Funding for V.O.T.E

[Jo March]

We are at a critical point in VOTE's short history. We need to raise some funds to get a website going.

Who has any ideas for doing this?

On edit: We do have someone working on getting us some funding but we need to move as quickly as possible, hence this post.

I would pay for it out of pocket except I am now unemployed. :( Well, perhaps "between contracts" is a nicer way of saying it. Either way, I can only give sweat equity at this point until the pennies start coming back in.

Who has some good ideas for getting a bit of funding to get us off the ground?

The whole purpose of having teams of people working is so that no one person bears the brunt of the financial burden or the work burden. We don't want burnout for whatever reason. This is too important.

I paint children's furniture and would be willing to put some of it on eBay and have the proceeds go to VOTE if the stuff sells, that is.

Any ideas??? All ideas will be appreciated. No one will point and laugh, I promise.

arnheim

[StephanieMarie]

1. Is VOTE a registered non-profit? Can we send you a check?

[Jo March]

6. Getting that done now but haven't completed the paperwork

Man, I need a lawyer and about $1000 bucks. Heck, I need to be rich!

I am working on that, seriously. There is just so much more to it than setting up a for-profit business.

[EFerrari]

2. 'Morning, Arnheim

Have you cased a server yet? How much do we need?

[Jo March]

8. Depending on our website host, we won't need a server to start

Once we get going, though, we'll need one. I've been looking at prices of sites that offer us a dababase and a good amount of space. Not too bad to start off with but more than I can afford right now.

Right now we just need to get a site going so we can get our presence out there. That way we can coordinate with volunteers and start adding our information into our database.

We can make do for now with the Access database that we are using. We just need a website. x(

[EFerrari]

3. Also, DU has rules about fundraising. Have you checked with Admin? nt

[Jo March]

5. I'm not fundraising! LOL! I am trying to get ideas on how to

raise the funds.

Admins, please don't ban me! I just want ideas!

[EFerrari]

11. lol! Hey, I could contribute a per centage of the show I produce

sort of like tithing. But, it's not consistent. Hmmmm.

[FogerRox]

4. Get Lawyer--gotta set up the group legally--Then the bucks can flow

Otherwise U R Looking at bake sales--if ya know what I mean

[StephanieMarie]

7. He could sell koolaid. not.

[Jo March]

9. I don't know. The market for kool aid seems pretty good around

here in this red state! ;)

[NickiWitch]

14. That's actually not a bad idea!!

Paper clip a note to a kool aid packet saying to drink *this* kool aid and not the stuff BushCo is giving you.

I don't think selling it would be a good idea, but I think it would be a cool way to get our point across.

Just my morning ramblings....must...drink...more....coffee....

[Jo March]

16. I think that is a good tongue-in-cheek way to get the point across

Very basic and a delicious inside joke!

We need a kool aid smilie.

[mordarlar]

10. arnheim I have PM'd you

[s-cubed]

12. Maybe I missed an earlier post,

but what would be the purpose of VOTE, that is not already being done by some other organization such as votersunite?

[Jo March]

13. We will be a clearinghouse for the progressive movement

We will be the link in the chain between all of these groups.

We want to gather all sorts of information about our elected officials, the media and other groups in one place in order to help spread the word about election reform/fraud and empower other groups to use our information to fight the good fight.

Right now we have groups here and there and everywhere. We have data here there and everywhere. We have to stop that and get it all in one place so we can be effective.

If you have any other ?'s, please PM me.

:)

[Jo March]

15. What about George Soros?

Am I crazy here or should I try and contact him?

All he could do is say "no", right? Might work.

:shrug:

[DearAbby]

17. Worth a try...you can also see if a lawyer would look into this pro-bono

[Jo March]

18. That's an excellent idea!

The lawyers' fees are amazing. Well worth it in the end but pretty steep right now.

[EFerrari]

19. I wonder if the ACLU would have any tips on getting pro bono work? nt

[bitchkitty]

20. The best host in the world -

and I have used many, is http://httpme.com - for $35 a month you get 2000 MB, 2G transfer and all the bells and whistles. It's actually a reseller account so you can add more domains if you like.

[EFerrari]

21. Another idea would be to use a free blogspot for now?

I'm a FrontPage weenie (yes, I know) so am putting our political comedy blog on one of those sites until I learn to do more.

But, they can be really flexible. Have you seen Nashuaadvocate's site? It's very attractive.

If the priority is to get a site up now, that may be a way to go.

If the priority is to build infrastructure, that's different I guess.

[frictionlessO]

22. George Soros might not be a bad idea!

check out this thread!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1146462

Im willing to make an ass of myself and try and track one of his people down especially if I had actual talking points and number for fundage and what they'd get in return (as in why are we a good bet to get the message out)... for all we know some of his people might be DUers (wishful? yes! but if youre gonna dream dream big)!


also (sorry for all these):hi:

[imenja]

25. Also Teresa Heinz Kerry

[NationalEnquirer]

23. Maybe sell some Tshirts and bumper stickers

I assume there are many thousands of DUers who would think about buying one, or more.

[Jo March]

24. We are working on a logo now.

Can't wait to see it and slap it on some t-shirts and bumperstickers. :)

[imenja]

26. Heinz family

Evidently Chris Heinz is a member of DU. I saw some of his posts yesterday, though my own reaction was to disbelieve, another member assured me it was he. Anyway, perhaps you could send him a report of what we've got planned and ask him and or his mother to contribute some money.

[imenja]

27. Now I do have a great idea here!

Various individuals are selling anti-Bush, blue bracelets. There obviously isn't a real copyright issue here. Fashion is impossible to copyright. We could design one of our own and market it online!
Perhaps a blue bracelet with an American flag logo on it.

See this thread for the linked article.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1152899&mesg_id=1152899&page=

[marions ghost]

31. yes bumper stickers and t-shirts are fine, but

also money could be made from a really unique item that could be sold easily,through paypal --I like the bracelets idea from imenja. Need something that sells like hotcakes to make money.

Doesn't hurt to approach big benefactors, but need to have non-profit status asap.

[KaliTracy]

28. depending on the type of hosting service you want, you can

find some realitively cheap -- I have sites at Lunar Pages and IpowerWeb (prefer lunarpages) -- which have different packages available -- forum boards for discussion available, etc. Depending on how many members you have, you could get something up with less than 15 a person I'm sure.

here are two rating sites (look up others! sometimes results are "loaded") http://www.hostaz.com/ http://www.top10webhosting.com/ (word of warning -- there is at least one site there that you want to avoid LOOK up the name of the host with the word "problems" or "Complaints" to get information on shady sites)

I meant to tell you I was interested in helping out, though time goes in spurts sometimes -- email me tnt*isoc.net (* is the @ sign)

[bettyellen]

29. this deserves a kick ............

[Ashamed_American]

30. Web Host.

I run my site through a Canadian company called Caneca.

http://canaca.com/

They don't let you pay monthly, instead you have to pay the entire contract in full at startup. But, all you need to do is get together $94.80 for a 2-year contract (averages out to $3.95 a month) this is all the goodies you get.

- 10 gigs Storage Space
- 200 gigs Bandwidth Traffic
- 5000 Email Accounts
- Great Spam Protection
- FTP Access
- Perl, Frontpage, PHP
- 99.9% Uptime

I've been extremely happy with my service. Good luck on the search.

www.blackeyedsundays.com

[torque]

32. Check with this guy...

Brad at bradblog.com and velvetrevolution.us may be a good source of advice concerning site setup/hosting/requirements etc. I know much research went into the VR site initially, by several expert programmers and database admins. The staff and hosted solution at VR is top drawer as a result.

Be the opposition 24/7