Well, the DonorsChoose challenge came up short of the "stab myself with a fork" threshold by the Friday deadline, though the whole business turned out to be surprisingly effective. Go figure.
At this point in things, militant atheist baiting is pretty much played out as a fundraising strategy, which means I need to turn to ways to get other segments of the readership to donate. Sadly, I'm short on ideas, and Dave's quasi-scientific study of charity gimmicks doesn't provide much guidance (I've already put in a good chunk of money, so I wouldn't be able to offer much in the way of matching funds, though I'll consider it).
But, hey, that's why I've got smart readers, so why not go "meta" with this:
What incentive should I offer for people who donate this week?
This could be another offer to do something ridiculous should the Challenge pass a specific goal, it could be an item or service offered to individual donors, it could be a single award to a randomly chosen donor. I'm open to all reasonable suggestions.
If you haven't donated for reasons other than abstract political principles, what would get you to donate? What do you think would get other people to donate? Leave your suggestions in the comments, and if I get any I really like, I'll offer that for this week's donations.
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"At this point in things, militant atheist baiting is pretty much played out as a fundraising strategy, which means I need to turn to ways to get other segments of the readership to donate."
I just want to be sure I understand -- are you asking for suggestions of other segments of society you can bait? Seems to me this doesn't really require much imagination. Blacks, homeopaths, Christians, Duke fans, parrotheads, furries, feminists -- all of these and many more have vigourous advocacy groups that, if provoked, would increase your readership.
I just want to be sure I understand -- are you asking for suggestions of other segments of society you can bait? Seems to me this doesn't really require much imagination. Blacks, homeopaths, Christians, Duke fans, parrotheads, furries, feminists -- all of these and many more have vigourous advocacy groups that, if provoked, would increase your readership.
It's not a question of readership, it's a question of donations. I mean, I know how to get creepy little racists to turn up-- just post something questioning IQ tests as a measure of intelligence-- but I don't know how to get them to give money to DonorsChoose.
That's what I need suggestions for.
Stop begging for money. It's gotten old.
Chad, I guess that's why the atheist baiting confused me. Doesn't seem like a great plan to drum up donations to me. I would suggest taking a cue from Scalzi: offer to go somewhere horrible, and then report on it (with pics!). I can't think of anything worse than a creationism museum, but maybe there's an Ayn Rand institute near you.
Chad, I guess that's why the atheist baiting confused me. Doesn't seem like a great plan to drum up donations to me. I would suggest taking a cue from Scalzi: offer to go somewhere horrible, and then report on it (with pics!). I can't think of anything worse than a creationism museum, but maybe there's an Ayn Rand institute near you.
Well, as I said at the beginning, I find the prospect of reading Dawkins or Hitchens about as appealing as going to the creation museum would be. Hence the "stab with a fork" incentive...
Stop begging for money. It's gotten old.
Sorry to hear that. You've got another week-and-a-half to put up with it.
I signed on to do this for a month, and I'm committed to seeing it through. I'm certainly not going to be signing up for another month-long Internet telethon any time soon, but as frustrating as this has occasionally been, I'm not going to just give up at this stage.
I'm doing the best I can to try to keep this somewhat entertaining.
Hmmm. How to turn a blog into money.
Why don't you auction off a guest post? Tommaso Dorigo has been giving them away.
Stop: If you care that much, $2,738 is all it would take for you to get Chad to leave you alone.
For every dollar/$10/$100/other that gets donated you run a lap around your campus's biggest building in your Halloween costume on Halloween (or something otherwise very visibly humorous to see someone running around a building in if you're not wearing anything for Halloween). Preferably at one of the times when many people will be about.
Or
You put up a list of possible Halloween costumes, and people can designate their donations to one of the options, and the option with the largest sum wins, and you have to wear that all day.
Or both. or something like that.
I'm not really in favor of Pierre's idea, but I do need to point out that if it is done, it needs to be the Nott, not the largest building.