Fund Drive: New and Improved!
Posted by Susan Marie Groppi
2 June 2008
Here at Strange Horizons, we try very hard to learn from our mistakes.
We used to do fund drives twice a year. Twice the fun, right? Wrong! Over the last few years, we started to notice a kind of fund-drive fatigue among our readers, our donors, and our staff. Doing fund drives twice a year meant that we were never doing anything -but- fund drives! At least it felt that way. So we changed the system, and starting with last year's effort, our fund drives only happen once a year.
Last year was our first attempt at a single annual fund drive, and it was a success! Sort of. We hit our fundraising target, but it took us six and a half weeks to do it, and we were really hoping to have these things only last a month. So we looked at what we'd done, and we asked around for feedback, and we listened to what y'all told us. As a result, we've made some changes to the fund drive this year, and I think they're good changes.
One very noticeable (if you're reading this, at least) change is the addition of the fund drive blog. Some of the feedback that we got last year was that we weren't doing a very good job about getting fund drive information out to readers and donors in a timely, competent, coherent and non-confusing manner. Thus, the blog! Think of this as your centralized resource for Strange Horizons fund-drive information. (If you'd like, you can even subscribe to our RSS feed, linked over there on the right-hand sidebar.) We'll be doing regular updates on our fundraising progress, spotlighting some of our lovely gifts and prizes, and announcing the special bonus prize drawings.
Special bonus prize drawings, you ask? What special bonus prize drawings? Good question! Another change we've made this time around is to add additional donor incentives. As in previous years, everyone who donates during the fund drive is entered in a general drawing for one of the wonderful donor prizes furnished by friends and supporters of the magazine. This time, though, we've added another set of prize drawings. When we reach $2000 in donations, everyone who donated up to that point will be entered in a drawing for a copy of Escape Pod: Collections 1-5, a five-disc set containing the complete archives of the first thirty months of episodes from Escape Pod. We'll be giving away another Escape Pod set when we hit $4000 in donations, and yet another when we reach our goal of $6000. We're very excited about these special bonus prize drawings, and we hope you will be too! (Donate now for your chance to win!)
Strange Horizons is, as we keep saying, an ongoing experiment in online publishing. We're always trying to make our magazine better, and part of that is trying to improve our fundraising process. I hope you enjoy the fund drive blog, and the exciting prizes. More importantly, though, I hope you continue to enjoy the magazine itself!