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May 30, 2007

Ghost Army: The 1100

In the spirit of embracing the internet, we are launching an online fundraising campaign for The Ghost Army film called "The 1100." We want to use the internet to reach out to 1100 donors--that's the same number as there were men in the unit. We're building this campaign around somethinc called a "Charity badge." What is a charity badge? Well, ours is below. And here's a description from the website Techsoup.
Charity badges — also known as fundraising widgets — are small graphic modules (similar in appearance to online banner ads) designed to help individuals and nonprofits raise funds online. Charity badges solicit donations for a specific cause or organization and can be posted to Web sites, blogs, and social networking pages. They can also easily be repurposed by other bloggers and site owners who are interested in supporting your cause.
Beth Kanter, a nonprofit technology consultant and blogger who has spearheaded several successful charity-badge fundraising campaigns, thinks that offering others a way to quickly add your charity badge to their own blog or Web site is one of the technology's most powerful aspects.
Here's a link if you want to read the entire article. Anyone can take the charity badge and post it on their website or blog, or enclose the link in an email. It provides people an easy way to learn and give. (You can donate by credit card or paypal). For example, my sister Cathy has put one on her Choosing Santa Fe blog. It provides people an easy way to learn and give. It’s easy to replicate, so anyone that embraces the project can help spread the word. And it offers a way to keep score, by tracking the number of donors and the total amount of donations made through the badge. So people can see how we are doing. This makes it simple and painless to support the project: Make a donaton through the badge--it doesn't matter how small the amount, our goal is the max number of donors. Then help us get it out there on the web. Post a copy! Pass it along to others you think might be interested. We want this to be the online version of "Kilroy was here." It should be everywhere! The more places we can get this, the more people we can reach, and the closer we can come to our goal of completing the film while the men in the unit are still with us. One note on contrbuting. The "Donate" link on the badge will direct you to a place where you can make a donation to the Center for Independent Documentary, our fiscal sponsor, but the donor has to type "The Ghost Army" on the "Designation" line to make sure the donation goes to our film. (That's not ideal, but it is out of our control.) Thanks! We welcome your feedback on how to make the campaign work better--let us know what you think!

Posted by rickbeyer at 01:11 PM | Comments (0)

May 14, 2007

Mobs

Here's a quote appropriate to the times: "soldiers quartered in a populous town will always occasion two mobs, where they prevent one. They are wretched conservators of the peace!" And what left-wing, namby-pamby, radical liberal peacenick said that? A thoughtful fellow New Englander named John Adams, the second president of the United States. He said it in defense of BRitish soldiers at the Boston Massacre trial in 1770. Some truths are eternal.

Posted by rickbeyer at 02:19 PM | Comments (0)