Re: Fwd: Re: [IPn] first full week is done

["Michael" <email @ redacted>]

One of our forum members wrote:

> >Just a thought  - but - you might be more effective in your FR efforts if you
> >did not bombard everyone on your mailing list constantly. 
<snip>
> I am interested in
> >insulin pumpers but am bothered by the constant, pleading e-mails.
> 

I thought perhaps I would put it in context. If you are a public 
radio listener, then you know that pledge drives take an inordinate 
amount of air time. Several time a day there are pledge breaks that 
last anywhere from 15 minutes to as much as 30 minutes or more, 
EVERYDAY during the drive. This goes on until the funding goals 
are reached or exceeded. I'm not fond of pledge drives and am 
mindful that they can be annoying. During Insulin Pumpers quarterly 
pledge drives, messages to the list are limited to less than one 
message day -- that takes a few seconds to read at the most. In fact, 
since the beginning of this pledge drive there have been only 7 
messages in 13 days, including this one. It is a necessary evil that 
this service must pay its bills. I'd be more than happy to forgo the 
bucks raised in this manner if there were another source of funding, 
but I don't happen to be a zillionaire myself and have not been able 
to get Bill Gates or his ilk to foot the bills. In the mean time, the 
pledge drives must continue each quarter and go on until the needed 
funds are raised to pay day to day expenses. The alternative is to 
stop what we do. Sorry, I don't have another solution.

Many of you may not realize that it takes a lot of effort behind the 
scenes to keep Insulin Pumpers going. My highly visible efforts as 
well at those of the admin staff mask the efforts of over 100 
volunteers and a lot of hard work. Absent all that effort, I'm 
pretty sure that chaos would prevail in our hugh mail forum and the 
content of the web offering would not be nearly as good as it is. 
There much more we could do for sure if there were additional funds 
available -- I have reams of material just waiting to be published, 
however, many would agree that Insulin Pumpers presents a premier 
service to the diabetes community. I'd like to keep it that way and 
improve things if possible.

To date for this pledge drive, our members have kindly given a bit 
over $1900. That will almost cover a months worth of day to day 
operating expenses. For this quarter, that leaves ~$4000 to go. To 
those that have contributed now and in the past, thank you for your 
generosity. To those of you who have yet to make a contribution and 
are financially able, I challenge you to help support this forum and 
keep it healthy and financially strong. If you participate and feel 
that Insulin Pumpers has helped you and you enjoy the support of your 
fellow forum members, then make a contribution to support YOUR forum.
With over 3500 members we're talking less than 60 cents a month if 
everyone would contribute. You probably lose more change than that! 
If each member contributed just 60 cents a month -- less than a 
buck!!, no fund raising would be needed to reach our goal. I know 
that not everyone will do this, and to those of you who have given 
more -- much more, you have my sincere thanks on behalf of all the 
staff and members as well. So please won't the rest of you 
consider making a contribution today. As soon as the goal is reached 
for Fall, the pledge drive will end. I have no desire to continue it, 
believe me.

To make a donation, or to make a continuing gift to Insulin Pumpers 
visit the Insulin Pumpers donation page at:

http://www.insulin-pumpers.org/donate.shtml

For new Challenges, use the Insulin Pumpers challenge gift page at:

http://www.insulin-pumpers.org/challenge.shtml

If you prefer to send your contribution by mail, address it to:

Insulin Pumpers
4600 El Camino Real - Suite 206
Los Altos, CA 94022

In the UK,  <=====
for tax deductible donation, use your charity 
card and/or contribute to the CAF (Charities Aid Foundation) on 
behalf of Insulin Pumpers, CAF charity #002139. See 

http://www.givingtoday.org/charitycard.cfm

or call 0800 99 33 11 for details.

Best Regards to All,

Michael Robinton
Executive Director
email @ redacted
Insulin Pumpers web site http://www.insulin-pumpers.org