Talk:A plan to interact with high profile supporters

I come across quite well known people very so often who are huge fans. They could be useful in lots of ways, encouraging editing in their communities, supporting our own fundraisers, showing how broad our community is. If we bid for Wikimania how about a Darren Brown special show to the community?Jon Davies (talk) 13:16, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

That's exactly the kind of people I hope we can engage with. Lots of opportunities there for the taking if we can just get the systems in place. On Derren Brown, I've just emailed Ed and James to suggest that very thing, thanks for the idea! --Stevie Benton (talk) 13:29, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

• Where high-profile people are involved, Jimbo may well be interested in getting involved, because he does love 'em. The 10th anniversary party, which he paid for, was a reasonably star-studded occasion with a number of WP volunteers invited. He might well be ready to - say - host a drinks party for high profile & high-value donors alloweing us a good chance to engage with them, bearing in mind that they get zillions of invites & have to be used sparingly 7 handled with care. Not being in the fundraiser complicates matters of course. John Byrne (talk) 16:19, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for your replies John. Some good points there. Agree not being in the fundraiser is awkward, but I think this is a good way of engaging people going forward. It doesn't have to be about money. I was actually viewing this more in terms of active participation in the projects as opposed to how much money they may be able to donate. In fact, right now I think increasing participation is arguably more important than seeking funds. --Stevie Benton (talk) 16:52, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

Yes, but a party like that offers us the easiest way to talk with them & try to interest them in whatever else we want them to do. John Byrne (talk) 17:16, 7 December 2012 (UTC)

Katherine's two pence

• I think the primary things are to think of them in terms of their social capital and acting as 'brand ambassadors' (ergh, yes, disgusting) rather than as potential major donors per se.
• The biggest help they could offer us would be allow us to interview them about why they support wikipedia or make donations that we could share in newsletters, and maybe build UK-specific appeals around in the 2013 Fundraiser.
• Of course, non of this precludes their maybe wanting to offer a (more significant) donation, but in my experience working with high profile supporters in the University context (Honorary graduates and so on) it's normally their profile that we want, rather than money as such.
• It goes without saying I'd be interested in working towards inviting identified high profile supporters to to be videoed or interviewed, but I think the initial approach and relationship building should be from a Communications person (or Jon as CEO) NOT a fundraiser.
• I also agree the approach should be informal and light touch to start with - I personally wouldn't send them a 'How to Edit' booklet or annual report as a first proper contact, but a personalised call or email and invitation to meet would be good. Inviting to a 'Journalists' event would probably seriously see the attendance of said event improve.
• Object lesson from my previous job: We might need to start as we mean to go on with these relationships and log contacts on Civi, so if two or more people are working with a given individual over time it's clear who has said what, when.

Comments received from Ed Saperia

Clearly signposting projects that new volunteers can get involved in and getting relevant high profile individuals to drive traffic to them seems like the ideal way to grow the volunteer base.

In fact, I would go so far as asking the community to pick high profile individuals and design wikimedia related projects/events specifically for their community; for example, a QI themed editathon which we could get promoted by Stephen Fry, or a magic themed editathon we could get promoted by Derren Brown.

We could work to make a template for these to make them very approachable to newcomers (perhaps even mildly co-branded) and have a clear set of activities related to their interests.

It doesn't make much sense to me to try and get these individuals to engage with our existing community or try and get them to participate directly, I'm not sure what this would accomplish. However, if they feel like they're encouraging their community to get deeply involved in their area of interest (e.g. Magic/Derren Brown) via the framework of Wikimedia projects, even high profile individuals who aren't particularly outspoken supporters of Wikipedia I'm sure will be keen to support and promote. We are lucky that we have the recognition and ubiquity that we can be seen to be promoting knowledge itself rather than our platform specifically.