The Next Fundraiser for Fauna?

Some observations and a suggestion

It seems very apparant to me that Rich has carried the financial burden of Fauna for far too long. It's just as obvious that there are many people who are willing to pitch in and take some of this pressure off of Rich to maintain a site such as this.

Conversely, there are probably many more that will only utilize all of the information and entertainment that resides here if it remains free of charge.

I believe that, whether good or bad, it is unreasonable to think that there will not be a dramatic change in the "feel" of this site once it becomes "pay for view". I believe that this is what has kept Rich from making this move for as long as he has.

With that said, I'm suggesting that together, we look for alternative ways to assist in the funding of Fauna.

1. The Fauna Fund seems to be a good start. Time will tell if it can maintain it's momentum and help to alleviate some of the financial burden.

2. Instead of initially moving to a paid membership for all of Fauna. We could consider leaving the BOI and the Forums free and simply charge a membership fee for use of the classifieds. This way, we can continue to garner support for the forums (more traffic for the site) and simply draw money from the individuals who are making money through the use of the classifieds. As forum support continues to grow, so will the sales via the classifieds do to the increased traffic.

I think we have a couple of options here: Either charge a flat fee for posting priveledges on the classifieds, or institute some type of percentage based fee for sold items.

3. I'm suggesting that we look into the implementation of a raffle-type fundraiser. Over the years at Herp Society meetings across the country, there has been a fundraiser known as a 50/50. The idea is that anyone who is interested can purchase tickets for the 50/50 drawing. A winnning ticket is drawn and 50% of the pot is paid to the winner, while the other 50% goes to the society (or in our case - Fauna).

Of course we would need to check into the legalities of an on-line version of this, but I believe that even people who have been hesitate to either donate or pay a membership, might be willing to participate for the chance of receiving a return on their investment.

If this is a feasible option, we would need to work out the details of the payment and drawing procedures, but I think it could make a meaningful addition to our fundraising efforts.

What does everyone else think?
What suggestions do you have?

Together, we can all make this work.

Mike,

The 50/50 idea sounds good provided it's legal. We wouldn't want Fauna closed down due to online gambling violations.

I don't have any other suggestions at the moment but I've been up since 2:00 a.m. and am lucky to have found the computer.

While I admire and join your concern for the financial status of Fauna, I think that the administrative, legal and tax problems caused might make other options more attractive. I think that if others help with the Fauna Fund by contacting various reptile supply companies and asking them to participate, both the companies and Fauna will benefit.
In addition, I think a paid membership is a good idea. Hanging on to something just because of the prospect of change is never successful; the only thing certain in the world is change. I believe there will be some fall off, followed by new growth; the initial fall off will be good in terms of having time to finally get new (working) servers in place that will work; by the time new growth takes place, the technology should be in place and solid.

i personally think the the BOI and forums should remain free but charge for the classified sections and possibly more than x number of MB of space in the picture gallery