Okay, so we didn't make this for the web-a-thon, and the 'love offering' is taken here online, any time, not 'just in a few minutes.'
A FREE AND INDEPENDANT VOICE
It's on again the ANNUAL WEB-A-THON. If you've found THEOOZE to be a valuable resource, we invite you to help us keep the site alive as the main independent source for emerging church content, dialogue, and connection. We are not currently backed by any denomination, parachurch organization, publisher, or any other institution. This allows us to keep our free and independent voice.
While the voice and voices of THEOOZE are free and independent, running the site is not so free! We incur a variety of costs including: hosting (with 100,000 unique visitors a month and an extensive backend, it ain't cheap!), phone bills, domain names, licensing, merchant software, and the list goes on.
THEOOZE is now entering its seventh year on the net and is STILL TICKING. In the past year the site has gone through a redesign and we have implemented the online-chat, RSS feeds, improved the forums and general enhancements to the site. A new calendar is being tested and we are beginning the plans for a resources sharing area, called the OOZEtank.
In that time, the growth has been exponential with now almost 14,000 registered members and many more who visit the site. This increase has created greater hosting resources and higher costs.
Currently the site is funded by a few generous contributors from within the community and some advertising dollars that are generated throughout the year. But supporters drop away and the advertising isn't consistent so we are putting it out to our community again to help support the site.
This year we are asking for support with annual running costs but also due to the number of visitors on the site we are planning on purchasing our own server equipment to be able to operate more effectively, and plan for future improvements and even greater growth.
Incidentally, salary, office rental, health insurance, car allowances, conference travel, or promotion are not contained in the goal amount ($20,000 to cover all costs in 2005) for this web-a-thon. Nobody is getting rich off of THEOOZE, and nobody plans to (to our knowledge!).
So, we invite you to give to our ongoing costs.
The $20,000 portion of our budget we hope to raise includes:
Hosting & DSL connection
Accounting
Office Supplies
Licenses
Desktop Computer Software
Phone Bills
Ongoing code development
Desktop Computers(repairs, upgrades, etc.)
This does not include:
Salary (in any shape or form)
Office Rental
Health Insurance
Conference expenses
Site promotion
Electricity
CURRENT SUPPORT as of September 02 »
*Please note THEOOZE is less than profitable, but not a nonprofit organization. We appreciate your non-tax deductible contributions. If you have any questions, please feel free to email Malcolm Hawker.
