(Sorry for not threading my replies). I realise (not being completely dense) that some of these large organizations don't solicit donations, but they might be willing to co-brand as a sort of "in-kind" donation to the WMF. My intent was more to name well known organizations to illustrate the point than to suggest specific candidates.
As for siphoning off money - certainly most large organizations that survive on donations (to name better ones, the Red Cross, United Way, Salvation Army, UNICEF, American Cancer Society, World Wildlife Fund, etc. and smaller operations like LiveStrong, Susan G. Komen, etc. ) don't have the same online penetration that we have. They do, however, have a far more sophisticated offline solicitation system and cultural penetration. What they lack, we've got - what we lack, they've got. Sounds like a recipe for a beneficial partnership. If one group were to include us in their mailing and other solicitation work for a period of time, for instance, in exchange for participation in our fundraising drive... it might afford both organizations access to groups of people they otherwise might not reach. It would also, as I mentioned, provide the very valuable service of reinforcing with the public that the Wikimedia Foundation is charitable organization that depends on donations for all of its operations. That fact is implied in the very nature of a fundraising drive, but we saw from Jimmy's note that having a high profile advocate, a personal appeal and a clear expression of what Wikimedia is about really encourages people to donate. Nathan _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l