Wikimedia Apps/Team/Android/Customizable Donation Reminder Experiment

What is this feature?

The Android team is experimenting with an optional donation reminder that app users can customize. Readers will be able to:

Decide if they want to be reminded to donate
Choose how often they want to be reminded, based on the number of articles they read
Set their preferred donation amount in advance

The reminder will only appear after the selected number of articles has been read. It’s opt-in, and users can turn it off or change it at any time in the Settings.

This experiment builds on past efforts to make donating easier within the app and explores new, privacy-friendly ways to offer donation opportunities without relying on banners or emails.

Background

The Apps team has focused on reducing barriers and friction for users who want to donate, and exploring integrated donation experiences. Per community request, we added support for native payments on both apps with ApplePay and GPay, so users can donate without leaving the app.

We also want to be thinking together about how it makes sense to fundraise beyond banners. One line of thinking is how we can give readers the opportunity to donate to the Wikimedia Foundation when they are feeling gratitude for Wikipedia, and how often they use it – regardless of what time of year it is.

Donors often express that their motivation to give came from how often they use the site. The more they use the service, the more they want to give back. Donors also express that they feel good knowing that they support a service that they use frequently, and feel good knowing it will be available to others. Below are a few example donor testimonials that helped shape our thinking for this hypothesis:

…I do use your services and information constantly so feel I should pay at least a little more. I will now arrange that myself and put reminders in my calendar. – Donor, France
I use Wiki so often that I am very happy to help keep it going in a small way. – Donor, United Kingdom
I already feel very proud of quite modestly supporting financially Wikipedia from time to time, which I sincerely believe is one of the greatest contributions of technology to the access of knowledge throughout the planet, and hence to freedom. – Donor, Spain
I use Wikipedia often... even multiple times some days. I value Wikipedia and am happy that it's "free". I know that ALL freedom comes with a cost... so opting for a small monthly donation that will add up to 3 times what I've given annually is a bargain! – Donor, United States
I am pleased to confirm that I have just activated a new recurring donation. This is my way of expressing gratitude for the invaluable work you do in making knowledge freely accessible to everyone. – Donor, Italy

Donation banners and emails often serve as “reminders” to donate for our readers, but there are limited opportunities for readers to customize when and how they are reminded to donate.

The apps already locally store and surface the user's reading history. Due to the history being stored locally on device, it can be cleared by the user at any time, and is never stored externally. Because of this, the apps have a unique strength that can allow us to experiment with a customizable donation reminder tied to reading habits, while respecting reader privacy.

We hope to experiment with a customizable donation reminder that allows app users to decide how often they want to be reminded to donate based on their usage of the site, and what their preferred amount is. When they are ready to donate, their selections from earlier help facilitate a more frictionless donation. By allowing users to opt-in and personalize their reminder before showing it, our goal is that readers will set the intention to donate at a later date, and that following up on that goal will be a pleasant experience that strengthens their relationship with Wikipedia.

Experiment #1

Experiment requirements

Users can choose whether or not to receive donation reminders.
Users can turn off or edit donation reminders any time in Settings

Prompt: Set-up form for a recurring donation reminder

Allow user to enter their donation amount
Allow user to customize the number of article views after which they want to be reminded
Close / No thanks option

Reminder

After required number of articles has been viewed, remind the user to donate
Prefill the amount in the donation form
It should be clear that the donations are to support the Wikimedia Foundation
Mark the feature as an experiment
Donations made through the reminder should be a subgroup of App Menu donations
Show link to satisfaction survey with free-text feedback to users who have had an impression of the prompt

Timeline

We plan to run a 30-day experiment for this concept in August 2025, with a subset of App users. After that, we will evaluate results and feedback before proceeding further.

Audience

Our first test group is logged-out Italian and English Wikipedia Readers in Italy.

Feedback

The feature will include an in-app survey to receive feedback from readers in the target audiences. Feedback is also welcome on this talk page.

How will we know we are successful?

Validation

Primary KR 1.1 – 5% increase in app menu donations from this audience compared to the same period YoY
KR 1.2 – 15% of prompt impressions will set up a recurring donation reminder
KR 1.3 – 0.5% of users who see their donation reminder complete a donation

Guardrails

GR 2.1 – At least a 60% satisfaction rate with the reminders as measured through the survey
GR 2.2 – No more than 60% of qualitative feedback through survey, email, or talk page is negative

Curiosities

CR 3.1 – How do these donations differ from banner campaign donations (average gift and share of new donors)?
CR 3.2 – How many users customized their donation reminder vs kept the default options?
CR 3.3 – How did the prompt acceptance rate differ between different user segments?

Designs

Results

Overall we considered the hypothesis supported. During the experiment period, we saw a 3550% increase in app menu donations when compared to a baseline period with no active fundraising. 50% of all app menu donations in this period came directly from the experiment.

However, when compared to a period with active banner fundraising, the experiment period had a 49% decrease in app menu donations. Neither baseline is perfect for comparison, but we feel confident based on the other indicator metrics that this feature merits further iteration and continued experimentation in other markets.

Validation

Primary KR 1.1 – 5% increase in app menu donations from this audience compared to the same period YoY
- Actual: We saw 3550% more app menu donations compared to the same period in 2024 without active fundraising. 50% of these donations can be directly attributed to the experiment. Note: when compared to a period with active banner fundraising, the experiment period had 49% less in app menu donations.
KR 1.2 – 15% of prompt impressions will set up a recurring donation reminder
- Actual: Users who saw the prompt had a 0.23% Reminder creation rate

This goal was an estimate, based on our Maybe later click rate on banners. This lower rate makes sense, given the in-article format that does not require a click.

KR 1.3 – 0.5% of users who see their donation reminder complete a donation
- Actual: Of uniques who saw Donation Reminder, 23% of reminder impressions made a donation through Reminder feature. This goal was based on our banner maybe later success rate of 0.15%. Clicking “maybe later” is a one-click action, more similar to someone indicating “get started” on the donation reminder. When we compare this, we see 4% of reminder “get started” clicks who donate.

Guardrails

GR 2.1 – At least a 60% satisfaction rate with the reminders as measured through the survey
- Actual: 96.8% of respondents rated the feature Neutral or Satisfied.
GR 2.2 – No more than 60% of qualitative feedback through survey, email, or talk page is negative
- Actual:

Curiosities

CR 3.1 – How do these donations differ from banner campaign donations (average gift and share of new donors)?
- Actual: Donations from the reminders had a lower average gift, and were more likely to be repeat donations compared to those that come from a banner campaign. To see the true differences, we should look at average amount per donor over the course of a longer time period
CR 3.2 – How many users customized their donation reminder vs kept the default options?
- Actual: 63% of users customized their Donation Reminder. The most common customization was to donate 1 Euro every 15 articles.
CR 3.3 – How did the prompt acceptance rate differ between different user segments?
- Actual: Users who have higher average weekly page views were much more likely (70% higher) to get started on the prompt, and complete their donation reminder (102% higher) compared to users with lower weekly pageviews.

Learnings

Reminders may have a different impact, such as higher average donor value, when measured over a longer period of time. This reminder would be an ongoing form of “recurring” donations, where donors give small amounts multiple times throughout the year. That is fundamentally different to the current “give once a year” banner expectation and requires a longer comparison period.
The donation reminders can be loosely compared to the "Maybe later" experience on App Fundraising banners.
- People are more likely to click “Maybe later” on a banner (49% of impressions), but less likely to follow through on that intention (0.11% of those who click “maybe later” click actually donate).
- People are less likely to set up a donation reminder (0.25% click “Get started” on the reminder), but more likely to follow through once they start the process (4% of “Get started” reminder clicks actually donate).
The donation reminders were closed at a lower rate (19% of impressions) than app donation banners (35% of impressions).

Experiment #2

Experiment set-up

The second donation reminder experiment will be an A/B test against the current "Maybe later" experience in App fundraising banners.

All users will, when they click "Maybe later" on a banner, see one of the following two flows:

A (Control): In the control experience, users who click “Maybe later” see a subsequent banner impression after a 24-hour delay.
B (Variant): In the test track, users see the donation reminder flow:
- Users in the experiment group B do not see any further banner impressions after clicking “Maybe later”.
- If users in the experiment group opt in to donation reminders, they should continue to see them until the experiment period ends (3 months after the start of the experiment).

User stories

As someone who clicks on "maybe later", I want to have more control over how and when I'm reminded to donate, so that I can donate when I'm feeling the most value and gratitude to Wikipedia.
As someone who has set up a donation reminder from "maybe later", I want to see that reminder right away when I'm eligible for it, and have the ability to customize or snooze reminders if desired.
As a product manager, I want to set up the donation reminders as an A/B test against the current "maybe later" experience, so I can understand the impact on average donor value over time.
As someone customizing my amount or article count in the donation reminder form, I want the keyboard to become active right away, so that I can finish the form faster.
As a privacy-conscious person, I want to be able to clear my donation history in Settings, and know that it's been cleared afterwards.

Timeline

We plan to run an experiment in December 2025 – March 2026, with a subset of App users. After that, we will evaluate results and feedback before proceeding further.

Audience

Our audience will be a subset of users receiving fundraising banners on English Wikipedia on the Android Mobile App.

How will we know we are successful?

Validation

KR 1.1 – 5% increase in average donor value for the reminder group donors when compared to traditional maybe later donors over a 3-month period
KR 1.2 – Users who see an article-count-based reminder are 50% more likely to complete a donation compared to those who receive a subsequent banner impression
KR 1.3 – 20% of unique users who see an impression of their reminder complete a donation

Guardrails

GR 2.1 – Total amount raised from reminders over a 3-month period is not more than 20% lower than total amount raised from traditional maybe later over a 1-month period
GR 2.2 – No more than 30% of users who set up a donation reminder turn it off in Settings

Curiosities

CR 3.1 – Which article and amount combination resulted in the highest donation completion rate?
CR 3.2 – What share of donors in each group are making multiple donations during the period? What is the average number of donations being made?
CR 3.3 – What is the donation rate for the 1st view of the reminder, 2nd view, 3rd view, etc.? After how many reminders do we see the highest disable rate in Settings?
CR 3.4 – What share of each group are new donors vs repeat donors?
CR 3.5 – How does our reminder set-up rate compare to the web banner email-entry rate (% of "Maybe later" clicks on web banners that submit their email)?
CR 3.6 – How does our reminder follow-through rate compare to the donations/email opens for web "Remind me later"?

Designs

Frequently Asked Questions

How is the article count working?

The article count comes from your reading history tab, which is stored locally on your device. This article count will only include the articles you have read on your current device. Your reading history is never shared or stored on servers as part of the calculation. You may clear your reading history at any time in “History”, and it will also clear the count for the reminder. This feature follows our privacy policy, which allows for the use of local data storage to provide a customizable experience.

How can I turn off or modify my donation reminder?

Within the App’s settings, find the Donations section. Open “Donation reminders” and turn off the toggle, or update your settings. You must be logged-out to see donation reminders and the settings item.

Updates

Updates will appear on the Android main page each month. At the end of the experiment, we will share results and next steps on this project page.

How does this work fit into the Wikimedia Foundation's Annual Plan?

Under the Wikimedia Foundation's Infrastructure Goal, and within the group of objectives focused on Wiki Experiences, is an objective related to improving the experience of consumers:

Wiki Experiences 3: Consumer experience Objective: Readers from multiple generations engage, and stay engaged, with Wikipedia, leading to measurable increases in retention and donation activity

Wiki Experiences 3.2 (WE3.2) Key Result: Increase number of donations through non-banner or email methods by 5% Year over Year per platform through product interventions that foster deeper connections and reduce friction for donors by the end of Q2

Android team hypothesis	Timeline	Phabricator epic
Wiki Experiences 3.2.2 If we prompt Android App readers in non-campaign markets to set up an optional, customizable (amount and frequency) reminder for donations based on their usage of Wikipedia, we’ll see a 5% increase in app menu donations in those markets.	1 July 2025 – 30 September 2025	T399601
Wiki Experiences 3.2 If we A/B test the customizable donation reminder as an integrated follow-up action to the banner’s Maybe Later action during an active campaign on Android, users who see an article-count-based reminder will be 50% more likely to complete a donation as compared to those who receive a subsequent banner impression.	5 November 2025 – 31 December 2025	T402461

Several Wikimedia Foundation teams are committed to working on projects under the WE3.2 Key Result: Draft Hypotheses.

Wikimedia Foundation teams are approaching annual planning more iteratively this year, so rather than committing to larger year-long projects, this hypothesis is fairly narrow in scope. This should allow us to learn from a brief experiment and deliver value in smaller increments throughout the year, while also ensuring we have the flexibility to pivot as we learn.