2009 Winter Fundraiser/Agreement

Background

This agreement, based on the past agreement, will focus on clarifying responsibilities of the Chapters in the fundraising process and the Wikimedia Foundation's interest in supporting the Chapters in implementing best fundraising practices.

The essence of this agreement is fundraising and how we globally ensure that all donors, whether to the Foundation or Chapters, are properly stewarded and cultivated for future fundraising. For the Wikimedia mission to continue and our fundraising efforts to expand, the Chapters and the Foundation must work together to ensure that all donors are treated with:

1. Clear instructions on who they are donating to and how their donation is going to be used.
2. Reasonable security/privacy/confidentiality for donor information.
3. A thank you letter/email in a timely manner.
4. A public accounting of the finances of the organization.
5. Appropriate and timely stewardship and cultivation materials, including detailed information of the impact of their donation.

To be clear, building and maintaining good relationships with donors is extremely important. Donors will give again and tend to give MORE when they are properly informed and invested in the mission of any organization. The donor database, public reporting, and regular donor communications are just some of the tools fundraisers use to build and maintain those relationships.

The Wikimedia Foundation believes that Chapters can be effective fundraisers and proponents of the Wikimedia mission. This agreement will help the Chapters move towards that vision. A developing best practices page can be found here: Chapter Fundraising Basics. Basic accounting and reporting information are forthcoming.

Purpose

Purpose of this agreement: This is an agreement between the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia UK ("the Chapter") about the online fundraising campaign starting in November 2009 and concluding in June 2010. The core obligation of the Wikimedia Foundation to the participating Chapter resulting from this agreement is that the Wikimedia Foundation will provide "prominent visibility" (see below) of the Chapter's fundraising efforts on its websites and on the Wikimedia Foundation donation page. The core obligation to the Chapter resulting from this agreement is that it will be both adhering to Chapter best practices in fundraising and a 50/50 revenue split of money raised through WMF projects with the Wikimedia Foundation. Both the Wikimedia Foundation and the Wikimedia Chapter agree to several additional obligations and requirements.

Definitions

1. "The Chapter" refers to Wikimedia UK, which is the operating name of Wiki UK Limited, a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827 with a Registered Office at 23 Cartwright Way, Nottingham, NG9 1RL, United Kingdom.
2. "WMF" refers to the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. based in San Francisco, California.
3. "WMF Fundraising Landing Page" refers to the highest trafficked webpage by the Wikimedia Foundation designated to solicit online donations.
4. "Chapter Fundraising Webpage" refers to the webpage by the Chapter designated to solicit online donations.

Obligations of the Chapter

1. The Chapter will pursue tax-deductible or non-governmental organization status if applicable and obtainable in the Chapter's home country.
2. The Chapter must own and administer a bank account and be able to receive donations, deposit donations in its bank account, and make monetary transfers or other payments from the bank account.
3. The Chapter must follow established accounting and reporting practices regarding its revenue and spending.
4. The Chapter will, within 4 weeks of signing the agreement, provide the WMF with a schedule of planned events, programs, and/or expenditures that the Chapter will be executing with the fundraising revenue. The schedule should have a brief description of the program, a projected time line, and a budget for each program. On the Chapter's Fundraising webpage, the Chapter will publish similar information about its programs, how donations are used, and ways to donate.
5. The Chapter will provide a report of online revenues no later than four weeks after the end of each month.
6. The Chapter will provide WMF with a hyperlink to its Chapter Fundraising Webpage and provide a chapter representative to help translate, code, and manage that chapter's WMF joint donation page.
7. At the end of the Chapter accounting year, the Chapter will publicly release full accounting of revenues collected and spent, i.e., a Chapter Annual Report within nine months of the accounting year end.
8. The Chapter will assign a point of contact (Fundraising Coordinator) for all matters related to fundraising. (See Chapter Fundraising Basics#Donor Database).
9. The Chapter will adhere to the same donor privacy policy as the WMF, or to a variant approved in advance by the WMF, and will place a link to the policy (or translation or variant) on its Chapter Fundraising webpage.
10. The Chapter will commit to acknowledge and thanking all donors within three months of the close of the fundraiser (preferably earlier), including fulfillment of any legal obligations required in the Chapter's jurisdiction (tax deductibility, government reporting, etc).
11. The Chapter will aim to adhere to fundraising best practices in any follow-up with or further solicitation of donors. If in doubt as to whether some action is advisable, it will solicit advice from the WMF fundraising team.
12. The Chapter will comply with all fundraising regulations applicable in its jurisdiction.
13. The Chapter will not change or alter fundraising links to, from, or on Wikimedia Foundation projects without prior approval from the WMF Head of Community Giving or, in their absence, their direct supervisor.
14. The Chapter can exclude from its report any received funds which it can demonstrably link to other fundraising activities. It can subtract up to 10% in fundraising overhead from the final gross amount. This declaration of overhead does not require additional documentation.
15. WMF and WMUK agree that 50% of all donations received by WMUK through WMF projects (e.g.: en.wikipedia.org, wikimediafoundation.org, …) will be transferred to WMF, pending legal and tax issues (see below). All other channels, in particular donations received through uk.wikimedia.org and other WMUK projects, do not fall under this agreement. WMUK will implement technical measures to distinguish between donations coming from WMF projects and WMUK projects
16. WMUK receives donations via direct bank transfers and cheques. For the transactions where WMUK is not able to determine whether a donor found the relevant banking/address details via a WMF project or via a WMUK project, WMF and WMUK agree to the following breakdown: during the Fundraiser 2009 / 2010 (November 2, 2009 to January 15, 2010) donations received via bank transfer or cheque will be split according to the origin ratio of online donations. Unless other joint fundraising activities are agreed upon, after the end of the Fundraiser 2009 / 2010, all donations received via bank transfers/checks will go to WMUK.
17. WMUK and WMF will work together on finding a way to transfer these funds to WMF directly. WMF acknowledges the need of WMUK to ensure that the funds are used only in such a way that all British legal and tax requirements are met. All costs tied to investigating these possibilities, should they exceed the 10% overhead, will be deducted from the amount earmarked for transfer to the WMF. The funds to be transferred will be ringfenced until all legal and tax issues are resolved to the satisfaction of WMUK.
18. If no adequate funds transfer agreement can be developed between both parties by September October 1, 2010 ^{Note 1}, both parties will seek to determine agreed upon spending priorities for WMUK for the allocated funds no later than October November 1, 2010. If it is not possible to agree upon these spending priorities by this date, then the parties will seek formal arbitration until a solution is found.

^{Note 1} Change agreed between WMUK and WMF by email on 1 September 2010.

Obligations of WMF

1. WMF will assign a primary point of contact for the Chapter for all matters related to fundraising for the duration of the fundraiser.
2. WMF will provide a outlet for questions from the Chapter with regard to the online fundraiser and will provide answers to those questions.
3. WMF will provide the Chapter with basic information and plans with regard to the online fundraiser - e.g., time line of what happens when, list of contact people and their responsibilities, etc.
4. WMF must own and administer a bank account and be able to receive donations, deposit donations in its bank account, and make monetary transfers or other payments from the bank account.
5. WMF must follow established accounting and reporting practices regarding its revenue and spending.
6. WMF will provide a report of online revenues no later than four weeks after the end of each month.
7. At the end of the WMF fiscal year, WMF will publicly release full accounting of revenues collected and spent, i.e., an Annual Report.
8. WMF will commit to acknowledge and thanking all donors in a timely manner.
9. WMF will aim to adhere to fundraising best practices in any follow-up with or further solicitation of donors.
10. WMF will, to the limits of its capacity, provide the Chapter with fundraising expertise (feedback and/or advice), as requested. This may also include legal advice with regard to transferring money, tax deductibility, donations acknowledgment, and other fundraising regulations and practices.
11. WMF will work with Chapters on Chapter-specific advertising on various and appropriate WMF project sites and mechanisms (geo-notices, access to language site notices, etc.).
12. In cooperation with the Chapter, WMF will develop a prominently-visible, appropriate text and visual presentation, including a hyperlink to the Chapter Fundraising webpage, on the WMF Fundraising landing page, in the relevant languages to the Chapter. As of July 30, 2009, the actual design of the new donation page will be determined in large part by the Annual Fundraiser Public Relations and Marketing plan which is scheduled to begin August 15, 2009. At this time, current plans include a re-designed donation page with upgraded giving streams (including prominent and easy Credit Card processing).
    1. With potential donors that we can determine a country (via geo-location of ISP), the donation page will be split 60/40 in shared presence between the WMF and Chapter. The donor can then choose to donate to the WMF or to the Chapter. Wireframe designs can be seen here: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2009/Website_Design.
    2. If no location of a donor can be pre-determined, assume similar visibility as with the 2008 Annual Fundraiser. Wireframe designs can be seen here: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2009/Website_Design.

Signatures

1. On behalf of WMF: Erik Moeller, Deputy Director, 22:00, 15 December 2009 (UTC)
2. On behalf of Chapter: (unsigned)