SEPTEMBER FORUM FUNDING CONTRIBUTION ONLY

[George Govus]

I estimated what we need from everyone likely to donate, in order to reach 1.5 large. Then I divided that number in half and donated using Sandy's GoFundMe link. What sort of methodology is that? I am hoping to find in the coming days that I underestimated how many would donate. And, I have a little more money coming next month. I can give more later.

As I made the donation I encountered the following message:

Quote

You're supporting The Education Forum

Your donation will benefit Sanford Larsen

First of all, shouldn't it say, "You're supporting the JFK Assassination Debate at the Education Forum."

Perhaps the second statement, "Your donation will benefit Sanford Larsen," is appropriate and unavoidable. But it seems to me that it could be off-putting. If the language could be tweaked or elaborated on, that might be good.

I'm tremendously grateful, Gordon, and Sandy, for all your efforts in support of the forum.

[James R Gordon]

Sandy,

I did contact Invision today about your system They responded as follows.

As mentioned in previous correspondance, we do not provide direct banking payments. We provide only the facility to pay via card at the present time. You would add your new card to 'My Details>Cards' within your client area, and remove any that are already present. Any payments required would automatically be taken from that card

I believe that your system does not offer a debit card and therefore is not acceptable to Invision.

James.

[Sandy Larsen]

2 hours ago, George Govus said:

As I made the donation I encountered the following message:

Quote

You're supporting The Education Forum

Your donation will benefit Sanford Larsen

 

George,

Thanks for noting those two messages. Somehow I didn't notice the second one when I made a test donation.

I'm not sure if I can remove my name from the second message, but I will try. I had to open a bank account to hold the money, and had to use my name on the account because the forum doesn't have a Tax Identification Number and so it can't own a bank account. Anyway, I think that is the reason the message has my name in it.

But I will try to change it. I have an idea how to do so.

 

[Sandy Larsen]

10 minutes ago, James R Gordon said:

Sandy,

I believe that your system does not offer a debit card and therefore is not acceptable to Invision.

James.

 

James,

I just need to open a different kind of account, which I can easily do at the same online bank I am using now. What I have now is a savings account that has a high interest rate, but no debit card. I'll open a checking account that has a low interest rate, but does include a debit card.

I'll let you know when that is opened. It might take a week or so before I get the debit card, at which time I'll let you know the card number. You can then add the number to the "My Details>Cards" section of your Invision client area, as they instructed in their e-mail.

 

[Sandy Larsen]

6 hours ago, George Govus said:

As I made the donation I encountered the following message:

Quote

You're supporting The Education Forum

Your donation will benefit Sanford Larsen

 

George Govus said that he saw the two messages above when he made a donation. I'd like to change these messages.

Problem is, I just made a (test) donation and I did NOT get either of those two messages. So I made another donation but on a different computer with a different browser, and still got no such messages.

It's hard to fix a problem that I cannot see.

George, did you see those messages in a popup window? I'm thinking that maybe your browser has an add-on that informs you of certain things -- in a popup -- depending upon what website you're at. And for GoFundMe, it shows the name of the beneficiary (The Education Forum) and the fundraising organizer (Sanford Larsen).

Or maybe those message occur just on certain browsers. I've seen that kind of thing happen many times. George, what browser do you use?

 

[George Govus]

Sandy, I used Firefox, on a Mac. It wasn’t a pop-up window. Those messages displayed immediately after I hit the donate button.

Edited October 3, 2022 by George Govus
More info

[Sandy Larsen]

6 hours ago, George Govus said:

Sandy, I used Firefox, on a Mac. It wasn’t a pop-up window. Those messages displayed immediately after I hit the donate button.

 

Thanks George, I see it now.

I think I can fix it. I need to contact James and the other admins and see what they want the messages to say.

 

[Ron Bulman]

19 hours ago, James R Gordon said:

The donations so far raised see the EF funded though to the end of November. After November we do not have sufficient money to pay the EF subscription.

I understood that Sandy was creating a separate system that had the distinct advantage of not requiring the cost to transfer funds from $ into £. This is a significant advantage in Sandy’s system because there would not be a loss of funds transferring $ into £ as well as the weakness of the £ in the UK. Although the subscription to Invision is $70 it now cost me $82 to pay the subscription from the UK.

I am happy to continue to make the Invision subscription but because of the economic conditions in the UK it is now more expensive if I am to do it.

A rough calculation suggests that from December 2022 to December 2023 would require us to raise around $1.000.

It is up to members. If members want me to continue making the payments until December next year it will require a donation of $1, 000. There is $20 still remaining in the donation fund.

James.

James, thank you for keeping he forum alive the last several years.  I think yours is an invaluable service to History.  Nowhere else can one find what one does here that I'm aware of.  Thanks to the other administrators as well.

It looks like hopefully Sandy is close to a final donation process beneficial to all.  Thank you too, Sandy.

When it becomes fully operational with a dedicated thread . . .

$1000 / 25 = 40 members needed.  A realistic possibility imho.  Given reality, $10-20 here, 50 maybe even a couple, or three (?) 100's, I think it's still realistic.  Hope I'm not too optimistic.  Dark would suck.  

Edited October 4, 2022 by Ron Bulman

[Sandy Larsen]

19 hours ago, James R Gordon said:

I have lost your bank details. Please send me them again and I will forward them to Invision for their approval.

 

James,

I have opened the new bank account and linked it to GoFundMe. I should get the debit card in 5 to 10 days. I'll let you know the number once I have that.

 

[Sandy Larsen]

19 hours ago, George Govus said:

As I made the donation I encountered the following message:

19 hours ago, George Govus said:

Quote

You're supporting The Education Forum

Your donation will benefit Sanford Larsen

 

Unfortunately I cannot remove my name from that second message. After a lot of fiddling around and poring through Help pages, I ultimately discovered that my name is there because the bank account is in my name. In order to have "Education Forum" to be there instead we'd have to get a bank account in the name of "Education Forum," and that would require setting up the forum as a non-profit organization, which isn't a  trivial task.

So what I did instead is, on the main donation page, I added a brief explanation for this oddity. Actually, a statement that hopefully will prepare the donor for when he sees the oddity. I hope that suffices. Anybody who wants to take a look can click on the Donation link. And then click the Donate Now button in order to see the offending message.

(It's not an unusual thing for a fundraising organizer to use his own bank account to collect donations for somebody else. Even GoFundMe talks about doing this like it's nothing. So it's insane that they say that the money is benefiting the organizer.)

 

[Sandy Larsen]

If anybody is itching to donate, the donation system is working and there is no need to  hesitate:

Education Forum Fundraiser

But I'll leave it up to James to announce the official fundraising drive. We should have a separate thread for that, I imagine.

James and other Admins, would you take a look at the GoFundMe page and see if you would like me to make changes to the title or description?

 

[James R Gordon]

I support Sandys fundraising drive.

One thing experience has taught me is the EF needs is reliable fundraising. The quicker members begin to raise funds for the EF the better.

I urge members to ignore my donation system in preferencce to Sandy's. His system is now the EF future donation system.

The EF needs funds to exist and I urge members to start donating at Education Forum Fundraiser

James

 

[Ron Bulman]

Thanks again gentlemen.  I just made a small donation which I intend to replicate near the end of the month (just paid the A/C repairman an unexpected $154, 3rd time he's been out this year, this was the least expensive visit).  If necessary, I can do a little more after Christmas and property taxes, I.E. in the spring, barring unforeseen circumstances.

I almost started a dedicated thread titled Education Forum Fundraiser.  I did not because I thought it might should be one of those threads permanently at the top of the page maybe replacing the Current Balance and/or Step By Step How to Donate threads.  Which, I believe needs to be done by an administrator.  This would keep the topic at the forefront for anyone who posts or visits the site.  I think it would be a good idea to include Sandy's disclaimer/Note: about the auto withdrawal and no one else being able to withdraw funds that is on the actual go fund me page on this suggested page as well to assure anyone browsing it/contemplating making a donation where the funds are going and that they are secured for this purchase.  Those are just my thoughts though, made as a suggestion.

[Sean Coleman]

Sterling effort guys, well done. Donation made!

[Ron Bulman]

Thanks to the generosity of Sean and another anonymous donner we're up to $355 among 10.  Here, on the September funding site.  Not a bad start, 3 months' worth, depending on bandwidth usage?  

I still think it should be a topic near the top of the home page, there every time anyone looks at it.  If we are taking the long-term goal seriously, which it should be.