An urgent appeal – please give today!
Unfortunately we’re struggling financially again this month, and we need to raise at least $4000 before the end of September so that we can cover our payroll expenses as well as the rent and other bills that are due at the start of October. Despite the meditation we do, we find that our position is still rather alarming!
Two months ago Wildmind hit a financial crisis, and you, our supporters, responded magnificently. We were deeply grateful to be helped out of a very scary situation. I apologize for having to approach you again so soon. I’ll say a little about what’s going on so that you understand our situation.
Last year we took on Mark Tillotson full time, so that he could take over doing the office admin, publicity, and other tasks that were distracting me from writing and teaching. We were able to do this thanks to our very successful Free Bodhi appeal on the Indiegogo crowdfunding website.
We hoped that in the long term Mark’s work would pay for itself, because he’d be able to promote our online store, improve our event publicity, and allow me to run our Year of Going Deeper program, which would be free but which would bring in donations from participants.
In some ways this has worked out very well. As planned, I’ve been able to write and teach full time, and so far this year we’ve run six meditation events, including the current “42 Days: Six Elements.” In total there have been over 7,500 participants in these events. That’s a lot of meditation teaching, although we aspire next year to have 10,000 participants in each event!
Other successes? Our website offers free (and ad free!) meditation instruction and guidance. In the past 12 months, 1,129,778 people have read 2,234,165 articles in our blog and in our online meditation guides. If you want to get really geeky, the total data (free guided meditations, text, etc.) downloaded from our site each month averages 845 gigabytes!
But recently the donations from participants in our Year of Going Deeper events have been very low. Our last 28 Day Meditation Challenge had over 1,200 participants, but brought in only $383 in donations. That’s $0.31 per person, on average. Yikes! We think we’ve worked out how we can avoid this problem next year, basically by making it more explicit to people before they sign up that making a donation is the default choice, and having them explicitly opt out of doing that. We’re still working out the details. But in the meantime we have a difficult and stressful short-term financial situation to navigate around. And we’re hoping that you will help with that.
Anything you can contribute would be most welcome. As I said in our last appeal, you’ll not just be helping the Wildmind team (Mark, Amy, and myself), but also the “greater us,” which is the tens, and even hundreds of thousands of people Wildmind benefits.
It would be wonderful if you could donate $1000, or $100, or even just $10 — whatever you can.
If you want to use a credit card, you can go to this page, enter the amount you want to donate, and then begin checking out by clicking on “add to cart.”
If you have a Paypal account, you can click here and enter your chosen donation.
And lastly, checks can be mailed to: Wildmind, 55 Main St. Suite 315, Newmarket NH 03857, USA.
Although we raise funds by selling CDs and MP3s, and by selling Buddha statues and other meditation supplies through our online store, Wildmind’s activities are largely supported by donations from our supporters. We’re very grateful to each and every one of you who contributes to what we do. Without your support, we wouldn’t be able to offer free events like our Year of Going Deeper, or maintain our free online meditation guides, or keep bringing you a constant stream of advice, news, and inspiration to nourish your meditation practice. So please do help support Wildmind!
Related posts:
Urgent appeal for donations
Sit : Love : Give (Part II)
Progress, pitfalls, and more progress!
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