sparked a Request for comment on Meta. (The substance of the complaint was that the fundraising banner would interfere with the ability to show the banner advertising the Wiki Loves Monuments photography competition, substantially reducing Italian participation in the contest.)
The Foundation's fundraising team tested a wide variety of banners during the quarter, and reported that by September, a banner design had been found that increased donations by about 20% over the best-performing banner in the last quarter.
| “ | Better performing banners are required to raise a higher budget with declining traffic. We’ll continue testing new banners into the next quarter and sharing highlights as we go. | ” |
Minor modifications to the banner wording have since been made in response to community feedback, changing:
- "We survive on donations averaging about $15" to "We are sustained by donations averaging about $15."
- "Please help us end the fundraiser and get back to improving Wikipedia" to "Please help us end the fundraiser and improve Wikipedia."