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July 8, 2014
Nikonians.org fundraiser-2014
Nikonians.org founders Bo Stahlbrandt (bgs) and J. Ramón Palacios (jrp) have announced a fundraising campaign this week.
The campaign is designed to expand and improve the experience for all users visiting the community. Back in 1999, when the community was founded, setting up and running a social-based website for like-minded individuals was not as costly.
Our founders hosted only a relatively small population of members and costs for server maintenance and bandwidth were significantly lower.
When nikonians.org opened to the public on April 30, 2000, it began with only 30 members. One year later 2,600 registered members formed the basis of the community. The following year (2002) in response to the increased costs of operating the site (until this time solely handled by our founders) the early stages of our paid membership plan were introduced.
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Throughout these years the founders have been eternally grateful to the backbone of the community, our Moderating Team of volunteers. Check our current Team roster to meet these professional ladies and gentlemen whose combined experience in photography spans hundreds of years.
The current paid membership plan helps defray the costs, and our founders are concentrating on keeping Nikonians.org running as a not for profit organization.
Their fundraising campaign announcement focuses on the numbers:
"All capital generated through our operations is reinvested to sustain it and its growth. As a community, we are relying on the commitment of our members. Our membership fees are the most important revenue, representing over 85% of the total revenue. The rest is coming from our limited advertising campaigns with a few partner companies.
Several tens of thousands of users register as members at Nikonians per year. However, only ca 5% of all members are supporting the community financially through a contributing Silver, Gold or Platinum membership."
Thus was born the idea of a fundraising drive. The goal is to apply funds raised towards improved navigation and ease-of-use as demanded by today's Internet users.
They will concentrate on making the site and services easily accessed by current technology, including the growing number of mobile users. This will require integrating the various areas better, such as galleries, forums, articles and blogs.
Additionally, the announcement looks to the future planning to:
"Deliver more in-depth articles and content and last, but not least, to be able to organize more events and local gatherings."
Your support will allow us to pursue our work and continue our mission to share, learn and inspire.
That mission includes helping members take advantage of increased worldwide opportunities to meet up and interact, through local gatherings, tours and chapters."
In Gratitude:
If you donate $100 US Dollars or more, you will receive a unique Nikonians cap signed by the founders.
If you donate at least $250 US Dollars, you will receive two unique Nikonians t-shirts plus the cap. Donations over $5,000 US Dollars will receive an invitation for a special North American photography trip with the founders in 2015. Please allow for three to four months for the shipping of merchandise. We will contact you for details and address prior to shipping.
For more information about Nikonians community, its vision and values, please go to About Nikonians. For detailed information about operating Nikonians as a not-for-profit site, read our Wiki: Are you doing all this for a profit?
Posted by flashdeadline at July 8, 2014 9:09 PM