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How we can support Atheist Nexus, and why we should.

Last weekend, I started a discussion here, about money. By the laws of unintended consequences, this discussion morphed into active fundraising to keep Atheist Nexus viable.

To reiterate some points from the earlier discussion, and expand:

Current funding for Atheist Nexus consists mainly of

Google Ads: $150 bucks monthly
Donations from members: $35.00 monthly.

Members: 10,000
Unique Monthly Visitors: 200,000
Monthly Page Views: 1,000,000

Atheist Nexus is in the top 75,000 most visited sites on the Internet.

Based on the numbers (Br. Richard, please correct me if they are not accurate), the reach for Atheist Nexus is tremendous. Will a billboard reach so many? A bus ad? I don't know. Considering the investment, the return is amazing.

That's also the issue. Atheist Nexus is currently run by a volunteer administrator, with minimal contributions. No one can begin to survive on that amount of money. If we are going to have a full time Atheist Nexus administrator, then it's time to jump start the development of a funding process. Same for making programming changes to expand the capability of the website. Same for creating a not-for-profit organization.

I think that many members of Atheist Nexus would contribute, but the green "donate" button is a bit like wallpaper - we see it for a while, then forget about it. Or we think, maybe next time. Last weekend, with encouragement of matching funds, quite a number of Atheist Nexus members stepped up to the plate with contributions.

Two members are providing a time-limited offer of matching funds, up to $750 each, for contributions of at least $25.00, by Oct 15th. Just go to the green "donate button" on the front page, and click on it. Then leave a note on the comment wall for Louis Davout, so that your contribution can be matched, tripling it's value.

For those who have, thank you so much. For those who have not, I'm hoping that you'll be inspired to make a contribution, to the amount that you are comfortable with, as a personal investment in keeping Atheist Nexus viable and starting us towards a more sophisticated process of keeping the site vibrant, exciting, influential, and welcoming.

Over the next week, I'll continue posting information and background regarding funding for Atheist Nexus. Please check on this thread to learn more during the days to follow!

Tags: funding

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Chrys Stevenson on October 29, 2009 at 4:10pm

How about running a "High Five" campaign across the site. "High 5 to Keep Nexus Alive" If we could get the majority of members to just chip in $5 each that would be a tremendous help. Leaders of each group could be contacted and asked to support the campaign within their groups. If possible, a message could be sent to all AN members announcing the campaign. Maybe groups could compete to see whose group can donate the most. I'm sorry I can't spearhead this at the moment - I'm flat out working on the Melbourne Convention but if anyone wants to run with it, the idea is yours.

Give a High 5 to Keep Nexus Alive!

Chip in $5 or more to help maintain and improve AN.

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Permalink Reply by El Solo Lobo on October 17, 2009 at 12:44am

I like that idea a lot.

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Permalink Reply by Susan Walsh on October 26, 2009 at 2:58pm

I would buy AN stuff. T-Shirts with pithy sayings (along the lines of the atheist billboard ads), FSM logo and Darwin fish decals, "Keep church & state separate!" rubber stamps (for paper currency), etc. I'd gladly pay a little more knowing AN was getting a cut.

(Re: animated donation icon - make it animated until the user donates to turn it off!)

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Permalink Reply by Jo Jerome on October 29, 2009 at 1:05pm

Wait, what?

Seriously?

10,000 members and only $35/month in donations?!?

I mean, I'm poor and have only tossed $50 at this site since I joined.

Rounding down, that's about $7/month. 1/5 of all donations.

Did I mention I'm poor and pathetic? How then can I be 1/5 of the donations to this site?

Hopefully, putting some of these click-the-green-button threads at the tops of pages will help...

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Permalink Reply by Ian on November 9, 2009 at 6:03pm

Another "viewer funded" site I frequent adds a small gold star next to a member's name if they have donated in the last year. This star appears wherever their avatar is used. For example, if you were reading this thread, you might see some posters with a little star by their picture. It would act as a constant reminder that the site is donation driven.

The down side is that it divides the community into those who send money (easy if you have it and use PayPal) and those who don't. The don't category may well contain a lot of unable (lack of funds or lack of ease in moving money around) who would be stigmatized unfairly.

I think the positive outweighs the negative. It seemed to work well as a reminder to the denizens of Democratic Underground.

Ian

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Permalink Reply by Jo Jerome on November 16, 2009 at 7:19pm

Ian - I think you're right. While there's a certain stigma on those who don't donate because the legitimately have money troubles or something, a little indicator simply that someone has donated in the past 12 months would have more pros than cons. It doesn't have to say how much or how often. It could be a $5/year donor or a $100/month donor. It just says that you gave something and like you say, can be done more as a reminder to folks that the site is donation-run.

Consider that: At 10,000 members, if each of us gave $5/year, that's $50,000. More than enough to maintain the site, put up a billboard or two, start a charity of our own...

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Permalink Reply by Chrys Stevenson on November 16, 2009 at 2:32pm

Well done Vicki - you can have a 'virtual' gold star!

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Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on November 16, 2009 at 9:35pm

Thank you so much for your contribution!

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Permalink Reply by William Hopper on November 30, 2009 at 8:57am

Oddly enough, I found this site because I was looking for atheist ad space to purchase. Not sure about donations, but I would snap up ad space immediately.

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Permalink Reply by Jo Jerome on December 5, 2009 at 8:45pm

Buying from Amazon.com?

Not sure if it's mentioned elsewhere in this thread, but another indirect way to help is the Amazon partner ad on the right side of the screen.

If you're like me and live through Amazon.com, or even just buy one or two things a year from them ... when you go to buy, start on Atheist Nexus and enter Amazon.com via the search box under the big green "DONATE" button.

By going to Amazon via that link A/N gets a little commission off whatever you buy. Just be sure and do the purchasing during that session that originated from this website.

I don't know how much A/N gets, but hey, it's something and it doesn't actually cost you anything.

- Jo; off to buy a bunch of "Glee" swag from Amazon ... via A/N. ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Courtney King on December 10, 2009 at 10:00am

I would like to donate, however I have no bank account and no money (I have no job). Is there any other way I could help the cause?

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Permalink Reply by Little Name Atheist on December 10, 2009 at 10:17am

Certainly is! You could welcome new people, for one. If they mention something in their profile that makes you think they might enjoy certain groups on the site, you could recommend those groups to them.