fundraising/hosting (was Re: [Theforum] inventory)

[Luther, Ron]

RE: Fundraising


* The Hosting idea does seem like a logical extension.
* A subtle reminder (here and there) that evolt is non-com ... that asks
for donations may be reasonable too.

(I know *I'm* probably "due" to be making another donation soon anyway.)


What about some 'further out in left field' ideas?  Hmmmmm ... sounds
like my stretch of real estate!

(1) Competitions.  There are a lot of different ones we could come up
with - involving many aspects of web design, execution, and tool sets.
Open to all comers.  $5 (US) an entry.  [Enter early - enter often.]
Have a set deadilne.  Allow 2 days for all members to vote on the
entries {a good 'shakedown' of the voting app, eh?}.  Winner gets 50%
{... and a spiffy 'evolt winner' graphic to put on their personal
site...} (Capped at $100).  Runner-up gets 25% (Capped at $50). Evolt
gets the rest.  Some possible competitions:

* The "Annual evolt 42k Competition".
* A Flash Competition.  (Who wouldn't want to watch a bunch of evolters
flashing?)
* Some kind of graphics competition - user interface? Branding/Logo?
Efective colour usage?  HTML Mail? (just seeing if you were awake)
* Streaming media - we have some audio and video folks, right?
* Or by technology ... best new Chili!soft app?   A 5k restricted to
PHP?
* Skeleton racing - sorry - but it *did* look like fun, didn't it?


(2) 'Almost'-"Services".  Even though the local swim team can hold a car
wash to raise money -- I really hesitate to recommend charging for the
browser archive, or charging for site reviews, or charging for
graphic-design services. I think there may be legal and tax
ramifications that I wouldn't want to wrestle with.  However, I think we
can "come close" and still pocket a few pesos for the [evolt] pot:

* How 'bout a messagebox that pops up when someone downloads anything
from the browser archive that says something like "This is really great
having this service available for free, isn't it?  The download isn't
costing you a thing.  We're a small, tiny non-commercial organization
... our van has a flat tire and needs oil, momma needs an operation, we
haven't had a thing to eat all day ... it would be a really big help to
us if you could toss a buck or two into our paypal hat at xxxxxxx"

* Maybe a link on the main page saying something like: "Would you like
your current site reviewed by some *real* professionals?  Enter your
site address here and we'll send an email to all of our 2000+ working
web professionals around the world asking them for their insights into
your current site design.  We're the permier non-commerical
international organization of web designers.  If you'd be willing to put
$25 in our paypal account here xxxxx, we'll be sure you receive copies
of every single comment our membership has to offer about your site."
[Of course - that would entail a little back-end work -- creating a
template for posting these to thesite with a unique "review number".
Having a schedule job run for a week or two and grab every message
containing that review number in the header and forwarding it to the
'client' ... but, hey!  We *love* doing stuff like that, right?


Ooops ... gotta get back at it ...


RonL.