I really wish I could work on this full-time since I basically work on it 3/4 or 80 percent time at this point. I'm not sure how to expand the base. Each of the past two years I've gotten about 1000 donations. Considering the number of people who have read my work, it's not really that many. As of now on this one, I'm close to 200 and about 20+ percent toward the goal. But obviously the first two days were dramatic, and now there's been a big drop-off. I'll post it on Virology Blog on Monday for the "official" April 1st launch and see what happens from there.
This suggests you have a donating base which is good.
What we need to do is expand your number of donors, if you can double or triple or more even small donations will supercharge your total funding.
I think the first thing to do is to actually raise the fundraising goal to 150k or whatever you need for a full time position. People tend to adjust to the goal at hand, and some people might come in at the end and see it’s already fully funded or close to it and decide their money might not be needed and thus better spent elsewhere.
Agreed, it could be increased to the full time or add a tier, the current 95K is 60% and say $150K is full time where you plan on a full roster (add a couple examples of what you would add).
If you could work full time you might also have a better chance of touching on related illnesses with similar issues or who are also affected by the same crappy research and biases, which would make you more relevant to a bigger support base.
From the donor map I also noticed that you are in large part funded by the UK, Norway, the US, and Australia. I think there should be more potential in more countries, especially in Europe. I think you mentioned aiming to take on the situation in Germany in the following year, but there should be a much bigger potential from Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium, etc., too.
Norway is the smallest country on that list but #2 when it comes to funding you (that probably says something about the relatively high level of financial security Me patients have here compared to our neighbors, but even so).
So i think the first step is advertising. Can we go to every ME association and ask them to feature this campaign prominently for the next month (a top post on their web pages, in their information e-mails, in any other fundraising they do (maybe a handout card or pamphlet)?
Can we get news organizations to cover this. Perhaps we can leverage the recent hit piece, David was maligned, learn the truth and donate to see more inconvenient truths? Things like that. It would also get more exposure to the Trial by Error
Could we get interviews with government officials and post them to YouTube? Get some free publicity and maybe some new exposure? As i mentioned celebrity endorsements would be great if anyone knows someone.
We can even look at traditional advertising, anyone know what a cheap ad on a widely trafficked platform costs?
Could we organize a minute to celebrate ME awareness, everyone who follows Millions Missing, ME Action and other platforms tweet about the fundraise on the same day at the same time in solidarity and become a worldwide twitter trend that brings in new people?
Are there other organizations that might be willing to spread the word to their communities, other message forums, immune diseases, etc?
Additional ideas?