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Ways for JREF to raise money

rjh01

Gentleman of leisure
rjh01
Joined
May 6, 2005
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How should JREF raise money? It has sent spam e-mails and PMs to us forum members. This has created a couple of threads here. Now this one is to suggest some other ways it could do so.

My ideas
1. Open a physical shop. Or maybe several. Many charities (mostly religious) have shops that sell second hand clothing, toys and other household goods donated by various people. A charity I work for participates in a combined Christmas card shop every year. It sells cards (of course), calendars, diaries and tea towels. For a few days work it raises about $1,000.

2. Suggest that people donate money via their will. Some people may have no children or the children they have are not worth leaving any money to. So they can leave money to charities such as JREF.

3. Increase the on-line existence. Sell stuff via e-bay and other places that sell stuff. Checked the main page. Could not see a link to such a shop.

Any other ideas?
 
4. Certain spammers would love to spam this forum. OK then give them userids and tell them go forth and spam this forum. Only charge them $ per post they make. Members could put these spammers on ignore so the only people who actually see them would be non-members.
 
Perhaps just a clearer idea of what the money is for. Have a graph or something on the home page that shows what the next goal is and what it will take to achieve it, that is if the operators of the site want to choose which goals are most important in descending order. Obviously the first goal would be to X$ to keep the site open and then X$ for ads, information pamphlets or whatever to oppose certain groups or to inform about certain topics.
Maybe just break it up into categories that people can donate for; for example a person could donate X$ to oppose the antivax movement.
It might also work to have a contest of sorts where every so often we are given a choice between which is the worst of whatever woo topics. Every vote costs a small amount, $1 or even less. You can vote as many times as you like, and the winner gets the money to help in that area.
 
Say something along the lines of:

Here's what we want to do. Here's how much it's going to cost. Here's how much we have. Here's how much we need. All help is appreciated.
 
I think the primary requirement is accountability.
People like to know where their money goes.
Keep people informed.

I suggest they forget "JREF membership". Do away with it entirely.
If there are only 650 active members, it suggests my experience is common- I joined up initially, realised all membership actually gave me was a plastic membership card I threw in a drawer, and I let it lapse.
At TAM five I gave a cash donation, via Hal. That resulted in (next year) me being solicited to sign up for membership at one of the higher rates.
That left a bad taste.

I can see that if someone donates a buck, you may ask for another buck- and that if he gives $100, you might hope for something in that range next year, but if somebody happens to have a bit of cash and is generous once, expecting him to be generous to the same level regularly thereafter is not just unrealistic; it's unmannerly.

This may be a difference in attitude between Americans and Brits, I don't know, but it upset me seriously at the time and I did not renew membership thereafter.

There are ways to ask that are likely to bring results without annoying people. It's important not to alienate supporters. It's also better to get $5 a month, every month, than $50 once a year. If the 2000 or so active forum members chipped in a dollar a month after administrative costs, how much of the cost of the forum would that cover? What if 10,000 did? I think that is achievable. Of course there's a minimum amount worth processing and it will be maybe 5 , maybe 8, maybe 11 bucks, I don't know. But getting that sort of smaller payment regularly might give better overall returns than getting one larger annual payment, if it can be spread to a bigger group.
Especially if the one-of payments are getting rarer.

Asking people who may be trimming their budget closer than they ever have, to hand over a couple of hundred dollars is apt to make them simply decide that this year, charity starts at home.

Also, please dump the junk. When I donated recently I was sent some sort of Santa Christmas decoration, which went straight in the bin. If there was an opt out for this, I missed it. I regret that, because it was an avoidable cost. This sort of thing is unnecessary. Did anyone donate to get this object? It may be a question worth asking.
Personally, I'm sceptical.

I also suggest ring fencing donations for the forum from those for the foundation, simply because many forum users, especially outwith the USA, really have little interest in most JREF activities, while being pretty fanatical about the forum.

This has precedent. There have been forum fundraisers before. There's no need for a total separation either.I'd hate to see forum users charged a mandatory fee, but even small contributions from a majority of users could relieve JREF of the costs of supporting the forum.
 
Soapy Sam said:
<snip>

I also suggest ring fencing donations for the forum from those for the foundation, simply because many forum users, especially outwith the USA, really have little interest in most JREF activities, while being pretty fanatical about the forum.

This has precedent. There have been forum fundraisers before. There's no need for a total separation either.I'd hate to see forum users charged a mandatory fee, but even small contributions from a majority of users could relieve JREF of the costs of supporting the forum.
Click to expand...
I think this could work when the forum needs an upgrade. Solicit donations from forum members and tell them 100% of their donations will go towards an upgrade. Say how much is required. This day may not be too far away.
 
Having some sort of symbol (a small flying pig, star, whatever) that displays next to a Forum members name on posts that indicates they've donated x $. This can be as simple as that, or add multiple symbols or multiples of symbols representing levels of support. Or, in tandem with previous suggestion of fencing off JREF forum financial support, symbols showing that support and other symbols showing general $ support.

More than just financial support can be shown in this way... A symbol for TAM volunteerism, $1M Challenge test participation, etc.

This will encourage the perception of partnership between the JREF mission and JREF forum members.

Perhaps not directly money related...

When JREF forum member are made aware of a need, they jump to help. Knowing this about the Forum members:

If the specific programs could be itemized in the forums (perhaps a dedicated forum for the presentation and discussion of JREF programs), so that members could offer financial support, volunteer support, or other resource support to the programs. Minimally, it puts JREF programs in a place where 3,000 JREF members see the programs consistently, they know where to direct people that have/need support of said programs. Again, this gets the JREF and more Forum members working together.
 
rjh01 said:
I think this could work when the forum needs an upgrade. Solicit donations from forum members and tell them 100% of their donations will go towards an upgrade. Say how much is required. This day may not be too far away.
Click to expand...

It has worked in the past.
Of course, I can understand how Mr. Randi might find it a bit upsetting if supporters are more willing to support the forum than the foundation, but at the end of the day, if the forum was even part self supporting, it's all a load off JREF general finances.
 
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The Greater Fool said:
Having some sort of symbol (a small flying pig, star, whatever) that displays next to a Forum members name on posts that indicates they've donated x $.
Click to expand...

TGF- some time back there was a "Donor" flag that appeared alongside posters' names.
It was possible to opt out of that and I rather suspect many donors did.
It seemed rather tacky to me, but these things are cultural. If folk like it, why not- but I would hope for an opt out.
Many people on the forum really are very hard up by their own standards. It would be shameful if they were forced to feel like second class citizens because they are unable to donate.
 
Hand printed sign on cardboard held next to red light traffic backup; Please Help.
 
Soapy Sam said:
TGF- some time back there was a "Donor" flag that appeared alongside posters' names.
It was possible to opt out of that and I rather suspect many donors did.
It seemed rather tacky to me, but these things are cultural. If folk like it, why not- but I would hope for an opt out.
Many people on the forum really are very hard up by their own standards. It would be shameful if they were forced to feel like second class citizens because they are unable to donate.
Click to expand...
Honestly, it seemed tacky to me also, and I opposed the idea on that basis, but the other BoD folks thought it good. Unfortunately, it did motivate the people/members to donate, and to volunteer in other ways. A small number of donors did opt out (of which I was one). I could see why it worked on that forum but might backfire on JREF.
 
Ideas for money.

1. Set a financial target. If we meet it, Randi goes after the fraud of our choice, decided by a poll of the people who donated. Even better, it could be set up as votes you can buy. I would pay a fair deal to see some of those bastards go down.

(Heck, can you imagine how much you could raise for Randi to punch Sylvia Browne in the snout? I know it won't happen but I'd pony up large for that one. :) )

2. JREF calendar. Some of our better looking members perhaps in provocative or intellectual poses. Works well for firemen.

3. Fundraiser to have an online Q & A with Randi or someone famous or really interesting. It's like a speaking engagement but the guest can do it sitting naked at his/her computer. Always fun.

More to come...
 
"will think critically for food."


How about some raffles or auctions? Win a signed collection of Randi’s books or the highest bidder gets to have lunch with him and discuss any topic (hey if Warren Buffett can do it).
 
I would strongly suggest a monthly gift rather than a yearly one. A basic membership is $100/yr, but many cannot afford an initial outlay of that amount. What about an option to donate $10 or $15 per month?
 
mortimer said:
I would strongly suggest a monthly gift rather than a yearly one. A basic membership is $100/yr, but many cannot afford an initial outlay of that amount. What about an option to donate $10 or $15 per month?
Click to expand...

That's $120 - $180, rather than $100.

Are you in sales? :D
 
I worked a Lexmark in Scotland a few years ago and was made redundant when they closed the Scotland plant, I was given bonus shares which I had to hold for a time before I could cash them in. I still have two and a half dollars worth and have just gotten a cheque this morning for a dividend of 41 cents. It would cost more to cash this cheque than its worth. so what if every one who had a few dollars worth of shares were to give them to jref then perhaps there would be enough collectively to make it worthwhile. Or would this cost too much.
 
Years ago I suggested that folks use http://www.goodsearch.com/ to raise money for the JREF. It's a search engine that donates a small amount to a charity of your choice every time you use it. If the forum members used it on a regular basis it could potentially add up. In the past I was using it more to raise money for a friend's small charity but that's no longer operating. I'd forgotten about it recently, I'll have to get back in the habit of using it, for JREF this time.
 
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