Vote early, vote often!
If you don't want to read the tl;dr below, here's the summary: FictionAlley is in contention for a $25,000 grant from Pepsi, which we'll use to "refresh" the site, improve our resources and workshops for writers, and fund large-scale projects involving fan creativity. You can vote for us by:
* Visiting http://www.refresheverything.com/fa - register and vote on the website
* Using the Facebook app: http://tinyurl.com/refafb
* Text 103643 to Pepsi (73774) (standard text messaging rates apply)
You can do all three of these things every day in November - and you can vote for up to ten projects each day - that's FA and nine more really cool things.
Please, do this and plug it to friends and family! We have some very nifty plans in mind!
As you may remember, last spring our ISP was purchased by a larger company. They graciously hosted FictionAlley for years, allowing us to be mostly ad-free and enabling us to focus our fundraising efforts on projects like the Katie O'Brien Memorial Scholarship. Unfortunately, that's no longer the case. In other words, since the summer, we went from paying nothing for our server fees to paying about two hundred dollars a month.
We've been searching ever since then for opportunities to help reduce and defray our costs, or better yet, to end our dependence on a host that we have to pay for every month. Thanks to donations from staff and supporters, we have enough in reserves now through the winter, and our ads and associate-partnerships with Amazon and iGive bring in another $50-70 per month, which helps. But we can't continue to indefinitely pay a site host $2400 per year without a cash infusion.
That where we need you to come in!
Last month, we submitted an application for Pepsi's "Refresh Everything!" Challenge.
We want to use the grant to get new servers, update the fic and art intake/hosting/review system and forums, archive video, film and music submissions, host online and offline writing workshops and fund large-scale projects such as story collections, live performances or films by creative fandomers. But we have to win in our category to do that.
Thus, the real Challenge begins. At 5:00 this morning, we found out that FictionAlley would be included in the November round of voting in the $25,000 category. From now through November 30, we have to get into and stay in the top ten for that level in order to qualify for that grant.
If we win, we'll be able to do all sorts of amazing, creative things! But we NEED your votes - and the votes of everyone you know - to make it to the top ten and win the grant that could make the difference between vastly improving FA's site and writing/workshopping projects ... or losing it as an interactive forum altogether.
How You Can Help:
Vote three times a day! Yes, you're allowed to - we just checked with Pepsi.
* Vote at http://www.refresheverything.com/fa
* Vote via Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/refafb
* Text 103643 to Pepsi (73774) (standard text messaging rates apply)
You can, in other words, vote for FictionAlley ninety times this month!
Get your friends and family to vote, too!
* Forward this email to them, or point them to http://www.tinyurl.com/RefreshFA
* Send this via Twitter as often as you can without being annoying: Help @FictionAlley "Get Refreshed" at http://www.refresheverything.com/fa and/or - keep this HarryPotter fansite online & vibrant!
* Help them use their phone to text 103643 to Pepsi (73774) and then set up a reminder for them to vote every day.
Every registered user can vote for ten different projects each day. Again, the top ten proposals in the $25,000 group will all be awarded grants; there are a lot of other terrific projects at our funding level, and the other levels, so you can vote for FA and nine other equally (or even more) worthy projects in the $25,000 group and still help FA tremendously.
Thanks in advance for all you can do! We really appreciate it! And future fanfic readers and fanartists and archivists and those who want to discuss the Harry Potter books and films and merch will really appreciate it too!
If you have questions, feel free to ask us here or in our forum.
* Visiting http://www.refresheverything.com/fa - register and vote on the website
* Using the Facebook app: http://tinyurl.com/refafb
* Text 103643 to Pepsi (73774) (standard text messaging rates apply)
You can do all three of these things every day in November - and you can vote for up to ten projects each day - that's FA and nine more really cool things.
Please, do this and plug it to friends and family! We have some very nifty plans in mind!
As you may remember, last spring our ISP was purchased by a larger company. They graciously hosted FictionAlley for years, allowing us to be mostly ad-free and enabling us to focus our fundraising efforts on projects like the Katie O'Brien Memorial Scholarship. Unfortunately, that's no longer the case. In other words, since the summer, we went from paying nothing for our server fees to paying about two hundred dollars a month.
We've been searching ever since then for opportunities to help reduce and defray our costs, or better yet, to end our dependence on a host that we have to pay for every month. Thanks to donations from staff and supporters, we have enough in reserves now through the winter, and our ads and associate-partnerships with Amazon and iGive bring in another $50-70 per month, which helps. But we can't continue to indefinitely pay a site host $2400 per year without a cash infusion.
That where we need you to come in!
Last month, we submitted an application for Pepsi's "Refresh Everything!" Challenge.
We want to use the grant to get new servers, update the fic and art intake/hosting/review system and forums, archive video, film and music submissions, host online and offline writing workshops and fund large-scale projects such as story collections, live performances or films by creative fandomers. But we have to win in our category to do that.
Thus, the real Challenge begins. At 5:00 this morning, we found out that FictionAlley would be included in the November round of voting in the $25,000 category. From now through November 30, we have to get into and stay in the top ten for that level in order to qualify for that grant.
If we win, we'll be able to do all sorts of amazing, creative things! But we NEED your votes - and the votes of everyone you know - to make it to the top ten and win the grant that could make the difference between vastly improving FA's site and writing/workshopping projects ... or losing it as an interactive forum altogether.
How You Can Help:
Vote three times a day! Yes, you're allowed to - we just checked with Pepsi.
* Vote at http://www.refresheverything.com/fa
* Vote via Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/refafb
* Text 103643 to Pepsi (73774) (standard text messaging rates apply)
You can, in other words, vote for FictionAlley ninety times this month!
Get your friends and family to vote, too!
* Forward this email to them, or point them to http://www.tinyurl.com/RefreshFA
* Send this via Twitter as often as you can without being annoying: Help @FictionAlley "Get Refreshed" at http://www.refresheverything.com/fa and/or - keep this HarryPotter fansite online & vibrant!
* Help them use their phone to text 103643 to Pepsi (73774) and then set up a reminder for them to vote every day.
Every registered user can vote for ten different projects each day. Again, the top ten proposals in the $25,000 group will all be awarded grants; there are a lot of other terrific projects at our funding level, and the other levels, so you can vote for FA and nine other equally (or even more) worthy projects in the $25,000 group and still help FA tremendously.
Thanks in advance for all you can do! We really appreciate it! And future fanfic readers and fanartists and archivists and those who want to discuss the Harry Potter books and films and merch will really appreciate it too!
If you have questions, feel free to ask us here or in our forum.