We need your help, please!

[Alexandra]

Dearest Ballet Alert! Posters (and Lurkers!):

 

When I began Ballet Alert!, the message board cost $30, the site cost $15 a month. Things have changed. Our administrative costs, including registration, tech support, site fees, software and software upgrades, are now more than $1200 a year.

 

Last year, when things began to get seriously out of hand -- i.e., the expenses were much more than I could cover -- I made a plea for funds. The response was wonderful -- we raised $100 more than we asked for!! -- and several people suggested that we make this an annual event.

 

I've set up a Fundraising Page on the Ballet Alert! site. There's a Make Donation button there; clicking it will take you to a secure page, and you can send us money by check or credit card through PayPal. For those who prefer snail mail, I've posted the address.

 

Last year my project was to update the DanceView site, redesigning it, and putting up articles from the print publication. That's nearly completed. This year's project is to update (though not redesign; I think I'll keep what we have) Ballet Alert! I'll be putting up the articles Victoria Leigh wrote for her Advice for Young Dancers column. Also, there are quite a few very nice interviews with dancers and choreographers from the print edition of the newsletter (by Dale Brauner, Mary Cargill, Marc Haegeman and me) that will be posted, as well as some historical articles.

 

I'm going to ask your indulgence -- I will crosspost this on several forums, because there are some who only read one or two forums and I'm afraid there are some who never look on announcements!

 

THANK YOU FOR POSTING WITH US! Thank you in advance for your support. I'll update this thread weekly to let you know how we're doing.

 

Updates and comments will be here: http://balletalert.com/dancersforum/index....showtopic=18023

 

Alexandra

[Alexandra]

Bump! Thanks to all who have contributed so far; we've raised $800. But we still have $400 to go.

 

If this board is useful to you and you'd like to see it continue, please consider clicking the link in red in the post above and contributing.

[Alexandra]

It's the fundraiser again. Things have slowed down -- we now have $835. Thanks very much to those who have contributed thus far, but we're still $400 short.

 

I'm beginning to know how public television feels. Our statistics show that 3500 people read this board every day. (That's "unique visitors," not one person clicking 3500 times, but 3500 individual visitors.) Yet only 28 people have contributed thus far. That's less than 1 percent!

 

I'm sorry I can't offer t-shirts or funny hats or coffee mugs.....but that would take even more money!

 

Here's the situation: I ask for money only once a year. I cannot afford to pay the expenses of this site. If I don't get help from our members, I have two choices: one, shut it down; two, go to a mandatory paid subscription: no one will be able to access the site until they've paid a small fee. So please, if this site is useful to you, or provides entertainment, information, of whatever, check our Fundraising page and make a small donation to keep it going.

 

Thank you!

[Alexandra]

Stop! Don't send any more money!! We made it last night.

 

Thank you very much to all who contributed. We had an almost 50-50 split between the two forums, as far as I can tell, which pleases me greatly.

 

Thank you!!!