It appears those big banners at the top of Wikipedia, which have been ridiculed a few times, have been a success.

The ridicule was mostly over the layout, where a user could look at a page for something like “bitch” or “rapist” and see the word appear right under a big photo of co-founder Jimmy Wales or various volunteers. It became something of a meme, though some were much more light-hearted.

“Our model is working fantastically well,” said Sue Gardner, Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation. “Ordinary people use Wikipedia and they like it, so they chip in some cash so it will continue to thrive. That maintains our independence and lets us focus solely on providing a useful public service. I am so grateful to our donors for making that possible. I promise them we will use their money carefully and well.”

The campaign has indeed been Wikimedia’s most successful ever. On top of that, it’s part of a streak that has seen donations rise every year since campaigns began in 2003. Since 2008, the number of donors has increased ten-fold, and the total dollar amount raised in the campaign has risen to over $20 million from $4.5 million.

Wikimedia’s sites attract over 470 million people each month, and is the only major site supported by donations rather than ads, the foundation says.

The money from this campaign will go to servers and other hardware, development of new site functionality, expansion of mobile services, legal defense, and support for volunteers (there aree over 100,000 of them).

The foundation’s total 2011-12 planned spending is $28.3 million.

Wikipedia itself has over 20 million articles in 282 languages. It will celebrate its 11th anniversary on January 15.

Now’s your chance to show your appreciation.

Craig Newmark, the eponymous founder of craigslist, has chosen a unique way to observe his birthday this year. Instead of the self-congratulatory ritual of celebrating one more year he didn’t die (like the rest of us do), Newmark has decided to ask for something considerably different this year:

Folks, yesterday was my 59th birthday, and I decided to celebrate by asking for a unique kind of gift – a tweet on Twitter about what someone considers the perfect gift this holiday season. Each time someone responds and tweets using the hashtag #perfectgift, I am giving a $1 contribution to the American Red Cross, up to $10,000 to purchase military comfort kits for our troops. It’s amazing because 91% of every gift goes to people in need.

Newmark, who has a little over 45,000 followers on Twitter, says that following the aforementioned hashtag will help him keep track of how many support his humanitarian cause and, subsequently, how much money he will donate to the American Red Cross. He also hopes that the 585K followers of American Red Cross, who retweeted his original post, will help spread the word and get more people involved in his campaign. The promotion is also active on Facebook but actual donations will only be calculated through Twitter.

I implore anyone reading this to head over to Twitter and tweet a quick post about what you think the perfect gift is in order to contribute to Newmark’s campaign (I posted that my perfect gift is a world with no pepper spray). It only takes a minute and, like the clickable awesomeness that is craigslist, doesn’t cost you anything. You’ve got through the end of December to do your part. Just think of this as an easy way to say thanks to Newmark for all of those Missed Connections that have kept you entertained over the years.

For instance, a few days ago Londoners took to Twitter to help orchestrate a giant cleanup operation. Using the @RiotCleanup Twitter account and #riotcleanup hashtag, activists mobilized thousands to take to the streets to aid in the restoration.

One story in particular caught the attention of the internet. An 89-year old barber named Aaron Biber had his barbershop destroyed by rioters. They smashed windows, stole various items and left the inside in a state of disarray. The photo above caught fire online, even appearing on the front page of Reddit a couple days ago under the heading “He’s 89 and just discovered that his barbershop was totally destroyed by London Riots.” That post received 1271 upvotes and over 600 comments.

Mr. Biber’s story was also picked up by various news outlets, including the Wall Street Journal.

Interns at a London advertising agency called BBH decided to take up his cause. Mr. Biber said that he would likely have to shut down his shop because he doesn’t have insurance and can’t afford all the repairs. So the interns decided to raise the money for him through the internet.

They created a blog called Keep Aaron Cutting. Here’s what they say about the project -

Aaron has been in the Tottenham area for 41 years and at 89 is devastated by the damage to his livelihood.

Let’s use the internet, spread this and all donate a couple of quid so Aaron can get his shop back up and running so he will not have to worry how he’s going to make a living at his old age.

They are asking that people use social media to spread the story, in hopes that they can raise enough money to clean up his shop. currently, over 8,500 people have shared the blog page via Twitter and over 11,200 have shared it to Facebook. People are spreading the word using the Twitter hashtag #KeepAaronCutting.

Here’s a short video that the BBH interns did with Mr. Biber –

Keep Aaron Cutting from BBH Barn on Vimeo.

This fundraising effort is the first project in the BBH intern program “The BBH Barn.” Their aim is to “expand and mix both the power advertising wields and youth’s inherent energy.”

As of right now, the campaign has raised around 31,150 pounds, or around 50,700 American dollars. Sounds like they are well on their way to getting Aaron’s stop back up and running.

In partnership with eBay Giving Works, eBay’s charity fundraising program, from February 7 to 13, Goodwill will be a featured nonprofit on eBay, offering people the opportunity to buy, sell or donate to support Goodwill’s job training programs. Dress for Success and the National Federation of the Blind will also be featured in February as part of the same campaign.

"We work with thousands of entrepreneurial nonprofits that are exploring unique ways to reach new supporters and raise funds online, with Goodwill and its agencies being one of eBay’s biggest success stories, having raised about $8.5 million from the eBay community," said Amy Skeeters-Behrens, head of eBay Giving Works.

"At a time when jobs are still scarce, we hope that the ‘Workin’ It’ campaign will remind our community of Goodwill’s mission and tremendous work in helping employ people who face major challenges and help generate the funds to enable Goodwill to serve more people than ever before."

In 2010, Goodwill generated more than $25 million in online sales, including $4.4 million through eBay Giving Works. Since the eBay Giving Works program was created in 2003, the eBay community has raised $230 million for U.S. and U.K. charities, and currently lists more than 650,000 charity items on the marketplace, all designated with a blue and yellow ribbon.

Developed by Charity Dynamics, the Online Red Kettle iPhone app allows people to do their own fundraising campaigns on behalf of the Salvation Army.

“Virtual bell ringers are an essential part of The Salvation Army’s annual Red Kettle campaign, and now our new mobile app enables these online fundraisers to make an even greater difference," said Jason Wood, Director of Internet Services, The Salvation Army.

"By equipping today’s ‘fundraiser on the go’ with such a convenient and effective fundraising tool, we’re able to broaden our impact as an organization as we serve those in need this holiday season and throughout the year."

The app allows people to:

*Make updates to their personal fundraising page that is optimized for their mobile device;

*Track their fundraising progress with a customized Red Kettle donation meter;

*Take photos and immediately upload them to their personal fundraising page;

*Send fundraising appeals to friends, family and other contacts.

Other candidates have done okay, too; Hillary Clinton, for example, raised $7.5 million in the first part of February, and in the tech world, that might be enough to buy as many as 25 failing video sites.  Obama seems to have hit upon a more successful formula, though, and has left everyone else far behind.

Patrick Healy and Jeff Zeleny report, "That unusually high figure was quickly overshadowed by Senator Barack Obama’s announcement that he had raised the same amount in 36 hours since the 22-state contest on Tuesday, in addition to the $32 million that he raised in January."

Which puts Obama on top (in terms of recent online fundraising) by a factor of five or so, if your humble author’s math is correct ($7.5 million over eight days compared to $7.5 million over one and a half). 

Obama apparently achieved this by reaching more donors, even if they happened to be less wealthy (and/or enthusiastic) ones.  And that’s possibly the power of the Internet in a nutshell, even things haven’t worked out so well for Paul.  Internet fundraising alone isn’t enough to crown a winner, however, so you can of course look forward to loads more political coverage in the future.

Resource Shelf noted the opening of the latest feature on OpenSecrets. The 2008 Presidential Election pages have opened, showing the massive fundraising that takes place throughout the various campaigns.

“Running for president is a bit like running a medium-sized business for two years, and the overall race amounts to a decent-sized industry,” OpenSecrets said in its announcement.

People can visit the Presidential pages to see the dollar amounts raised and spent by the candidates. It’s equally interesting to see where that money goes. OpenSecrets found overall that virtually 58 percent of the cash goes right back into administrative costs, while 18 percent made it to campaign expenses.

Contributions from selected industries can be viewed in lists that show who has picked up how much. Clinton, Romney, and Obama are the big winners in Computer/Internet money, while Rudy Giuliani leads in Casinos/Gambling contributions received.

Another feature shows how candidates have fared in state by state fundraising. In the WebProNews home state of Kentucky, Obama leads Clinton, but trails her and John Edwards in Lexington. Similar data is available for each state.

From the blog contest, one guy in Chicago actually set up a blog to enter it and got four out of five details right.  Unfortunately, the post and blog are gone, a case of blog churn.  Until he turns up, I’m awarding the Socialtext starter package to Juri Kaljundi who was the first to unearth a detail.

Matt Marshall provides more of the story by blog, noting he tried to participate in the contest, but couldn’t uncover a Deep Throat.  Matt also notes that Draper is known for fast growth companies and our bootstrapping roots, whereas I’m a believer in building for the long term.  Perhaps sharing some of the story of how we raised this round will help explain how building for growth and the long term are compatible.

I first met DFJ through Steve Jurvetson back when co-founding RateXchange during the boom.  We happen to share a love for the little country that could and a dog made of velcro.  I’ve given him a look at each of my deal knowing that the feedback is 10x the price of admission and in confidence.  Two years ago we came in to talk Socialtext with Steve and Andreas when we were raising our angel round, the advice still resonates.

I met Tim Draper at the first Always On Innovation Summit and was immediately struck not only by his presence but his straight talking style. Also at AO I had a nice lunch with John Fisher, who introduced me later that day to one of best customers.

In the Fall of last year we were talking to a few VCs and I ran into Steve at the Accelerating Change conference.  We were near a decision point and I stepped back to think, who do we really want to work with?  Every interaction with DFJ provided value to Socialtext — the one thing an entrepreneur can and should ask from the process of raising venture capital.  They got Social Software, far earlier than most.  So we got to work.

We spent the first quarter of this year meeting every member of the firm and digging through the tough questions. Joshua Raffaelli and Josh Stein dug really deep into the product and customer due diligence and shared what they found so we could learn from it. In a last meeting with Tim we talked through terms and they produced a term sheet on April Fool’s day (nice touch).

We set up a workspace driven by a due diligence checklist for our Series B lead.  Here is a redacted version of the homepage in my public wiki. We set a goal of getting through due diligence in three weeks and achieved it in two.  When the money was in the bank, the deal was closed with a collective whoo hoo!

Stata Labs also used Socialtext to facilitate it’s due diligence when acquired by Yahoo!:

But here’s one interesting factoid: Andy Stack, co-founder at Stata Labs, managed that company’s acquisition by Yahoo using Socialtext’s product.  “It saved on the exhorbitant costs of both legal teams going through all these documents,” he told us. “It eliminated re-sending, and re-looking for them. Yahoo’s legal bill wasn’t as high. Our legal bill wasn’t high.” Time will tell. Mayfield, though, is ambitious: “We’re going after the 500 million business users of email,” he told us.

I’m sharing the process and practices of raising venture capital, which is a lot like making sausage (Voiceover from Dana Carvey doing Ross Perot: ain’t going pretty). It is a deeply personal process for a CEO, akin to a job interview where they remove a substantial number of hair follicles for drug testing. What matters isn’t just the pitch, demo and deck. In the end someone is on the other side of the table thinking, “is this the guy?” while you are thinking the same. Just focus on building relationships while building your business — that’s how to raise a round.

Now that the deal is more formally announced I’m getting a barrage vendor calls that I’m redirecting through LinkedIn.  We’re getting an office in downtown Palo Alto next to the train station.  Hired a person a week since the close of the round and are moving on things we lined up in advance.  Now we are growing the team, with some key engineering and sales hires.

We chose DFJ because the size of the market opportunity is substantial. Over 500 million business users of email will gravitate towards wikis for group communication. Socialtext is the first mover, first prover and market leader — and to sustain and realize this market opportunity we needed expansion capital with a track record in high growth companies. We will benefit from our bootstrapping roots and tradition of investing in the things that matter to our customers. Borne in the bust, our low cost business model and frugality enabled us to take less capital without sacrificing growth.

Ultimately, our community determines our growth path and helped inform the decision to expand.  With greater resources, we can more actively cultivate this community and serve their needs.  This inclusive model for growth is one DFJ has experience in (e.g. SugarCRM, Technorati) and is in line with our mission to bring wiki everywhere.  Focusing on sustainable growth means setting significant objectives, managing costs and options, engaging communities and driving exceptional innovation.

So what else is new? Mostly my job, the subject of another post.

Reader Comments…

Ross Mayfield is CEO and co-founder of Socialtext, an emerging provider of Enterprise Social Software that dramatically increases group productivity and develops a group memory.

He also writes Ross Mayfield’s Weblog which focuses on markets, technology and musings.

However, there are times of ebb and flow when it comes to donations, and, it is during those times when resources are low that organizations’ survival is at stake – jeopardizing their agenda and the beneficial ideals and objectives that have been set.

What do agencies typically do to combat a “financial crunch?” Many double their efforts organizing and running fund-raising drives. Others appeal to the masses for charitable donations via a variety of techniques: mass media exposure, telemarketing, canvassing, person-to-person, and letters of appeal are all used with great frequency to publicize the word that funds are needed. In fact, donors are besieged with pleas for their philanthropy on a daily basis.

As there exists a plethora of organizations that request financial assistance in the midst of dismal economic times – as individuals are facing their own cash flow problems – it behooves each agency to utilize effective means to maximize revenue. Indeed, it is the responsibility of each charity, religious organization or non-profit to separate itself from others. Yes, worthwhile organizations actually “compete” for the almighty dollar. Consequently, each agency must emphasize the importance of its goals and, what is not readily considered, make it as easy as possible and less “self-sacrificing” for a donor to give.

To reflect and determine how to best attract donors and deal with the aforementioned concerns (i.e., ease and degree of sacrifice), an organization must consider the following questions:

Are donors encouraged to give a single, large gift or can they extend their charity over a period of time?

Are donors asked to make out a check, pay postage and mail the donation or is there a quicker, less inconvenient system in place for payment to be received?

Are donors told to pay only with credit cards (as people generally give more with this payment option) or are they encouraged to access their checking account?

Finally, are donors contributing to pay, in part, for the organization’s administration or are they giving charity earmarked for the programs, and not so much for administration?

When these questions are fully examined, the answer becomes clear as to the best mechanism for an organization to use to maximize financial reserves via charity. Pre-authorized Payments (PAP) provides a win-win proposition for both donor and agency. PAP is a system where the donor authorizes payments that can be timed monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or even annually (or any specified length of duration). Each payment is automatically transferred from the donor’s checking account to the organization’s account.

Let’s take a specific example to highlight the benefits of such a process.

Mr. Smith has decided to sign up for PAP and give $25/month (equivalent to $300/year) to his favorite charity as he feels a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment offering this type of assistance. Look at his other points of view:

a) He is spared the financial hardship of giving $300 all at once; he simply spreads payments out over the course of the year;
b) He no longer has to remember to write and mail checks; even if he goes on vacation, the charity still receives his contribution.
c) He is also pleased knowing that no credit card company can take part of his donation with processing fees. (He knows that credit card providers typically take at least 2% of each payment.); and finally
d) He feels reassured that this type of contribution is less costly to administer, and thus, his donation goes primarily to fund his chosen program.

All he has to do is sign authorization to make consistent payments so funds may be transferred automatically to his charity of choice. It is simple to implement, and with payments that are spread out, Mr. Smith is getting the biggest bang for his contribution buck.

How do charities, religious organizations and non-profits view PAP? Convenience, efficiency and cost-effectiveness are the watchwords. Since the funds are automatically deposited into their account, with no delay, cash flow accelerates. In addition, they do not have to solely rely on the labor-intensive and the costly administrative process of securing donors; they already have a steady stream of revenue from the “regulars” who automatically contribute. These reliable and consistent receivables can easily get the organization through the “tough times.”

Furthermore, PAP encourages new donors as they are attracted by the ease of making donations. And these donors generally sign up for an unlimited duration, or, at the very least, for a year. Again, the day-to-day functioning of an agency becomes more likely when they receive consistent largesse for the minimum of a year.

Based on the bevy of advantages derived from PAP, it appears that this should generate great interest, and spearhead any fundraising endeavor. It may be the most efficient way of doing business and maximizing funds for needed and valuable programs. As more and more organizations are hit with a budget crisis, they should avail themselves to easy solutions that work. PAP just may be the savings grace that can ensure an organization’s survival.

Author, William Hamilton, owns a payment processing company, IntelliCollect, and their services are listed at: http://www.intelli-collect.com. His company offers tremendous assistance to new and veteran business owners who need an effective solution to accept credit cards and checks.