Editing Project:Village pump (proposals) (section)

==Review of English Wikimedia fundraising emails==
The Wikimedia Foundation has [https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fundraising&type=revision&diff=23641059&oldid=23641051 posted] samples of its upcoming English fundraising emails on Meta, for community review. These are the Jimbo emails that will be used in the upcoming English email campaign, scheduled to run from September 6 to November 20. Each features a photo of Jimmy Wales, followed by texts asking past donors to donate again to "keep Wikipedia online", "ad-free", keep Wikipedia "free" (the absence of a subscription fee is mentioned), "protect Wikipedia", etc. 

I've copied the texts below, for reference. I propose that we establish a rough consensus as to the appropriateness or otherwise of these emails and communicate that to the WMF. --[[User:Jayen466|Andreas]] <small>[[User_Talk:Jayen466|<span style="color: #FFBF00;">JN</span>]][[Special:Contributions/Jayen466|466]]</small> 15:31, 11 August 2022 (UTC)
{{collapse top|collapse=no|Email content}}
===[https://drive.google.com/file/d/17qqr7cHcVCyIRIaGb8JR7EIBiz-cBAg9/view Email 1]===

'''From: jimmy@wikipedia.org''' donate@wikimedia.org<br/>
'''Subject:''' You are one of those rare exceptions<br/>
'''Date:''' August 3, 2022 at 7:58 PM<br/>
'''To:''' nisrael@wikimedia.org

My name is Jimmy Wales, and I'm the founder of Wikipedia. In the past, you donated to keep Wikipedia online for yourself and millions of people around the world. Each year, fewer than 2% of Wikipedia readers choose to support our work. You have been one of those rare donors, and for this I want to thank you warmly. I'm grateful you agree that we can use the power of the internet for good. We will achieve this not as individuals, but as a collaborative movement of knowledge seekers. Together, we can rebuild trust in the internet, and by extension, in each other.

[https://donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:LandingPage&country=GB&uselang=&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sp71918568&utm_campaign=C2223_Email1&appeal=Appeal-JimmyQuote&hpc=&contact_id=&link_id=1&contact_hash=&monthlyconvert=Default Will you renew your solidarity with a donation?]

This is awkward to admit, but I have to be honest: 98% of our readers don't give; they simply look the other way when we ask for an annual donation. We choose not to charge a subscription fee, but that doesn't mean we don't need support from our readers. We don't send a fundraising email every month. We respectfully ask for just one donation this year so that Wikipedia may continue to move forward and offer knowledge to the world.

'''''If all our past donors gave a small amount today, our fundraiser would be over. Unfortunately, most people will ignore this message. We have no choice but to turn to you: please renew your gift to ensure that Wikipedia remains independent, ad-free, and thriving for years to come.'''''

We're a non-profit. That means we aren't selling the articles that millions of people read on Wikipedia each day. We don't profit from the knowledge you seek. In fact, we firmly believe that knowledge should exist outside of the realm of supply and demand. That's hardly a given nowadays; so much of the world's digital knowledge is driven by profit.

Wikipedia is different in that it doesn't belong to the highest bidder, the advertisers, or corporations. It belongs to you, the readers, editors, and donors. You're our community, our family. You're the reason we exist. The fate of Wikipedia rests in your hands and we wouldn't have it any other way.

It's readers like you who safeguard our non-profit mission. You help us maintain our integrity, quality, and accessibility. '''Today, please consider giving again, or even increasing your gift, to keep Wikipedia free and independent.'''

[https://donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:LandingPage&country=GB&uselang=&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sp71918568&utm_campaign=C2223_Email1&appeal=Appeal-JimmyQuote&hpc=&contact_id=&link_id=3&contact_hash=&monthlyconvert=Default Now is the time we ask: can we count on you to renew your solidarity with a small donation? It will keep Wikipedia online, ad-free, and growing for years to come.]

[https://donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:LandingPage&country=GB&uselang=&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sp71918568&utm_campaign=C2223_Email1&appeal=Appeal-JimmyQuote&hpc=&contact_id=&link_id=4&contact_hash=&monthlyconvert=Default https://donate.wikimedia.org]

Thanks,<br/>
Jimmy Wales<br/>
Founder of Wikipedia


<big>Renew your donation

'''Where will your donation go?'''</big>

'''<span style="color: #FF0000;">42% of your gift will be used to sustain and improve Wikipedia</span>''' and our other online free knowledge projects.

'''<span style="color: #0000FF;">31% of your gift will be used to support the volunteers</span>''' who share their knowledge with you for free every day.

'''<span style="color: #11EE77;">27% of your gift will give the Wikimedia Foundation the resources</span>''' it needs to fulfill its mission and advance the cause of free knowledge in the world.

===[https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mPJvhEqTNoJTvjs4bNIRFjUha62Z7RCV/view Email 2]===
'''From: jimmy@wikipedia.org''' donate@wikimedia.org<br/>
'''Subject:''' It's non-negotiable<br/>
'''Date:''' August 3, 2022 at 8:01 PM<br/>
'''To:''' nisrael@wikimedia.org

<center>[[File:Logo-text-english.png|Logo-text-english]]</center>


<big>You have been a Wikipedia donor in the past and have donated once.
You've unlocked:</big>

'''Bronze Badge / Silver Badge / Gold Badge / Platinum Badge'''

When you gave in the past, you were one of those rare donors who kept Wikipedia thriving for yourself and millions of other readers.

Ready to earn your next badge? [https://donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:LandingPage&country=GB&uselang=&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sp71918569&utm_campaign=C2223_Email2&appeal=Appeal-JimmyQuote&hpc=&contact_id=&link_id=1&contact_hash=&monthlyconvert=Default Please match your last gift today.]

I took the liberty of emailing you a second time on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation (the organization responsible for the protection of Wikipedia), because I wasn’t sure you got a chance to read the first email we sent to nisrael@wikimedia.org, the address we have on file for you since your last gift. I hope this badge will act as a reminder of how crucial your commitment to supporting free knowledge has been and still is to us.

At every turn, we have been pressured to compromise our values, but I'll be honest: '''This isn’t negotiable for us.''' People always ask us, why not just run ads to make revenue? Or capture and sell reader data? Or make everyone pay to read? While these things seem like the norm online nowadays, we'd like to remind you that there is another way--a way that doesn’t jeopardize the neutrality of our content and threaten your personal data. We just ... ask! Not often, but it works. After 21 years of saying no, I can still say we are proud to have left that money on the table.

We’re a non-profit. Only 2% of our readers give, but we manage to serve hundreds of millions of people per month. Imagine if everyone gave? We could transform the way knowledge is shared online.

I've been happily stunned by the response from our donors, but we haven't reached our fundraising goal and we don't have a lot of time left. We’re not salespeople. We’re librarians, archivists, and information junkies. We rely on our readers to become our donors, and it’s worked for over 20 years.

This year, please consider making another donation to protect and sustain Wikipedia.
<big>

<center>We know people’s circumstances have changed a lot in<br/>
the last year. Some find themselves with less to spare, but<br/>
a lucky few happen to have a bit more. If you’re one of<br/>
the lucky ones, will you give a little extra to keep Wikipedia growing?<br/>

Renew your donation

Give 5

Give 20

Give 35

Give another amount

'''Any gift will unlock your next badge.'''</big></center>

Thank you,<br/>
Jimmy Wales<br/>
Wikipedia Founder<br/>

DONATE NOW

===[https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mi4WsA51ykx_Mk3pr5v5KDt3XurOOB4N/view Email 3]===
'''From: jimmy@wikipedia.org''' donate@wikimedia.org<br/>
'''Subject:''' Our final email<br/>
'''Date:''' August 3, 2022 at 8:01 PM<br/>
'''To:''' nisrael@wikimedia.org

I know you've heard from me twice already, so I'll get straight to the point. In the past, you were among the extremely rare readers who made a donation to invest in the future of free knowledge. If you've made it far enough to open this email, could you take a minute to help us out?

Many of our readers see our emails and think they'll get round to it later, but life happens and of course they forget. Our annual email fundraiser is coming to an end, so if you've been holding off until “later”, this is your moment.

[https://donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:LandingPage&country=GB&uselang=%25%25ISOLANG%25%25&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sp71918570&utm_campaign=C2223_Email3&appeal=Appeal-JimmyQuote&hpc=%25%25BOTH_FUNDS_LATEST_NATIVE_AMOUNT%25%25&contact_id=%25%25CONTACTID%25%25&link_id=2&contact_hash=%25%25CONTACT_HASH%25%25&monthlyconvert=Default I'm asking you respectfully: Please, renew your donation; it matters.]

Around the time our fundraising campaign starts, I hear from friends, family, and long-lost classmates who see our fundraising messages while they're looking something up on Wikipedia. It's a reminder of how many folks, from all walks of life, rely on Wikipedia.

This incredible public support is crucial for our organization and our movement to thrive. It allows us to serve the world, and to do so with independence and integrity. We don't belong to anyone, because we belong to everyone.

'''''You donated in the past and we sincerely thank you. If you still see value in Wikipedia, please sustain your support in 2022 and keep Wikipedia thriving.'''''

This is our biggest fundraising moment of the year. It's when we launch the online campaign that brings in donors who will propel us throughout 2022 and beyond. I'm one of them. I'm a regular donor.

We are the non-profit that supports one of the world's most visited websites. We don't generate revenue by selling off our users' data to the highest bidder. We don't run ads that could jeopardize the integrity and neutrality of our content.

Though our size requires us to maintain the server space and programming power of a top site, we are sustained by the support of our donors who give an average of about $16. This year, will you take one minute to keep our work going?

<big><center>5 / 20

25 / Other

Renew your donation

Give less this year</big></center>

Thank you,<br/>
Jimmy Wales<br/>
Wikipedia Founder<br/>
{{collapse bottom}}
===Discussion===
These emails are almost identical to the ones that were used in the recent Indian fundraising campaign (see June Signpost report, [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2022-06-26/Special_report|"Wikipedia's independence" or "Wikimedia's pile of dosh"?]]). As can be seen, the second email once gain invites people to unlock "badges" (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platium) by making sure they never miss a year of donating.

[[File:WMF Support and Revenue, Expenses and Net Assets at Year End.jpg|thumb|400px|Financial development of the Wikimedia Foundation (in US$), 2003–2021<br>Black: Net assets (excluding the Wikimedia Endowment, which passed $100m in June 2021)<br>Green: Revenue (excluding third-party donations to Wikimedia Endowment)<br>Red: Expenses (including WMF payments to Wikimedia Endowment)]]
People are told very little in these emails about what it is that drives the Wikimedia Foundation's money needs, what additional work is being carried out that has caused the [[Wikimedia_Foundation#Financial_development|vast increases in budget]] and [[:m:Wikimedia_Foundation_salaries#Total_salaries_per_financial_statements|salary costs]] over the past decade, and what the benefit of this added spending is to volunteers and the public. Nor is there any mention of the [[:m:Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017|Strategic Direction]]. 

Instead, everything is focused on communicating a need for money to keep Wikipedia online/ad-free/free/independent, as though the Foundation were really struggling to keep Wikipedia online without ads – as though it were not [[Wikimedia_Foundation#Financial_development|richer than ever]], with about $400 million (including the [[:m:Wikimedia Endowment|Endowment]]) in assets and reserves. 

I think we, as a movement, should do better than these emails, and aspire to more transparency. Moreover, right now, the [[Internet Archive]] is arguably much more deserving of donations; unlike the WMF, they have a stable budget, low salary costs, no history of vast budget surpluses, and are currently [[Internet_Archive#Publishers'_lawsuit|fighting a lawsuit against publishers]] – all while supplying an absolutely critical and free service to Wikipedia. --[[User:Jayen466|Andreas]] <small>[[User_Talk:Jayen466|<span style="color: #FFBF00;">JN</span>]][[Special:Contributions/Jayen466|466]]</small> 15:31, 11 August 2022 (UTC)
*'''Objection to the Wikimedia Foundation speaking for the community without consultation''' The Wikimedia Foundation and the community of editors are not the same. The foundation is paid staff recently hired now that donations come in at a rate of US$200 million / year. The community are the volunteers and activists who produce content for the platform. When donors give money, it is because they love Wikipedia as a community of volunteers even while they have little awareness about the staff of the Wikimedia Foundation at all. More discussion is useful, but as a starting point, the Wikimedia Foundation should 1) be transparent about how it calculates its budgets and 2) only talk about budgets for the Wikimedia community the consent and approval of the Wikimedia community. For this point especially - 
:*'''<span style="color: #0000FF;">31% of your gift will be used to support the volunteers</span>''' who share their knowledge with you for free every day.
:Since 31% of the donations are to support the volunteers, then 31% of the money should be in the control, governance, and oversight of the volunteers. The volunteers do not have good access to the accounting for money, nor is there any public process for including volunteers in the spending decisions for this US$90,000,000 a year. The Wikimedia Foundation makes many budget decisions without the support and consent of the volunteers. There are many possible talking points for how the Wikimedia Foundation has different priorities as compared to the contributor community, but to name one, the volunteer community has much more compassion for underrepresented demographics such as people in lower and middle income countries. If the Wikimedia community made governance decisions about that 31%, then programs to increase diversity would include showing monetary equity in the allocation of global funding. I have anxiety because the values and ethics of the centralized and control-seeking Wikimedia Foundation are diverging from those of the decentralized and power-sharing Wikimedia community. The power belongs to the user community, not to paid staff who operate without community support. [[User:Bluerasberry|<span style="background:#cedff2;color:#11e">''' Bluerasberry '''</span>]][[User talk:Bluerasberry|<span style="background:#cedff2;color:#11e">(talk)</span>]] 16:15, 11 August 2022 (UTC)
::Agreed. The 31% line is misleading and definitely needs context. When I hear that my "gift will be used to support the volunteers" they don't sound much like volunteers any more. [[User:Retswerb|Retswerb]] ([[User talk:Retswerb|talk]]) 23:17, 14 August 2022 (UTC)
*Completely agree with your concern, [[User:Jayen466|Jayen466]]. I don't think these emails as they stand are in keeping with our values. (I also complained over at Meta a few months ago, but I unfortunately failed to follow up due to other commitments.) I share your unhappiness with the obsequious, obfuscating tone and I'd like communications to be more transparent about where donors' money will go. I'm not sure the WMF will listen to these concerns, though. However, what I do find strongly objectionable are manipulative or clearly misleading phrases, of which there are several:
:'''Specific objections (manipulative and/or misleading)''': "Subject: It's non-negotiable"; "Ready to earn your next badge? Please match your last gift today" vs. "Any gift will unlock your next badge"; "we have no choice but to turn to you... to ensure Wikipedia remains ... ad-free ... for years to come" & "[your donation] will keep Wikipedia ... ad-free" (not true); "this is our biggest fundraising moment of the year" (there'll be another fundraising campaign in a different region); "donors who will propel us throughout 2022" (we already comfortably meet our running costs); "X% of your gift will be used" (not it won't, if my understanding is correct, these are expenditure breakdowns and don't account for money put into the endowment etc., it should say "X% of our spending"); "we haven't reached our fundraising goal" (what if we have reached it, will this still be sent?); [[User:Jr8825|<span style="font-family:'Trebuchet MS'; color:#6F0000;">Jr8825</span>]] • [[User Talk:Jr8825|<span style="font-family:'Trebuchet MS'; color:#4682B4;">Talk</span>]] 19:04, 13 August 2022 (UTC)
*{{tq|Bronze Badge / Silver Badge / Gold Badge / Platinum Badge}} This language sounds like what some multi-level marketer might use to get you to buy their product. The WMF are not salespeople, and should not be using "badges" or any other promotional language to get people to make a donation. I suspect [[User:Jimbo Wales]] would not approve of this either. [[Special:Contributions/2601:647:5800:1A1F:AC39:F771:78B1:4C47|2601:647:5800:1A1F:AC39:F771:78B1:4C47]] ([[User talk:2601:647:5800:1A1F:AC39:F771:78B1:4C47|talk]]) 21:29, 13 August 2022 (UTC)
*:+1 [[User:Jr8825|<span style="font-family:'Trebuchet MS'; color:#6F0000;">Jr8825</span>]] • [[User Talk:Jr8825|<span style="font-family:'Trebuchet MS'; color:#4682B4;">Talk</span>]] 21:51, 13 August 2022 (UTC)
*:I share your feelings about the badges. But let's bear in mind that these are very high-profile emails, sent to hundreds of thousands of people in Jimmy Wales's name. It strikes me as very unlikely that he should be unfamiliar – or indeed unhappy – with their contents. [[User:Jayen466|Andreas]] <small>[[User_Talk:Jayen466|<span style="color: #FFBF00;">JN</span>]][[Special:Contributions/Jayen466|466]]</small> 19:21, 14 August 2022 (UTC)
*As an actual volunteer and content contributor, I would say WMF's money would be much better spent on propping up the IA and similar projects than probably anything else that counts under "supporting the volunteers". Money is being wasted on keeping up with the Joneses. <span style="font-family:Garamond,Palatino,serif;font-size:115%;background:-webkit-linear-gradient(red,red,red,blue,blue,blue,blue);-webkit-background-clip:text;-webkit-text-fill-color:transparent">[[User:Daß Wölf|Daß]] [[User talk:Daß Wölf|Wölf]]</span> 22:12, 13 August 2022 (UTC)