Have a look at the below image (click to enlarge). It is a Wikipedia Donation request. As a student of influence what do you think they could have done differently to enhance the donations they received? Note the yellow highlighting on the text is Wikipedia’s. 
Source page: https://donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:FundraiserLandingPage&country=AU&uselang=en&utm_medium=sidebar&utm_source=donate&utm_campaign=C13_en.wikipedia.org
Some Great Comment Below to challenge we set!
Here are my thoughts!
Text:
What Wikipedia have done in the text is anchor readers to the average amount of $15 and then in an attempt to show how just a little bit will help have drawn reader’s attention to the amount of $3. Therefore those who would have given more have become subjected to the sticky middle of Consensus (remember those who used less energy and when told the average amount they relaxed their good deeds and fell back to the average). Wikipedia run the risk of taking the larger donations and bringing them back toward the average and even worse to the $3 amount because that is all they need – irrational because they would love more – but as Dan Ariely has shown us people are far from rational.
Some amended text could have made a statement about Wikipedia’s independence and they will never run ads. Mention they do not take Government funds and survive on donations made by readers just like you. They could have said if everyone reading this request right now was to make some form of donation (not mentioning the $3) they could raise sufficient money in 1 hour to keep Wikipedia available and ad-free for another. Then if they listed the donation amounts starting at $100 they would increase the amount people donate using what we know of Contrast and Wikipedia knowing the average is $15.
By starting at $3 they are more likely to get less because of the ordering, anchoring people low and the framing of the request through the text suggests $3 is enough.
So our advice to Wikipedia – flip the order in the donation panel – starting at $100. In the text remove the amounts and focus the message on Social Proof – where other readers just like you are making donations to keep us ad free.
Finally, Jeremy’s comment below is perfect. Wikipedia has given so much to the world, mention that for years they have given the framework, kept it one place on the internet that is ad free and now this is the reader’s chance to help keep this valuable resource available for everyone for years to come.
Great work Wikipedia (and for our community I have shared this post with them).
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