Ok, I have reluctantly signed up for a recurring donation to DailyKos of $5. Reluctantly, because my husband and I are putting everything we can towards retirement, as he’s in his 70s and I’m in my 60s and we’re both still working.
$5/mo for DailyKos is $5/mo not going to my 401(k). However, I’ve been thinking about it for a long time, and I finally decided that, particularly with the upcoming elections, and the devastating climate changes that appear to be occurring sooner than predicted, DailyKos is one place where we get news and activism for both, and I need to support that place.
We all know how vital DailyKos is to our online life, and often to our offline life! But, it’s hard to click that button for the recurring donation and know that you’re going to see it coming out every month. One of the ways I talked myself into it is reminding myself that if I start to be unhappy with it, I can always cancel it. Another is that $5 is a small investment into the future of our planet and our democracy (...and yes, I will be making other donations, like to Tammy Baldwin, Ruben Gallego, Joe Biden, Kellen Squires (when needed), and other candidates who represent my point of view and/or who will remove — or keep at bay — the crappy Repub Senators/Representatives).
However, I would like to suggest that DailyKos look into some possible changes:
- If someone is signed in, and they are already making a recurring donation, add a coding change that removes the begging from the view that person sees. I’m assuming it’s still there, even with a recurring donation (I just started it my recurring donation today), and that will be irritating as hell to see if you’re already donating. Also, take them off the list for the begging emails — maybe put them on a list for emails providing “here’s what we’re doing with your donation — upgrades, profiles of a new staffer, new election initiatives, whatever”.
- If someone is making a recurring donation, offer a free membership for them to gift to someone else, even if only every other year or every third year, something like that. I’m sure we all know people on DailyKos we would like to give a membership to, but really can’t, at the moment. This would encourage loyalty, not just in the person making the donation, but in the person receiving the gift membership, and anything we can do to strengthen the community is a good thing. Particularly now with the still raw wounds of the layoffs…
- Think about offering the option for such donations to go to a directed funding for something needed — whether that be infrastructure, salaries, bringing back a person who was laid off, providing grant funding for someone who does a lot of writing, but who is a volunteer community member (like Todd, Rule of Claw, who is writing to support his family; or maybe Pakololo, whose heartbreaking work is so critical, yet may feel sometimes unrewarding, or VetWife, who does so much good in this world) — maybe donations could go ½ to the DK general fund, and ½ towards providing one-time grants of $1K, $5K, $10K or more to some deserving community members who provide a lot of content and who need and/or deserve the money! (That might build back up some of the community feeling that occasionally feels ripped apart, by layoffs, by pie-fights, by whatever!) Even 2/3 and 1/3. I think allowing that kind of direction might encourage donations more than just “donate to DailyKos”.
If the funding model has to shift, why not be more creative about it? If I knew some of my monthly recurring donation was going to help fund grants to other community members who desperately need that help, or possibly deserve it, even if not needy, I would take a lot of happiness from contributing to that. (It doesn’t have to be a lot of money or a lot of individual grants.) A lot of the value of this site comes from unpaid community members — a surprise one-time grant might give them a lot of joy! Even an unexpected $1K can be a huge lift to most of us...
Just a few thoughts from me, and I’d love to see other suggestions from other DailyKos community members who have also been contemplating donating...or those who already do donate! ...or for that matter, those who don’t/can’t, but have ideas and suggestions. Pretty much anyone, I guess…
One last question...if you don’t currently have a recurring donation to DailyKos, what would make you start one? Any of my suggestions up above, or something else you can add…? (Besides winning Powerball or Lotto!)
P.S. No one asked me to write this, nor did anyone on staff have anything to do with it. It’s all just me.