When I made two phone calls on the Fourth of July looking to enlist Howie Klein of Blue America and DFA activist Vicki Cosgrove in this fundraising effort, I never thought that in four short days I'd be able to say this:
Wow.
Together, we've raised over $2400 in pledges and secured no fewer than 15 Registration Grants that will go towards increasing the regional, racial and economic diversity of Yearlykos Chicago. We did this grassroots. We did this through generous donations large and small. We did this thanks to blog heroes who rose to the call and met the Meteor Blades challenge. We've raised almost $7,000 in donations in three short days.
We did this ourselves.
Together, we are helping bloggers make it the Last Mile to Chicago. We are making sure that the netroots in Chicago will be infused with the true economic, racial and regional diversity of our grassroots movement.
And, today, there's one more chance to help.
The success of this fund drive has created the kind of dilemma an organizer dreams of. As I am doing outreach nationwide and passing on the good news about our fundraising success to our grant recipients, it is clear that we can still use more of the small donations that will, in addition to the Registration Grants, take folks the Last Mile to Yearlykos Chicago. (Paradoxically, our success on the Registration end has created a small challenge on funding the Last Mile for those additional grantees.)
To all of our generous donors...our fifteen Registration grant donors, and our 52 Donor Match donors...all I can say at this point is thank you so much.
You have truly made a difference, not just in your impact on Yearlykos, but in providing the kind of gift that will impact activism nationwide for years to come. You have truly gone the Last Mile and you have Vicki and Howie and my profound appreciation. Thank you.
Over the course of the next week we will be contacting you and activating your pledges. Please bear with us as we take the time to do this right. The overwhelming success of our efforts means that we cannot simply fundraise and disperse at the same time. We take our responsibility to you and our grantees seriously.
Thank you in advance for your patience and your generosity.
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How you can still help
Today is the conclusion of this fundraising effort. If you have not donated yet and would like to join in this grassroots effort, please read below for instructions. Your contributions, especially your small donations made directly to our grantees, are profoundly appreciated.
Every one of our grantees is combining local fundraising, self-funding and cost-sharing to make it to Yearlykos Chicago. Your donations of $25 or $50 help one blogger make it that last mile. Your registration grants open the doors of the convention to a worthy attendee.
Here's how it works.
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Donor Match: $25 and $50 direct donations
To participate in Donor Match you make a pledge of $25 or $50 using the form email below and we match your pledge with a recipient. When that recipient turns in their budget and gives us the amount of their unmet need, we will call on you to "activate your pledge" and make a one time contribution to that recipient's Pay Pal or Google Check Out account for the amount you pledged.
It's that simple. It's that direct. You will know you made a difference.
Here's the form email:
Email to: yearlykosdonormatch@comcast.net
I would like to make one pledge of $25/$50 to help defray the cost of a blogger attending yearlykos. When I receive a reply email with my donor match, I will follow through by sending $25/$50 to that recipient's PayPal or GoogleCheckOut account.
If you are willing to support more than one recipient, and that is certainly welcome, we ask that you simply change the number of pledges, not the monetary amount. For purposes of simplicity and logistics, pledges are accepted only in $25 and $50 increments and no one donor will be allowed to contribute more than $50 to any one recipient directly. (For those with larger pocketbooks, see below.) For all intents and purposes you should consider this pledge an anonymous, small dollar gift.
We also ask that you use the form email exactly as written above, so that we can make processing the donor matches simple and straightforward. We will complete the donor matches as swiftly as possible. This is a one weekend event with a targeted set of objectives. We will report back quickly on what we've achieved together.
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Donor Match: Registration Grants
If you are able to purchase the entire price of a Yearlykos Registration, currently $275, you can provide a diversity grant directly to one recipient by paying their entire registration fee and then allowing us to match that registration with a recipient.
Here's how that works:
Send the following form email to yearlykosdonormatch@comcast.net and then pay for a registration at the Yearlykos website...(Save your ID and Password!)...following these steps. When Vicki and Howie and I match you with a recipient, we will contact you and activate your pledge. You will then pass on the ID and Password of your registration to us and we will reregister that account in the name of a worthy recipient.
You will have made it possible for a deserving blogger to attend Yearlykos and made a donation to the convention at the same time.
Email to: yearlykosdonormatch@comcast.net
I would like to make a pledge of one Yearlykos Registration to allow a blogger to attend Yearlykos. I have paid for this registration at the Yearlykos website. When I receive a reply email with my donor match, I will pass along the ID and Password for that registration so that my recipient can attend Yearlykos Chicago using that registration.
Important: if you have already registered and cannot attend...send us the exact same email as above. You can donate your valid registration, whatever you paid for it, and help a blogger at the same time!
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As I wrote in the introduction, your donations will increase the regional, racial and economic diversity of Yearlykos Chicago. This does not simply benefit the recipients of your generosity: this enriches the experience for every last attendee of the event and those who read about it online and follow it from home.
Our recipients hail from rural areas, from red states and from urban areas alike. They will take the connections and networking they do at Yearlykos home with them to their communities. The effect of this networking and organizing will have long term after effects for years to come.
These may well be the most effective dollars you contribute to grassroots/netroots activism this year.
To all our donors, thank you so much. To all of you who supported this effort but could not contribute, know you are appreciated. To anyone inspired to contribute to this Last Mile effort today, thank you so much as well.
This is the last day of our fundraising. Vicki and Howie and I will switch over immediately to the nuts and bolts of disbursement to our grantees. Please bear with us as we deal with the overwhelming success of this effort; the emailing on the back end of this project will be intense.
I look forward to reporting back to all of you soon, and to seeing the powerful impact we've made together walking the halls of Yearlykos Chicago.