NOTE: Our fundraiser formally ends TODAY.
The total put in the bank is $1,180 as of today June 29. This post will vanish into the archives after today.
Any donations we receive today (or in the future without fundraisers) are eventually funneled into our upgrades which over the years allowed us to redesign the site and twice move it (TMV started on Blogger, then Typepad, then Powerblogs and now Word Press).
Kindly read it again: TMV could use some individuals, groups, etc who like it who’d like to donate. If our page views go up the next year or two, we can then look into a new upgrade or add more features.
Here’s our original post, which still holds:
The Moderate Voice has done fundraisers very sparingly. We recently asked readers help to to raise money for a specific goal: $1000. (NOTE: This fundraiser will officially END soon. Any donations we get now will help TMV had a reserve in a time when ad revenues have greatly shrunk.)
This goal has been reached and all donations so far are now in the business account used for TMV. Several donations are going to be mailed. We will keep this post up until June 30. Why? With the exception of two instances over the years, TMV hasn’t had any really big donors. Its money comes from unsolicited donations throughout the year and from ads, which have been problematic as some companies TMV had as advertisers went out of business. Site administrator Tyrone Steels carefully looks into each ad request to see if we can do it, should do it, and to ensure it is legitimate. So the process of getting more ads takes time. Most big websites have lots of lucrative ads or big corporate or private donors. TMV has done just fine operating the way we do — so we are not complaining.
But the fundraiser will remain open in case some others want to donate. And then this post will vanish into the archives starting July 1.
At the end of last year TMV was faced with an emergency. This mean spending just short of $1000 to deal with it. Like many websites, TMV has been hit with declining revenues over the years so it has made a small profit — enough to keep it going but not enough to do more upgrades etc. There was no “big” TMV bankroll in our TMV account, so yours truly also used his own money. There was there was no intent to do a fundraiser until now.
Here’s how you can help, even though our goal has been reached:
1. DONATE by hitting the donate button to the right. But remember, our goal HAS been reached.
2. SPREAD THE WORD: Do you know of an individual or group that likes TMV and would donate? A word of warning. That will not impact the posts we use or don’t use or the views on posts one iota. Years ago TMV had a donor who loved the site and donated regularly but did not like one coblogger who he considered too far right. He made it clear that person had to go. That person was NOT told about those emails or “warned” and we lost the donor. My attitude was: Oh, well. I myself disagree with many of the posts (on the right or left of me) on TMV.
3. Think about doing what one reader did: without our prodding, he set up a recurring donation of $10 each month via paypal, which will help in the longrun.
[The issue of checks has come up. Checks should be made out to the account that has been TMV’s biz account since 2004 made out to Joe Gandelman, the account that pays for hosting, tech work, and a few special syndicated features. It’s also where all ad revenues go.]
How is money from our fundraisers used? It has most often been funneled into our upgrades and redesigns. As soon as TMV’s donations reached $100, that money was sent to pay for some extra tech work that we’ve had to do on the site the past month.
Several years ago, right after a Presidential election when interest in politics and blogging was at its height, yours truly worked virtually fulltime on TMV and our hits went way up and some money went to that for that period. But that was a special case during a period of special interest.
If you want to do a snail mail check, please contact me. But the DONATE button allows you to donate via paypal or any credit card.
June 28, 2015 TOTAL RECEIVED SO FAR $1,180
June 27, 2015 TOTAL RECEIVED SO FAR $1,180
June 26, 2015 TOTAL RECEIVED SO FAR $1,180
JUNE 25, 2015 TOTAL: $1,170
JUNE 24, 2015 TOTAL RECEIVED SO FAR $1,120 (unchanged)
JUNE 22 and 23 2015 TOTAL: $1,120 (no new donations)
JUNE 20 and JUNE 21: TOTAL: $1,120
June 19, 2015 TOTAL: $1,120 — $1000 GOAL REACHED with several checks being mailed.
June 18, 2015 TOTAL: $910
June 17, 2015: TOTAL: $820
June 16, 2015 TOTAL: $565 UPDATE: $100 of this immediately went to pay for the tech work.
This fundraiser post will remain on top until the very end of June, in case others wish to donate to help provide a “cushion,” but the fundraiser will then end. TMV must stand or fall on its ad revenues and unsolicited donations, not fundraisers.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.