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Hallo again to all. Last week in this space we ended three years of penurious silence and asked for money. It takes money to maintain and operate the computers that support the various online ventures of the Society of Archbishop Justus (such as Anglicans Online). We used to have a 'please consider a donation' page all the time, and subscribed to a merchant credit-card service, but the cost to us of credit-card fraud became greater than the amount of honest money it brought in, and we had to shut it down. We were rescued by the Chisholm Foundation, which donated enough money to keep us from folding during those lean times. But we can't be dependent on them. We figure that if we can't manage to be supported by our own readers then perhaps we are no longer relevant and ought just to retire. After all, Anglicans Online has existed since long before blogs were invented; now everyone seems to have a blog promoting or attacking something, but we keep soldiering on. Should we, like Puff the Magic Dragon, sadly slink off to our cave? We hope not. At Anglicans Online, we try hard to be something different. We try to be global, we try to be neutral, we try to be fair. And in the 'Resources' sections of Anglicans Online, we try to be encyclopedic. Maybe if we tried to be more harsh, more negative, more condemning, or more acid-tongued, we'd attract more donations. But then we wouldn't be AO; we'd be something else. We met about half of our fundraising goal last week, in large part because of a few generous donors who made large donations. We like generous donors and large donations, of course. They keep us solvent. But we also like small donations. They make us feel connected to our readers. And they add up. So here we are, a week later, still asking for money. We promise not to do this again next week. However much money we manage to raise by the end of this week is what we'll settle for. We'll use the same fill-the-gaiter graphic that we used last week, which we'll keep up to date if donations arrive. We'll leave the footnotes* from last week intact at the bottom of this page, and we'll leave this button here for you to click if you can find it in your heart or purse. Even if you can't donate, perhaps you can join us in noting that Tuesday of this week is the 60th birthday of Anglicans Online staffer and SoAJ tech-support person Brian Reid. |
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