We will use the money to print and ship books. All labor is volunteer.
We estimate that $1500 will allow us to print and distribute 500 copies of a 50-page book. We have distribution requests for nearly that many already and the target number will probably grow some.
We have a donor who will match the first $500 we raise 2:1. Because of this generous offer to double-match your donation, each dollar you donate will enable one more person to pick up this booklet in the synagogue, read it, and share it at home.
@MonicaCellio IMO, we should set a standard for print-quality and hit or (if necessary) fall short of it, and print and distribute as many as we can. If we have extra money, I think we should just send people extra copies, rather than fancying the book up.
I think we'll have a better chance of getting production done on-schedule if we can pick up a couple more volunteers to help with first- and second-party edits. There's probably some room to absorb slippage in later steps, but not tons. The current stage and the next one are ideal for parallel processing, so if we could add some more processors, it'd be great.
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@MonicaCellio OTOH, the way you've phrased it hedges nicely, essentially keeping both quantity and quality improvement avenues open, and prioritizing the former.
@IsaacMoses good arguments on both sides. Anybody else have input? (I'm not really thinking of much more than "heavy-weight covers, maybe glossy" and "some sort of binding rather than staples" should we end up with extra.)
@IsaacMoses, can you send me the graphic file used for the logo in the books? (Yours is presumably higher-quality than what I would get by taking a screen shot from the PDF.) This is for the profile page (where a picture is strongly encouraged).
I'm not sure what additional images are available, but you can find a larger version of that image by substituting apple-touch-icon for the filename, e.g.:
Be sure to adhere to the trademark guidance where applicable.
@MonicaCellio Maybe include in the appeal a "by the way, if you want a pile of copies to drop in your congregation, whether you're donating or not, see [here]"?
@IsaacMoses good idea. If we do it in the appeal it reaches more people, some of whom won't be funders. If we do it in the thank-you letter for donors it goes to people who are already invested in the project some, so maybe they're more likely to do it. Opinions on which is better? We want to strike the right balance between number of moving parts (packages to be packed and shipped) and impact (the more locations the better).
Actually, I think I'll ask them to send email -- no sense making them create an account just to be able to edit a post to offer to help us, after all. I'm currently putting this in the thank-you letter because that's what I'm editing right now, but I can easily edit it in somewhere else.
I'm promising to post the list of distribution locations on the download page. This is a reminder to actually do that. (Not who's doing it, of course -- just "physical copies of this book will be distributed in synagogues in the following locations" or some such.)
@MonicaCellio I think that we're not going to get high rates of people asking to help distribute, so being open about it is better. Include a "depending on supplies" or something so that if we end up having to not give everyone who asked, we won't be breaking a promise.
> In order to start your campaign, you must upload at least 1 image (maximum of 5), we recommend at least 3. Please upload compelling images that reflect your campaign's mission, values, and ideas. Your images must be with aspect ratio of 4w by 3h (for example 400x300 pixels). Your image files should not exceed 3MB and we recommend at least 400 pixels wide. Acceptable formats are JPEG and PNG.
Can somebody set up a haggadah "action shot"? Haggadah + matzah + wine cup or something like that -- the haggadah in context, in other words. I don't have ready access to color printing, so if I do it it'll be a B&W cover which isn't as nice.
Was it @Scimonster who made the graphics for the on-site ad? If so, ^^^.
And did anybody take pictures of mishloach manot baskets/bags with the Purim booklet visible?
@IsaacMoses was just searching for that -- thanks.
@IsaacMoses much better. Thanks!
AFAIK Mi Yodeya's only social-media presence is the Twitter account. Any others out there? (I'm not on Facebook, so I wouldn't necessarily have noticed an FB page.)
The Twitter feed @mi_yodeya is now entirely human-run. We want to use it to promote Mi Yodeya content to a wider audience, using our God-given human intelligence to pick out material that's likely to be of people's interest now.
We'll be aiming to tweet at least once per (non-Sabbath/Festival)...
@IsaacMoses thanks. Even if the posts are the same as Twitter, I assume that different interactions are possible (FB people can comment or send messages or something), so worth listing.
Rewards. Crowd-funding sites expect you to specify rewards for different donation levels. They can be intangible, of course, but there are these textboxes to fill in... any ideas? Any donation gets a thank-you in the book if they want, I'd say, and there's some donation level that should get them a copy of the print book mailed to them.
@MonicaCellio We're not trying to raise a ton. I'd suggest keeping this low-key: Donations of $1 get a TY note and our gratitude. $50 or more get immortalized in the book's credits.
I'm dithering between setting the goal at $1000 or $1500. (The SE match is external to this.) $500 plus the match gets us the baseline we're aiming for; I want to go above that to give us a little wiggle room if we end up needing more copies (a good problem to have, but requires $). Both of these numbers have come up here but I don't know which is better to list. I can't find clear doc about whether a campaign ends when it reaches the goal or only when it reaches the duration; will ask.
@MonicaCellio I strongly suspect they won't kill it when it hits the goal.
I don't know about Jewcer, but some of these sites let you bump the goal up if you hit it. If Jewcer allows that, it may be good to actually start with $500
@MonicaCellio Jewcer touts their advisory function. They'd probably give good advice about this and any other lingering questions. (Not just about their capabilities; what best to do.)
@Scimonster I did one last night with implements I had on hand (that's my seder plate), but I'd welcome an improvement on this if it's not too much trouble for you. If not, no big deal -- we also have the three books (from the ad) and the Purim bag, and this:
@Scimonster ok, we can go with that, then. :-) I've got the campaign page draft set up (and submitted for review before launch), and I see now that the page automatically cycles through the available images. I was wondering how those would factor in.
2. You should have more contribution levels. Start at 5$ (not $1)and have at least 5 levels up to $100 and then a few after that. I recommend about 8 in total. Please read and understand our fees so that you understand the relative size for small contributions.
3. Your main image is not clear... I see papers on a table but that is it... the text is not clear and I dont get the connection to the cause.
I think the main thing there is #3, about the image. We have three photos: the one from the ad with the three books, the Purim bag, and the Pesach one. I used the first as the main image for the campaign, but the feedback is that it's not clear.
None of our images are actually tied to the season, because they're pictures of our past books. Can anybody think up something that would evoke this project in graphical form?
> WePay fees are 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction no matter where the contribution is coming from globally.
I'd missed the "30 cents" part before. So yeah, going to bump the lowest level up from $1.
(I used WePay because (1) they report that it has fewer failed payments and (2) for PayPal I would have to have a business account, which I do not.)
Re #2: for $100 we'll send you copies of all four of our books? (Not with color printing, though we don't need to say that.) That's probably about $10 in printing.
(I do not like the "funding premiums" game and usually don't play, but if this is the norm...)
Image idea: a mocked-up "Days of Awe" (make a cover and staple it to anything of the right thickness) next to either a machzor or apples and honey, on a table? Is anybody in a position to make that quickly?
I'm not sure what additional images are available, but you can find a larger version of that image by substituting apple-touch-icon for the filename, e.g.:
Be sure to adhere to the trademark guidance where applicable.
Here is an example of The Purim - Mi Yodeya? card printed in color on card stock, adorning Mishloach Manot:
