Matthew McConaughey v. Lance Armstrong at Miami Beach, April 25, 2006.
People magazine. photo Gustavo Caballero-Getty/Storms Media Group.
Fundraising isn't Sexy
As unsexy as it is, we ask for donations 'cause we need them to run GNB.
This isn't a hobby, it's a business. Either we make enough money to keep the doors open and the lights on, or we have to pay for it out of our own pockets, and that is not okay.
In Saturday's Open Thread, you answered what our expenses might include:
- Um, coffee?
- Food, unless you're planning on peanut butter and salami the whole time.
- Set aside money for emergencies, just in case. (It's never enough, but it's better to have some.)
- Parking.
- Taxis?
- Coffee/tea to keep up, caffeinated and blogging throughout the convention.
- Transport to the BIG speech if Obama moves it outside of the convention center to Mile High.
- Business cards
- Transportation, ground and air
- Hotel rooms
- Food
- More food
- HaloScan support (our annual fee is due)
- Domain name renewal
- SiteMeter (a monthly bill for tracking GNBs' circulation)
- Phone bill
- Bank fees
- Post Office box
- Still more food (say, one good meal out on the town at the convention when we're DONE for the whole staff to CELEBRATE!)
- And on and on and on.
Every cost we can legitimately push on to free services we do. There are lots of free services on the web, and you bet we take advantage. However like any business we have expenses.
This 15 day fundraising drive, our first ever and only after a full year of showing you our goodies, is the only one you're going to see for a while. Which is why we need to raise a LOT of money. We won't be coming back to you till... well, if we raise what we're hoping to raise, we won't be back to you till the turn of the year, six month from now.
If you like GNBs' style and writers... Sara Robinson, Hubris Sonic, myself, and Lower Manhattanite, Evan and TLG, plus the gang of commenters which make Group News Blog home, we ask you to pitch in and generously give all you can: $75, $50, $40, $25. We accept credit cards, checks, and PayPal, and you can also mail us a check or money order.
PayPal or credit card:
Group News Blog
PO Box 809
Bellevue WA 98009
Finally, let me be clear...
If you can't donate anything this time around because you're having rough times in the Bush/Cheney depression or if you simply don't want to, no hard feelings. We don't want you to give more than you feel you should, and we're not matching your posting name with your donation. Donate, don't donate, it's entirely up to you.
As I've said many times, this is the Group News Blog, not The News Blog. However that means something different here, perhaps for some a little delicate to speak of. We're a young blog, only one year old earlier this week on July 1st. We don't have anywhere close to the circulation -- in this context that means the donor base -- of The News Blog in its final years and we won't, probably for several years. The News Blog was one of the few blogs in the whole blogosphere that could modestly support a full-time Publisher/blogger and pay its business expenses.
What I'm saying is, when people skipped a fundraiser at The News Blog there were lots and lots of donors to take up the slack. There aren't here. No kidding. Not for a few years, minimum. We don't have the donor base of TNB. We're not even close. And TNB always had another fundraiser coming up just around the corner, three months later. We don't. Assuming we hit our target, we're going to wait six months. We're still new; we don't believe we've earned the right to fundraise once a quarter.
Every blog that wants to grow into something real and self-sustaining... they all go through this. We are no different simply because we inherited what we inherited. If anything, it makes this more difficult, frankly, as some people are always going "You suck, you don't measure up to Steve, you totally blow." And my personal favorite, “Steve Would Have...” Which as I've said before, I am TOTALLY clear, simply means they miss Steve and love him, as do we all. But -- *laughs* -- it most likely doesn't help now at fundraising time.
We're asking for your donations because we really do need them -- for basic, ordinary, unsexy, business expenses. The soccer jerseys, iPods, and new Air Macs will have to come later. Now, we're just working on keeping things running.
We're not one of those big blogs (which frankly, we think is one of our strengths.) But it means we don't have a large donor base. You matter. Each of you matter.
Won't you help by giving as much as you can? Today?
Thank you.
|