Hi everyone, So, Snowdrift.coop work right now is doing a lot with little resources, but it's hard. We absolutely need more legal help, more buffer for our basic costs, and we have all sorts of small ongoing and general expenses.
* I want to apply to various fellowships and grants now and in the near future. I would love help from anyone who can assist there (especially those not otherwise already busy with fundamental development) * We could use financial support wherever we can get it right now. Please see https://snowdrift.coop/donate and think about if there are others you know who might be up for supporting us further. * Side note: we'll put up stickers and shirt images there ASAP to advertise getting those as an option * Please note the 501(c)(3) option via OSI now, consider taking advantage of that for 2015, see if your work does matching of 501(c)(3) donations etc. * I don't think it will look good to just have a fund-drive like last year, but I want us to move to the next pre-launch version of our own fundraising ASAP, and here's my vision: * finish the mechanism prototype as a top priority * make it so people can pledge fake money and the pages and numbers are working out * Call on everyone to *unilaterally* donate to us in some proportion to the pledge prototype even though it isn't actually working through the real system yet * In other words, "okay, so you see how this would work, *if* everything were finished, you would be donating $6.5¢ per month to Snowdrift.coop… * "…now, help us get this fully working by making an matching pledge: you will manually donate via our regular one-time donation system, so, recognizing that the automated system doesn't work, you'll still test the prototype, see the results, and then make a donation to us anyway for now, mabe in proportion to others who accept this pledge…" (perhaps we could make a checkbox for this could be temporarily added?) * Mention that Dwolla or the gift-option on Paypal can do somewhat small charges without fees, but ask people to go for extra for now Essentially, I think we need to present to people ASAP the experience of the prototype (not in a way where we're doing unneeded work, just where we prioritize that aspect of our immediate already-necessary work), and use that as an emphasis to show progress and to have a new fund-drive of sorts asking for support for us to push through to launch. I look forward to hearing others' thoughts on this (and anyone reading is welcome to donate already right now, we really are on a budget crunch currently with those of us already donating and volunteering going above and beyond to pick up the slack where necessary). Thanks all! Aaron -- Aaron Wolf Snowdrift.coop <https://snowdrift.coop> _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.snowdrift.coop/mailman/listinfo/discuss
