Funds for SETI@Home

I was curious, and go ahead and shut the thread down if this has already been discussed, but has anyone ever thought about starting a kickstarter project to raise funds for this project. I figure if hipster musicians can raise 25k to produce and distibute crappy music, we can maybe do the same. Just a random thought going through my head during the downtime.

how about over priced team seti t-shirts.

That would not be a bad idea....
The t-shirt thingy has not been done for some time now.

The thought of a Seti paraphernalia store has been bandied about now and again, but I don't know how it could be administered.

The meager Seti staff certainly doesn't have the time to be wrapping up coffee cups, pens, and toasters for shipment.....LOL.

T-shirts, mugs and logo-stuff in general always end up being a bad idea. The profit margin (less than $2.00 per shirt) always ends up "costing" the project more than you can imagine. If somebody buys a t-shirt, they feel like they've donated $20 to s@h, and they frequently consider that to be their donation for the year. Donations to the project always seem to drop off substantially when merchandise is offered for sale.

For my health I will not speculate on whether, or to what degree, Angela, Eric, Matt and Jeff are sexy. I would however very much like to see that talking rock. ;)

Is there anything that goes "beeeep" that is usually paid from the general fund that could be crowd funded freeing up general funds for staff costs?

I think that donor packages to get people to donate larger sums like suggested by Gary Charpentier is a good idea too. Worth looking into.

I believe Slavac from GPUUG is trying to apply for grants too. And he needs help.

We have to think outside the box, not sit still and wait for the funds to dry up completely.

"This project is held together with a ball of twine and a roll of Scotch tape, and it has been for a long, long, time. The best support possible, if you are able to do so, is a donation to offset costs wherever needed. And in return, we all get these nifty little green stars!!!
"

They have Scotch tape?!? When did that come in? Wow those Coddled Scientists..
Such luxury!

Seriously though the hardware donations that so many have tried to help with are a drop in the bucket. But hopefully they help make better use on sadly limited manpower resources at the lab.
____________

Janice

My initial idea (and please let me know if I'm on the wrong path) is I'd like to see a kickstarter or other crowd funding project get set up. I'm sure everyone, or at least most people know of kickstarter. Great pros... ITS FREE!! If we get funded, we'd just have to hand over a percentage over to kickstarter as a thanks for helping us get funded. It's got viral potential (twitter/facebook). And we'd have 3 months to get funded. We'd just have to make a smart decision on how much we'd want to set the bar at in case we dont hit the mark or else we get nothing. Then we'd have to come up with some kid of reward for the folks that donate...bumper stickers, shirts, trips to Aericabo, etc...

I'm quite committed to helping get a few more bucks in the pockets of the project and want as many folks that are willing to be on board!

Cheers!

I like the Kickstarter idea. But what would the actual project objectives be?

A good project is vital for success at Kickstarter. Rewards are the easy part.

Like others have mentioned previously, trying to get people to buy into saving a scientific project won't work. People tend to want to donate to things that they can be a part of, not necessarily bring back to life. I know projects with video presentations are always funded more to those that dont, which makes sence considering that the majority of people dont like to read anymore. Tell potential donors that we're needing finds to upgrade servers, add disk space, etc..

These are just some of my thoughs, but the way I see it, the sooner we can get something put together the better off we'll all be.

As for merchandise, great idea, but as others have said the margins are pathetic unless you can guarantee humungous sales of each item you are talking 10% (or less) of takings going to the charity/concern.




(Edited to correct my fingers not working until caffeine level correct...)