A Personal Message from DownsizeDC.org President, Jim Babka…
We recently told you how some members of Congress had thrown barriers in front of you, as you used Downsize DC’s software to communicate with them. We told you how these new barriers were too costly to overcome and nearly put us out of business. Fortunately, we were able to find new software that… 
Costs far less than the roughly $28,000 per year that we used to spend on maintenance for our custom-made system. For years, our money was tied up in maintenance, when we wanted to give you new tools.
Our new system comes from Congressional Quarterly-Roll Call (CQRC). It’s called Engage. And it can handle more than 95% of our maintenance needs for a mere $12,000 per year, a savings of about $16,000.
In other words, we’re going to be able to do new and better things at less cost!
But the transition isn’t free. We must redesign our website to accommodate this powerful new software. We must also convert and match-up a dozen years worth of data. That will cost about $26,000, and we’ve already raised about $5,843 of that amount. But we need to raise the $20,157 balance this month, and to do that, we’re going to explain to you…
The 16 powerful benefits you’ll get from this NEW Downsize DC!
We’ve already explained benefit number one: Our new software can defeat all Congressional barriers. In our last message, we explained how we’re overcoming CAPTCHAs to get your message delivered.
But our new CQRC Engage software that will allow YOU to do many more things far better. You can see the list in the box on the right.
When we launched Downsize DC, we memorialized the Founders who helped fund its creation. Twelve years have gone by, and those Founders are still listed on our About Us page! They’ll be there on our new site too.
Getting on that list required a minimum contribution. But, if you make any contribution to this new effort, we will…
- Place your name on a Refounders roster that will appear at the bottom of this series of messages
- Put that roster on our new About Us page on the new site, next to the original founders
The “Refounders – 2016” will be listed in rank order based on the size of their gift. Monthly credit card pledgers will be “annualized” for ranking purposes.
Please consider starting or increasing a monthly, credit card pledge.
– OR –
Please demonstrate your confidence in our plan by investing the largest contribution that will make you feel good. Remember, your donation will be memorialized on the Refounders – 2016 roster.
Thank you for being a DC Downsizer,
Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.
P.S. The Refounders – 2016 committee closes at the end of September. Don’t be left out of this historic list. We accept cash and checks. There’s a mail-in form on our secure page. There you’ll also find we accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, and PayPal.
Here is the first batch of Refounders (listed in rank order)… Brian Thomson, Travis Walston, Roger Leahy, Bruce Sawicki, Mel Pinney, Larry Upshaw, George Hanson, Larry Ryan, Valerie Nixon, Jim Delton, Mark LeBar, Wilma Sinclair, Kathleen Chippi, Carrie Eiler, Jon Foster, Bill Horton, Ronald Pond, Darryl Perry, Andrew Jason, Michael Phillips, Jeffery Hatwig, Paul Price, Joseph Theriault, John DiLiberto, Virgil Ragsdale. If you gave in September, but your name is not on this list, please hit Reply and let us know.