[merged donation threads] Dear Bogleheads - time to pony up

[alisa4804]

Sending $50 today - some of us had to wait for our paychecks before donating, and now we trigger Mel's match!

Also, want to weigh in on some of the proposals to designate "donors" or some "Boglehead patron" designation - I hope we don't do that and develop membership levels. We are all in this together, whether we can donate or not, as Jack Bogle started going to bat for "the little guy" (can't recall his exact expression). Thanks for all the volunteers here, and all you do - it is truly appreciated by thousands of us.

[Alex Frakt]

Thank you Mel and all the folks who responded to his challenge. We've gone well past $1000 since his post. Mel, I await your check . I'll post overall numbers next week once I've had a chance to go through the mailed checks.

Now that the immediate challenge has been met, I've decided to do a little housekeeping and merge all the donation threads into one large one in the appropriate subforum. The response titles show which post went with which thread.

[Alex Frakt]

Also, want to weigh in on some of the proposals to designate "donors" or some "Boglehead patron" designation - I hope we don't do that and develop membership levels. We are all in this together, whether we can donate or not, as Jack Bogle started going to bat for "the little guy" (can't recall his exact expression). Thanks for all the volunteers here, and all you do - it is truly appreciated by thousands of us.

This has always been my feeling. Thanks for expressing it so well.

[Mel Lindauer]

Thank you Mel and all the folks who responded to his challenge. We've gone well past $1000 since his post. Mel, I await your check . I'll post overall numbers next week once I've had a chance to go through the mailed checks.

Now that the immediate challenge has been met, I've decided to do a little housekeeping and merge all the donation threads into one large one in the appropriate subforum. The response titles show which post went with which thread.

Thanks to all the generous Bogleheads who accepted my challenge. You've made me proud by surpassing the $1000 goal, so I'll happily mail my $1000 check to Alex.

[letsgobobby]

$0 to $100,000 2.2% + $0.30 $2.50 fee on a $100 donation

Whats preferred, a check or PayPal. I hate writing checks but if in the long run PayPal incurs less overhead I will do it that way.

Do whichever you prefer, I'm happy either way . The cost of checks is maybe 2 minutes processing time and this month we'll probably run over our free transactions limit, so there will be a bank fee of 75 cents per check.

If we donate via the John Bogle center for Financial Literacy you get 50% more due to Uncle Sam chipping in. Would that be assured of getting to you or do you prefer direct contributions, albeit for 1/3 less?

I see upthread that the Center would attempt to use the donation as requested - but I didn't see Alex's preference as to how he receives his contribution.

[Mel Lindauer]

Just because my challenge has been met doesn't mean that others who haven't contributed yet can't still make their donations.

Keep 'em coming!

[LazyNihilist]

A couple of proposals.

1. How about we have a banner on top of bogleheads home page or the whole site once a year, which shows the target $ amount and the $ raised for the year for the cost of running the site.
An option can be provided to close the banner. I see wikipedia doing this.

2. I hope the admins have disaster backup/recovery, if we can also have something like a read only forum/wiki that is hosted on the west coast of US or Europe, etc and a different URL. So when bogleheads is down, we have an alternative site we can just read or take backups from. This alternate site can be updated once a week or so.

Just some ideas.

[Valuethinker]

Just because my challenge has been met doesn't mean that others who haven't contributed yet can't still make their donations.

Keep 'em coming!

I am afraid that once this thread was off the more popular and widely viewed sub boards like investing, then it just doesn't get the attention and the momentum is lost. That is why I started it elsewhere.

We've done what we can do here.

[LadyGeek]

Almost, my check goes in the mail Tuesday. (USPS postal holiday on Monday, November 12.)

[Mel Lindauer]

Thank you Mel and all the folks who responded to his challenge. We've gone well past $1000 since his post. Mel, I await your check . I'll post overall numbers next week once I've had a chance to go through the mailed checks.

Now that the immediate challenge has been met, I've decided to do a little housekeeping and merge all the donation threads into one large one in the appropriate subforum. The response titles show which post went with which thread.

I can honestly say that the check's in the mail, Alex.

[maywood]

Sending my check in the mail today.

[Blues]

Just sent my contribution via PayPal this morning.

This site has been invaluable to me as a source of usable, reasoned information which I have been able to employ in refining my investment strategy and portfolio.

Thanks to all who make this site the beacon it is.

[matjen]

I was out of the country for the past 2+ weeks so sorry for the delay. However just added my 50 dollars worth this morning. Money well spent!

[MatSci]

I am a bit late to the party, but I would like to make a donation. The link to Paypal generates an error for me: "Some required information is missing or incomplete. Please correct your entries and try again." I have cookies enabled.

I can send a check, but Paypal would be easier. Anyone else experiencing similar problems with the Paypal link?

Thanks,
MatSci

[mkatz]

I am a bit late to the party, but I would like to make a donation. The link to Paypal generates an error for me: "Some required information is missing or incomplete. Please correct your entries and try again." I have cookies enabled.

I can send a check, but Paypal would be easier. Anyone else experiencing similar problems with the Paypal link?

Thanks,
MatSci

Just ignore that "button", enter paypal's site, "send money" and enter your credit card information, amount and target e-mail.

[mkatz]

Also, want to weigh in on some of the proposals to designate "donors" or some "Boglehead patron" designation - I hope we don't do that and develop membership levels. We are all in this together, whether we can donate or not, as Jack Bogle started going to bat for "the little guy" (can't recall his exact expression). Thanks for all the volunteers here, and all you do - it is truly appreciated by thousands of us.

I agree with this sentiment strongly!

Also, sent $100 today via paypal... small compensation for what I've gained from this site.

Also, I'm shocked that total contributions at this point are as low as appears to be the case ($1-2K).

[Fallible]

Also, want to weigh in on some of the proposals to designate "donors" or some "Boglehead patron" designation - I hope we don't do that and develop membership levels. We are all in this together, whether we can donate or not, as Jack Bogle started going to bat for "the little guy" (can't recall his exact expression). Thanks for all the volunteers here, and all you do - it is truly appreciated by thousands of us.

I agree with this sentiment strongly!

Also, sent $100 today via paypal... small compensation for what I've gained from this site.

Also, I'm shocked that total contributions at this point are as low as appears to be the case ($1-2K).

Fyi, Alex has posted previously that he'll be coming up with totals soon.

Also, I agree we should not have membership levels. Not needed and generally not a good idea.

[umfundi]

Also, I agree we should not have membership levels.

Let's not make an internet legend out of this. As I read the donations page, there is no such danger.

I, for one, would like to receive a (six monthly?) donation reminder, or even have a way to make automatic periodic donations.

Keith

[Display]

Contribution sent via paypal. Thanks. Charles

[webslinger]

Our sincere thanks to the numerous Bogleheads who run this web site. We are very appreciative and grateful for all your efforts and contributions to make this wonderful web site available to us. Our check is in the mail!

[pmcgillicutty]

With Christmas shopping time coming up, might be time for a gentle reminder to use the Amazon.com link from this site for additional support for this site.

[MatSci]

I am a bit late to the party, but I would like to make a donation. The link to Paypal generates an error for me: "Some required information is missing or incomplete. Please correct your entries and try again." I have cookies enabled.

I can send a check, but Paypal would be easier. Anyone else experiencing similar problems with the Paypal link?

Thanks,
MatSci

Just ignore that "button", enter paypal's site, "send money" and enter your credit card information, amount and target e-mail.

Thanks mkatz. Donation has been sent.
Thanks also to the forum organizers for all of their hard work and to the frequent posters for generating the content that makes this site so addictive.

[carolc]

Just wondering how we did ??

carolc

[JerLon]

Did I miss the final tally?

[Valuethinker]

Did I miss the final tally?

I do not believe that it has been posted.

Alex did post at one point 291 Paypal contributions, I think, assuming $50 each that would be c. $15000. Also there would be many cheques coming in as well.

[Alex Frakt]

Did I miss the final tally?

There are a couple of checks I haven't processed yet, but this is everything else to date:

279 donations via Paypal for $10,410
62 donations via check for $3,687 (including Mel's $1000 contribution)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total: 341 donations for $14,097

average donation size (excluding Mel's) - $38.52

Thanks everyone. We really appreciate it.

[sscritic]

$41.34 including Mel. (and you know I checked your math)

[Alex Frakt]

$41.34 including Mel. (and you know I checked your math)

If you are bored I can send you the paypal donation amounts (I didn't record individual check amounts) and you can give us mode, median, range, SD, ???