Fellow Story

Using the SciFund Challenge to crowd fundraise online

Fellow(s): Jim Catlin

We wanted to share with your a new way to both fund your research and implementation work. We have joined the SciFund Challenge to try "crowd fundraising" by way of the web. Working with this organization, we designed a proposal, had it reviewed, and then put on the web for a brief period, roughly one month. The proposal is then sent on the web to everyone you know.

Please have a look at our attempt to raise money to continue our field research and advocacy for the sage grouse.

Wild Utah Project needs your help!

HERE'S WHY:
We're raising awareness and funds for our ongoing sage-grouse research and conservation actions on the ground because sage-grouse numbers have been diminishing West-wide for years. Wild Utah Project has just gone live with our FIRST EVER video (4 minutes long) and a fundraising challenge on our Sci-Fund Challenge web site (http://www.rockethub.com/projects/11855-dance-for-survival-protecting-the-sage-grouse).

WHAT EXACTLY YOU CAN DO:

FIRST, please go to the site at http://www.rockethub.com/projects/11855-dance-for-survival-protecting-the-sage-grouse to see the short video (including amazing sage-grouse mating dance footage) and consider making a gift to Wild Utah Project.

SECOND, send the link for the web site to as many people as possible. You can use e-mail, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, a blog, etc. You may want to use the message below, or one of your own creation, to get the link to our fundraising page out to people in your networks of friends, relatives,colleagues and associates:

Wild Utah Project is participating in a crowd funding campaign to raise awareness and funds for work to protect sage-grouse whose numbers continue to decline West-wide.

Please go to http://www.rockethub.com/projects/11855-dance-for-survival-protecting-the-sage-grouse. Here, you can watch Wild Utah Project's FIRST EVER video (including awesome sage-grouse mating dance footage!) about how the organization is working to protect sage-grouse and their habitat. I hope you'll make a contribution to "fuel" this important cause.

And please consider sending the link on to YOUR network of friends, whether through Facebook, e-mail, LinkedIn, Twitter, or another social networking tool.

Thanks!

If you send this to your e-mail list, you might put the following or a similar message in the subject line: See amazing sage-grouse mating dance video and consider a gift to Wild Utah Project

Also, remember, you can e-mail the message to yourself AND use BCC to send it to everyone else on your contact list. That way your contacts don't see all the people's e-mails to whom you're sending your message.

OUR GOAL AND HOW WE CAN REACH IT:
Our goal is to raise $7,500 by December 11th when the web page will be closed down. We just need to spread the link to our page as far and as wide as we possibly can because there is a direct correlation between the number of page views and the total amount raised.

WHY THIS IS AN EASY AND NON THREATENING WAY FOR YOU TO HELP US RAISE MONEY AND AWARENESS FOR WILD UTAH PROJECT:
Please remember that this is a very "low pressure" way of raising money AND awareness. Folks don't have to follow the link if they don't want to and, if nothing else, they will get to see some amazing sage-grouse footage. Please give as many people as possible the chance to see our Wild Utah Project video and Sci-Fund Challenge web page. Again, the number of people we are able to reach with our message is key.

All of us at Wild Utah Project are grateful for your help through a donation and/or spreading the word about our Sci-Fund Challenge at http://www.rockethub.com/projects/11855-dance-for-survival-protecting-the-sage-grouse!

 

Editor's note: You can read more about the SciFund Challenge on their website or read a blog post about the project at Scientific American.