Nagging comes with the territory

On the one hand, we are encouraged:  we put our hand out and asked for your

financial support in one little blog entry, and it has come.  Thanks very much

to those of who have responded. We've heard from site regulars who've done so much

for us we wish we were paying them, and from other folks we never knew were out

there supporting us.  We've seen amounts from $5 to $500 (wow!). And we're

inching along — now at $3820 and counting.  Every little bit counts. 

So do those big bits.

On the other hand, we're reminded how fickle this fundraising business is. Although

it is a nice round number, we didn't pick $50,000 because of its roundness. We have

a gap to fill, and we're not on the glide path that will fill it by our goal of

the 4th of July. I guess that incessant nagging from your favorite public station

is not because they are all incessant nags by choice or nature, but rather because

they have to be. Apparently, so do we.

Our current budget is going to get us through our long-awaited upgrade, put some

good new features into the site, and keep us moving with publishing the Journal

and SWJ Blog, albeit on life support.  We've got our eyes on some early 2011

grants and are pursuing some other sources of support.  But late summer and

fall 2010 are wide open — we really need to bring in some extra hands to help us

populate, expand, and manage the rich content that will be supported by the new

platform. It's a lot of nug work, we will do it efficiently with some interns, off-shore

data entry types, lots of volunteers, etc.  But there's just no escaping it

— we have grown bigger than our nights and weekends. And we need some resources

to close the gap.

We will grow bigger with a more mature approach to fundraising, as well. 

We are working to approach more sponsors, advertisers, etc.  As mentioned in

the small print on the Support

page, your qualified leads in that area would be huge, although we don't need any

more windmills to tilt at if the leads aren't promising.  We're also working

on some ways to appreciate and recognize our supporters, but at this point, each

coffee cup we don't have and therefore don't mail out for your gift of $30 or more

is another article we can review and post.  We'll get get better at expressing

our appreciation and/or bribing you to support.  Thanks to those of you who

have responded without all the coddling.  And thanks to those who jump in now

to those handy contribution methods below. If we had operators, they'd be waiting

for your call. But these choices work: