[CREATE] Ramping up the campaign for LGM

[Dave Neary]

Hi all,

We have had some good coverage and the start of a viral effect around
the fundraiser this week, but I think the campaign would benefit
enormously from having other developers from the various projects saying
why the conference is important to you. This week, it has mostly been
myself and Jon pushing the fundraiser, and donors doing blog posts with
the badge saying that they donated.

Of course the campaign is on the GIMP, Scribus, Open Clipart and Krita
home pages, but it isn't yet on inkscape.org, and the logo on lgm.org
doesn't match the one used everywhere else. I would have liked custom
LGM artwork for the campaign, but at the end of the daym the pledgie
padge is good, integrates that thermometer idea, and I think we should
use it everywhere.

Some highlights from the first week of the campaign:
An article on linux.com about the conference and the fundraiser
An interview with LUG Radio which was released earlier this week
A $1,000 donation from Michael Tiemann (I contacted Michael to ask him
to consider donating)
An overwhelming 170+ donations so far
An average of $700 per day raised (we need to get this higher)


We are now at almost $7,000 raised, an extraordinary success, but a long
way from our target. Getting to the target needs the developers who will
benefit from this community support to show that they're 100% behind the
campaign.

If we can excite people about this campaign in the final week, I believe
we could hockey-stick, and surpass our target. If we don't get a second
wind, we're likely going to taper out to a final campaign total of
$10,000 to $12,000.

So, please, please, I would like to see lots of blog entries about past
LGM and GIMPCon meetings over the weekend, linking to the campaign. I
like the model of the LGM stories I have been doing - just link to the
campaign, and write about what you have gotten out of the campaign
previously, what you hope to get out of it this year, the key people who
need to be there for that - we need to humanise this, and not have it be
one organiser writing a begging letter.

Please don't let me down.

Cheers,
Dave.
-- 
Dave Neary
dneary at free.fr
Tel: +33 9 51 13 46 45
Cell: +33 6 77 01 92 13