Fundraising/Translation
Throughout the year, the Wikimedia Foundation run a number of international online fundraising campaigns. We solicit readers mainly through a banner located at the top of the Wikipedia page. Furthermore, we send out emails to those donors who have supported us in the past, asking if they want to renew their donation. We strive to provide readers worldwide with the best localized donation experience possible by offering preferred local payment methods and high quality messages in various languages.
If you would like to offer your support by helping us translate fundraising messages or provide localization feedback, please follow the instructions below.
How you can help us with translations
To translate fundraising messages into your language, follow the simple steps below.
- First you may want to translate this page: use the "Translate" link displayed at top of this page (and select your language in the top-right corner if the target language of your translation is not your current language selected in your user preferences). Do not replace the English text on this page.
- Under 'Messages that need translating' below, choose from the list of texts that need translating (the messages are organized in order of priority)
- Click on the link to enter the translation extension
- In the translation extension, select the language you want to translate to in the list of languages located on the top right corner of the page
- Start translating!
- If all texts have been translated, we can still use your help proofreading. Switch to the "Review" tab on the bottom right, and after correcting -if there is any- the mistakes of the previous translation, click on the check marks to mark messages as reviewed. Please note that you have to be logged in to Meta to proofread texts.
to receive notification of new translations (if you haven't done so already).
Messages that need translating and proofreading
- Banner messages
- Thank You page
- Thank You email (sent to all donors)
- Other ways to give
- Email to be sent to past donors
- Second email to be sent to past donors
- Page to unsubscribe from emails
- Problems donating
- Cancel or change recurring giving
- Donation Interface — software used for collecting donations e.g. credit card details
How you can help us with localization
The fundraising team is always looking for ways to improve and localize our international fundraising campaigns. If you are interested in supporting us by answering questions related to local/cultural insight and provide feedback on localization, please take a minute to fill in this quick form.
To give you a better idea on the type of question we are looking to get feedback on, here is an example: As you can see in the banner from our UK campaign below, we encourage readers to make a small donation by referring to "the price of a cup of coffee". In order to make our messages culturally relevant, we test country-specific ideas for the equivalent of a "small amount of money". In Japan for example we tested the concept of 'one coin price', referring to the 500 yen coin, in Israel we tested 'a coffee and a pastry', something that a is common in Israeli cafes, in Brazil we tested ‘um lanche’, similar to a snack, etc. If you have ideas and suggestions that you think we should try out in the country you live, or the culture you know, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please add your ideas to the talk page section dedicated to this question, and don't forget to add your name to a list of localization experts by filling out this this quick form. Thank you in advance for your support!
Example fundraising banner
This is an example of what the banner will look like:
Link to live preview of English banner
Tips
- We recognize that certain messages may not necessarily translate well, or appeal to every audience, so when translating you do not have to do an exact literal translation if you feel that you can offer a wording that achieves a similar effect, linguistically or culturally. If there's no wording that will work, just indicate that inside the translation request and leave a message on the talk page.
- Please add comments to your translations if you feel your contribution needs work or if you feel there is another that should not be used.
- Some messages are the same as (or are based on) those from previous years. You may be able to reuse some of the old translations: 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007.
- You can look up the FAQ for 2012 translators.
- Wikimedia Deutschland and Wikimedia CH have fundraising agreements with the WMF, and run the fundraising campaigns in Germany and Switzerland respectively. Please contact them for feedback on translations in these countries.
Feedback
If you have questions, comments or feedback you would like to share regarding translations or the translation process itself, please post them on the discussion page or send an email to jrobellwikimedia
org.