MAYDAY.US

Email Fundraising

Lawrence Lessig — 2014-07-30

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There are a lot of decisions that we have made that we’ve gotten push-back (to put it politely) on. But the push-back that’s surprised me most has been about fundraising. As I wrote just after we crossed the $5M mark, we were shifting into campaign mode. The fundraising was finished.

“Why,” a friend asked. “You’ve gathered the most committed citizens in America on this issue. Why not at least ask them for the help you’ll need?”

The answer isn’t obvious. And I’ll admit, it may just be me. As I’ve experienced the life of online campaigns, it feels to me as if I’m “just” a funder. And worse, the more I give, the more I get asked.

I wanted to try something different with MAYDAY — a campaign where we keep you informed and ask for your help. But not one in which we ask — constantly — for you to give us money.

But I may be wrong, and as more have pushed back, I’ve decided we should let you decide — individually — whether our asking you for money is something you’d rather we didn’t do.

So here’s the idea:

If you’re on our mailing list, you should have recieved an email today, with a link. Clicking the link put you on our “DO NOT ASK” list. If you clicked that link, we won’t ask you for money, though we’ll keep you informed about our work and about the campaigns (and we may ask for non-financial help). Of course, you’re still free to give. We’re pretty sure you can find the website if you’d like to. But we won’t send you emails with requests to contribute. That choice will be up to you.

For everyone who didn’t join the DO NOT ASK list, emails will SOMETIMES include an ask for financial support. As races get close, or if a new opportunity arises, we may come to you again. Of course, that’s not all we’ll come to you with — you’ll get all the regular news as well. But we won’t be as careful to exclude requests for funding.

Either way, on every email we’ll give you a link to change your DO NOT ASK preference. So at any time you can opt out, or opt in.

I’m eager to see how this experiment works. (If you like it, tweet about it? (Or give one last time!) And as always, I am happy to read your feedback.

Thank you again for your support.


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