We've raised almost $4500 from forum members across our network. Thank you!
Help us raise $500 more by Dec. 31 and dedicate your donation to
forums in St. Paul:
http://givemn.razoo.com/story/Saint-Paul-Forums
You may also use PayPal: http://bit.ly/paypaledem
Or donate via check: Minnesota E-Democracy, 3211 E. 44th Street,
Minneapolis, MN 55406
Donations are tax deductible as we are a 501.c3 non-profit.
For the last two years, thanks to foundation grants we had over twenty
different paid people out in the community growing our neighborhood
forums from 2,200 forum members up to 8,100. They spoke 10 different
languages. With another 1155 city-wide forum memberships, we should
cross the 10,000 forum memberships level next year across Saint Paul.
(Some people join more than one forum of course.)
The Knight Foundation, the Bush Foundation, and the Central Corridor
Funders Collaborative all chipped into make Saint Paul the most
inclusive online community engagement network in the nation. In a
recent presentation - http://bit.ly/newvoicesvideo - at the UN in New
York I noted Saint Paul's unique outreach and engagement effort.
As we move into a year focused on building forum use, we had a big
leap in posts from under 4,000 in 2012 to over 6,000 community
building posts across our St. Paul network in 2013 at the neighborhood
level.
The power of these connections is exponential. If you assume that half
the posts in Payne Phalen for example were read by just half the
members, that is 157,800 individual community connection points from
one forum alone. Even if actual readership is less (we can't measure
this), that is a lot of great connecting in public community life.
As our funding by design goes down in 2014, like the rest of our
multi-city network, volunteers will lead the way. It is our goal is to
ensure that through donations and forum sponsorship we cover our forum
hosting costs and provide key volunteer coordination support. Our
local volunteer Forum Managers in your neighborhood are the
cornerstone of your forum and we seek to support them and work to
assist them with new volunteers. As we are one of the only civic
technology projects in the world active with in-person outreach, we
will also be looking for creative ways to keep those sign-up forum out
in the community at events, libraries, and more.
Thank you everyone for first being a part of your local Neighbors
Forum or the St. Paul Issues Forum. Second, if you would like to
donate your time or money, your support will be crucial!
For time, see: http://e-democracy.org/getinvolved
For money: http://givemn.razoo.com/story/Saint-Paul-Forums
Sincerely,
Steven Clift
E-Democracy.org
Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com
Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.org
Twitter: http://twitter.com/democracy
Tel/Text: +1.612.234.7072
Help us raise $500 more by Dec. 31 and dedicate your donation to
forums in St. Paul:
http://givemn.razoo.com/story/Saint-Paul-Forums
You may also use PayPal: http://bit.ly/paypaledem
Or donate via check: Minnesota E-Democracy, 3211 E. 44th Street,
Minneapolis, MN 55406
Donations are tax deductible as we are a 501.c3 non-profit.
For the last two years, thanks to foundation grants we had over twenty
different paid people out in the community growing our neighborhood
forums from 2,200 forum members up to 8,100. They spoke 10 different
languages. With another 1155 city-wide forum memberships, we should
cross the 10,000 forum memberships level next year across Saint Paul.
(Some people join more than one forum of course.)
The Knight Foundation, the Bush Foundation, and the Central Corridor
Funders Collaborative all chipped into make Saint Paul the most
inclusive online community engagement network in the nation. In a
recent presentation - http://bit.ly/newvoicesvideo - at the UN in New
York I noted Saint Paul's unique outreach and engagement effort.
As we move into a year focused on building forum use, we had a big
leap in posts from under 4,000 in 2012 to over 6,000 community
building posts across our St. Paul network in 2013 at the neighborhood
level.
The power of these connections is exponential. If you assume that half
the posts in Payne Phalen for example were read by just half the
members, that is 157,800 individual community connection points from
one forum alone. Even if actual readership is less (we can't measure
this), that is a lot of great connecting in public community life.
As our funding by design goes down in 2014, like the rest of our
multi-city network, volunteers will lead the way. It is our goal is to
ensure that through donations and forum sponsorship we cover our forum
hosting costs and provide key volunteer coordination support. Our
local volunteer Forum Managers in your neighborhood are the
cornerstone of your forum and we seek to support them and work to
assist them with new volunteers. As we are one of the only civic
technology projects in the world active with in-person outreach, we
will also be looking for creative ways to keep those sign-up forum out
in the community at events, libraries, and more.
Thank you everyone for first being a part of your local Neighbors
Forum or the St. Paul Issues Forum. Second, if you would like to
donate your time or money, your support will be crucial!
For time, see: http://e-democracy.org/getinvolved
For money: http://givemn.razoo.com/story/Saint-Paul-Forums
Sincerely,
Steven Clift
E-Democracy.org
Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com
Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.org
Twitter: http://twitter.com/democracy
Tel/Text: +1.612.234.7072
