Hello - below is the Fundraising team’s April update. Let us know if you have any questions!
## Grants
The biggest news in the world of grants is that our proposal to DRL for anti-censorship work was approved. Al also submitted a proposal to CS Fund/Warsh Mott Legacy, Rights, and Governance that was declined and a proposal to Wallace Global on which we are still awaiting a response. We are also waiting to hear a response back from the DIAL Open Source Center about funding for the ESR migration.
In these monthly updates we will begin informing you about proposals we intend to submit in the next month in case anyone might have comments or concerns about the funders, or connections that might help our chances. As a reminder, our grant work flow can be found on the Fundraising Team Wiki[1]. We plan to submit proposals to Media Democracy Fund, who have been funding us for several years now, the Reva and David Logan Foundation, NLnet, and The Charles Léopold Mayer Foundation for the Progress of Humankind. We welcome any and all feedback sent to grants@torproject.org mailto:grants@torproject.org.
We have been working to better communicate with our grant program officers and, to that end, we sent our first Sponsors Newsletter[2]. The intent is to demonstrate the full impact of our work to funders who may only be familiar with specific projects. We plan to send the next newsletter after the meeting in Stockholm. Additionally, Isa and Sarah met with Michael Brennan from the Ford Foundation and are planning a follow-up meeting in June with others from Ford.
## Small Foundations / Major Donors
In an effort to get lapsed major donors and small foundations to donate again, we sent a solicitation letter via postal mail. We included a nice insert, created by Steph, featuring Tor stories that we plan to use for acknowledgements that need to be sent in the mail. We’ve seen a small response.
We sent a version of the Sponsors Newsletter to current major donors to let them know how impactful their giving has been.
## Monthly Giving / Defenders of Privacy
We launched a donation page dedicated to monthly giving[3]. This will allow us to promote the Defenders of Privacy program and try to convert one-time givers into monthly givers. We currently have 334 people in the group who generated $3,438 in income in April. We will send a three-part series of emails to one-time givers beginning in May and will offer a new sticker or patch (yet to be determined) in the second invite. I will keep you updated on the growth of this program.
## Website
Since the new website was launched at the end of March, we have been tracking the number of unsolicited donations from the website. That number decreased about 30% with the new site design. Our theory was that the Donate button was less noticeable, so at the end of April, Antonela changed the design and added a yellow Donate button in the header and footer. Since that change was made, donations are now almost double what they were per day before the website redesign.
## Administrative
We have been working with a company called Labyrinth on making sure we are registered to fundraise in each of the 50 US states. This is a requirement that can result in fines if you are not properly registered. The process is a bit arduous since each of the states has different requirements. Thankfully, the process is almost complete for this year.
~ Fundraising Team
[1] https://drive.google.com/file/d/17jFJ_cFoB2FRKFhoo3on3SChMKSJPzhF/view https://drive.google.com/file/d/17jFJ_cFoB2FRKFhoo3on3SChMKSJPzhF/view [2] https://crm.torproject.org/civicrm/mailing/view?id=158 https://crm.torproject.org/civicrm/mailing/view?id=158[3] https://donate.torproject.org/monthly-giving https://donate.torproject.org/monthly-giving
Hi! Here is what the Fundraising Team was up to in May. Let us know if you have any questions!
## Grants
We submitted a proposal to Deer Creek Foundation for communications work and one to NLnet for ESR migration work. Al also wrote a proposal to Craig Newmark Philanthropies in one day and we were awarded $50,000 two days later! The DIAL Open Source Center accepted our request for $25,000 to fund part of the ESR migration work.
Upcoming grant submissions: Glaser Progress Foundation
## Major Donors
Thanks to work done by Isa and the Board we had two substantial gifts from major donors totaling $70,000.
## Monthly Donors
We sent our first monthly giving invitation to people who have given a single gift in the past few months.[1] We had several people convert to monthly giving.
The program is showing significant growth. In May we raised $4,250 from 343 monthly donors. This is an increase of 43 donors from April.
## Donations from Individuals
We sent an offer for a discounted sticker pack via email offer to people subscribed to the list, but who have never donated.[2] We gained 34 new donors. We will continue to send this offer to new subscribers monthly.
We added a donate link to the about:tor page and have seen an increase in donations via our website. Daily income from individuals has almost doubled from the weeks preceding the change and the number of daily donations is 5x more than what was received in the same time period last year.
As mentioned in a prior report, we are sending a welcome email to new email list subscribers. So far, 73 people who received the message have become donors and donated a total of $1,846.
We launched a series of vintage swag sales on social media. The week of May 13 we offered the Roots Pullover Hoodie and sold two for a total of $556. We will try selling a different hoodie at a lower price point in June. The week of May 20 we offered the Tor at the Heart T-shirt and generated $1,833 in donations. The week of May 27 we offered the Roots T-shirt (Green with Black Design) and generated $1,800. A shout out to Jon who has been masterfully collecting sizes and sending these items out to donors.
## Cryptocurrency
We continue to receive a steady stream of cryptocurrency donations and received over $10,000 in cryptocurrency from privcoin.io.
[1] https://crm.torproject.org/civicrm/mailing/view?id=168 https://crm.torproject.org/civicrm/mailing/view?id=168 [2] https://crm.torproject.org/civicrm/mailing/view?id=190 https://crm.torproject.org/civicrm/mailing/view?id=190
Hello! Here is what the Fundraising Team was up to in June. As always, reach out if you have questions.
First we would like to draw your attention to an exciting campaign launched on our behalf by BTCPayServer[1]. We reached our softcap goal of $10,000 in 25 hours and the campaign will run for 12 more days. Please help amplify the efforts to your networks by sharing on social media or directly with folks who may be interested in contributing.
## Grants
We submitted a grant request to Media Democracy Fund for general operating support at the $250,000 level.
We created a wishlist of large foundations we would like to connect with and are working with Media Democracy Fund, the board, and others to help get introductions to the right people at these foundations.
Upcoming grant submissions: Glaser Progress Foundation, RIPE, DRL, Arca Foundation, and OTF.
## Major Donors
We have taken many steps to grow our list of major donors. We have created a list of people who have means and who should already be aware of the importance of Tor. We worked to identify people who may know them and will soon reach out to see if they are willing to make an introduction. We also looked closely at people who gave major gifts to Tor in the past and are creating individualized solicitation plans for each. Isa has also met face-to-face with several people to develop relationships with them.
## Monthly Donors
At the end of June, we had 378 monthly donors who generated $4,404.81 in income which was an increase of 35 individuals over the previous month.
## Other Efforts
Throughout the month we offered various vintage Tor shirts at a discount on social media. These efforts brought in $5,119.00 in June. Many thanks to Steph for creating and managing the posts and Jon for taking care of the fulfillment.
We were accepted as a nonprofit in the King County Employee Giving program. This workplace giving program allows employees of King County, WA (where the Tor office is located) to donate directly through their paycheck to the Tor Project.[2]
[1] https://bitcoinfortor.torproject.net/ https://bitcoinfortor.torproject.net/ [2] https://www.kingcounty.gov/audience/employees/giving.aspx https://www.kingcounty.gov/audience/employees/giving.aspx https://www.kingcounty.gov/audience/employees/giving.aspx
tor-project@lists.torproject.org
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Sarah Stevenson