[Foundation-l] NEH grant

[Sj]

On Thu, 8 Jul 2004 14:28:46 -0700 (PDT), Christopher Mahan
<chris_mahan at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I too wish to express my misgivings at getting the grant. There's
> always strings attached, and targets have to be met, and so on. Who's
> gonna run it? Who's gonna keep track of the money, the milestones, etc...

I think these are all surmountable problems.  Each grant will have to have
someone in charge of running it, recruiting active contributors, and 
maintaining the schedule (how do Article-of-the-Week and Pic-of-the-Day 
work?), Mav will help that person keep track of the money, and everyone 
involved will try to keep to the schedule with all their might.

But we should start small... Pic-of-the-Day is one thing; getting
a thousand deep articles translated and reviewed is another.

And we should renew our efforts to get support through donation, no
matter what.  Demonstrating a strong ongoing base of community support will
help overcome the obstacle of not yet being a proper 501c3.

I agree wholeheartedly with this:

> I would rather mav publish a monthly budget and post that to the
> front page, like this:

We should spur donations right away.  I hope we are planning to
get new machines in the coming week(s?); we need to replace the 
money we are spending.  $2500 a month sounds like a reasonable 
budget estimate for the rest of the year, and I think we could easily 
meet that need through contributions.  

 + Encouraging recurring donations is a good start; 
 + Updating the main page with monthly budget info is another; also
 + Making donation easier (a PayPal button next to the 'donation'
link, direct credit card processing, etc.)
 + Providing an opt-in way for one-time WP contributors to find out 
about new initiatives we need a low-traffic alternative to the 
mailing lists which announces new projects, board selections, 
major grant and project drives, and infrequent press releases);  
 + Having contribution drives for specific uses 
 + ..and much, MUCH MORE!  all yours for only <s>79.95USD</s> <s><font
color=red>59.95UDS</font></s>  29.97CAN !!
<small><small>(payable in three easy installments of C$9.99.  taxes,
tarriffs, and international S&H not included)</small></small>

-/-sj-/-