Initially I had much the same misgivings about the NEH grant as others have voiced on this mailing list. On reflection though, I think I see a glimmering of a possible way to have our grant and enchance our incentives for individual contributors too. This however would require some (possibly controversial) decisive action from the board. What I would envision is a deliberate self-limitation of amount of grant money applied for from any single source. The *ideal* heuristic (albeit probably much too complex for reality) IMHO would be for a change in the by-laws whereby the Wikimedia Foundation will only solicit grants _from_ _any_ _single_ _source_ for no more than one third of "lifetime" accrued individual donations to the foundation, plus one fifth of the aggregate of other grants previously confirmed during the preceding equivalent period. This would guarantee that individual donations would remain in the driving seat, and even provide a "multiplier effect" whereby somebody who gives 5 dollars by paypal will know that not only is he contributing that fiver, but she is permanently enhancing the foundations wherewithal to finance itself. Metaphorically this would be like using grants as stilts rather than prosthetics; remove them, and we can still walk. Beyond this concept, I would add that one thing not yet commented upon is the possibility of grants exposing us to Robert Mappelthorpe/NEA type of political football. Even though becoming a topic on the McLaughlin group and equivalents would guarantee publicity, it is prudent and strategically to our advantage to be able to actually believably be able to offer to return any grant money if our articles on Felching, Rimming etc. are taken up by Limbaugh and co. So maybe one way forward would be to apply for a very modest grant from the NEH with a skeleton (minimum required) application form, establishing that we are interested in the grant, and may apply for a larger one in the future, with more comprehensive plans indicated. That way, if we do not get it, we will not have fallen on our collective faces, but we do not give the impression that we spurn the NEH either, nor lack future ambition. ---- jussi-ville heiskanen