[CSL board] direct mail

[Dan MacNeil]

Thanks to everyone for their quick and honest responses.

We're certainly not guilty of group-think.

 > Has CSL done other direct mailings for funding before;
 > what were results?

CSL has done zero direct mail.

For a year, I was the junior guy in a 6 person IT group that supported 
the (at the time) 5 million dollar per year effort for http://habitat.org

When I was on the board @ the Lowell habitat we made $20,000 with direct 
mail to existing supporters.

I'd not thought of doing direct mail before because I'd not thought of 
an appropriate audience.

 > In addition to what Josh stated,

To be clear, I mean paper/postal/snail mail.

I'd like a little more detail than "Too traditional".

This feels a bit like the discussion we had on going after federal 
"faith based" money a while back.

Existing budget is 90% grants or contract fees for work I've done and 
not been paid for. My current salary is about $12K/year, roughly 1/3 of 
the budget. I last got paid in June. I don't expect to be paid again 
until February (if all goes well)

see sheet 2 in:

	http://thecsl.org/sys/finance.d/budget-fy-2006-2007.xls

If we hit the Parker grant, this will change, but so far this year we've 
made $3,000 in grants.

We don't have many solid grant prospects right now. Even if we did, I'm 
selfishly interested in diversifying income. I'm ok with building a 
donor base over time. I'm ok with killing trees.

Writing an article for linux journal is a good idea, but it isn't clear 
to me how this will bring in money. I've never read a linux journal 
article and thought "I should give that guy money" I can see an increase 
in volunteers, a corresponding increase in workload to manage and sift 
them and (eventually) more productivity.


###########

Karen Zgoda wrote:
> In addition to what Josh stated, I'm concerned about how this fits  
> into our strategic planning.  Has CSL done other direct mailings for
> funding before; what were results?  Direct mailings of previous  
> donors tends to work well.
> 
> I'm thinking we would get a more positive financial result if we  
> wrote an article to publish in the Linux Journal describing how CSL  
> is using Linux in community-based NPOs.  Folks could be easily  
> compelled to donate after hearing about the work we are trying to  
> accomplish.
> 
> ...Karen
> 
> Karen Zgoda, MSW, LCSW
> Doctoral Student
> Boston College
> 
> karen at karenzgoda.org
> http://www.karenzgoda.org
> 
> 
> On Oct 3, 2007, at 6:22 PM, Josh Harding wrote:
> 
>> I would personally be very unlikely to respond positively to such a  
>> letter
>> (and my name would be on the list ;) ). Is there some less  
>> conventional way
>> we can reach out to an audience of people who might be intrigued by  
>> us?
>>
>> I've stuffed envelopes for many different NPO's over the years - mass
>> mailing is certainly a well established tradition, but there are  
>> few things
>> traditional about the CSL.
>>
>> What's Eric's opinion on the idea?
>>
>> Maybe I'm just touchy from working right next to the sales  
>> department in my
>> current job...
>>
>> -Josh
>>
>>
>> That's my initial reaction, although I may not understand all the  
>> factors...
>>
>> On 10/3/07, Dan MacNeil <dan at thecsl.org> wrote:
>>> I have it in mind to rent the Linux Journal subscriber list and  
>>> sent a
>>> letter asking for money (actually several test letters and one  
>>> final one)
>>>
>>> If this works, the effort can be repeated with apache week, PC  
>>> World, etc.
>>>
>>> Possible upsides:
>>>
>>>         1) not having to deal with grantors micro-management
>>>         2) cash
>>>
>>> Downsides:
>>>         1) need to build infrastructure to handle many small  
>>> donations
>>>
>>>         2) distractions from grants
>>>
>>>         3) will probably consume most of the remainder of Eric's
>>>            first VISTA term.
>>>
>>> Obviously this will depend on a bunch of facts we've not yet  
>>> gathered,
>>> for example the cost of renting the snailmail subscriber list.
>>>
>>> I'm curious as to people's quick gut reactions on direct mail vs  
>>> grant
>>> writing?
>>>
>>>
>>>
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