Letter from the President - PSi Fundraising Mission
All,
I am pleased to announce that Poetry Slam, Inc. has developed a new way to enable you and anyone you know to help the cause of Slam. Organizations ask for money all of the time, and while we’re doing the same thing now, we’re doing it in a new and easy way!
PSi now has a system set-up to accept automatic monthly contributions for as little as $3.50 a month. We have other levels, and you can still donate at any time in any amount you wish - we certainly wouldn’t remove a donation option - but we are especially excited about this development, as it allows many of you to help without burden or hounding on our part. And you can stop the monthly donation any time you wish by contacting us directly.
You can see our very erudite and doe-eyed spiel here:
http://www.poetryslam.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=87
Understand that $3.50 isn’t anything by itself. I bought four songs on iTunes yesterday and spent more than that. It’s less than a Big Mac meal. It’s two comic books. It’s a coffee. It’s less than a gallon of gas in most places. I’ve got about $2.00 in change in my car ashtray right now. I spent more than $3.50 on a magazine I read in ten minutes. $3.50 is practically nothing by itself over the course of a month. It’s about 1.5 pennies a day.
But if a bunch of us contribute at even the lowest level it makes a big difference to PSi. Twenty-nine people at $3.50 generates $101.50. Run that over a year and it turns into $1218. PSi can point to LOTS of things that could benefit both our events and our members with an extra $1218 a year. Some of our communities could generate twenty donators in that scenario just within their venue. PSi is asking that you try.
We know that money is tight everywhere; we wouldn’t be asking you to help out if it wasn’t affecting us too. PSi and the hosts of our events - NPS, iWPS, WOWps, Cross-Training Camp - work hard to bring to the world what only Slam can bring. It bears pointing out that we always have something else we could be adding to that pile of poetic greatness if we had the resources. We want to keep pushing that work - and your work - forward. With as little as $3.50 a month, you can help us do that.
As the organizer of a small open mic in Ohio, I am personally committing to pick up at least 6 supporters toward this cause, coming in at the very least on the $3.50 level (they pay more than that to see our shows every week). Six people doing that once a month is nothing to sneeze at in this economy. I run a small but fiercely dedicated reading, filled with people who love poetry. I challenge any other venue and reading that has a slam or has benefited from Slam in general to do the same. Can you imagine how much support toward PSi you could generate if just twenty - a mere TWENTY - venues came in with just 6 people? That’s 120 people giving $3.50 a month. That’s $420 a month…about $5040 a year! I’m very excited about the possibility that I might be able to help in this way. I signed up this morning…I only need five more to hit our goal. What about you?
Special thanks must go out to Mike Sowers, Slammaster of the MOpoetry Slam (Since 2006) in Springfield, Missouri. He came to us, knowing we needed help to address our financial issues, and designed this whole program for us for nothing. This is the kind of stewardship that our community is filled with when they recognize a challenge, and the kind of commitment that makes me proud to be part of our family of bards, wordsmiths and those who love them.
Thank you for your time and attention. I hope to see your name on the roll of people who are willing to help out our great community and our fine organization as we move into the future.
Yours in words,
Scott Woods
President
Poetry Slam, Inc.