Update, 10/01/09: Thanks to subscribing contributor HW, whose $5 monthly payment arrived yesterday. Also SPECIAL thanks to KAW, who first suggested the phrase “returning value for value to me.” She does so on a monthly basis as one of our subscribing contributors, too, and added an extra $10 right after the ChipIn widget went dead, “officially” ending this fundraiser. Finally, thanks to HH and RW, who got their contributions in before the widget said “closed.”

Our actual final total (barring any checks that are on their way) is $1,806.32, which is more than the ChipIn gadget says, since some payments arrived by other routes.

So, first, the bad news:

When we started this fundraiser, we played the “going out of business card” for the first and hopefully last time in our history. Specifically, I wrote:

Will RRND/FND blink out of existence on October 1st if we don’t make our goal? No. But unless we receive a substantial infusion of money in the next two weeks, I will go to my fellow editors and propose that we start winding it down, with an eye toward ceasing publication at the end of the year.

The good news:

I will be going to my fellow editors with several ideas, but at this time none of them involve shutting down RRND/FND.

While we didn’t make our goal, or even come close, there was “a substantial infusion of cash” both into RRND/FND and — from other sources — into my personal/family situation.

We’re also entertaining a tentative offer from a new entrant into our very market niche. Not exactly a buy-out, but a possibly lucrative arrangement which would enable us to bring in more money for the work we already do, without running constant fundraisers to scrape by.

So, not only can we keep going, my fellow editors have already told me that they want to keep going, and I agree. While the percentage of RRND/FND readers returning value for value is still low, it’s growing; and our long-time supporters continue to be there for us. I enjoy my job, and I prefer to honor our past and present supporters by continuing at that job for as long as I can possibly justify doing so financially.

So: RRND/FND will continue at least through the end of the year, and quite likely beyond that. There won’t be any more “daily fundraising pitches” until January 1st or after.

I will, however, create a new Chip-In with a goal of $5,193.68 (the portion of our $7k goal not yet raised) and run it in the sidebar and as a “sponsor ad” in our email editions through the end of the year. You won’t hear about it day in and day out, but we’ll certainly appreciate it if our readers put a ding in the amount, which represents, more or less, a “deficit” in our assessment of what constitutes a reasonable return on our investment of time and effort.

Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review