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May 18, 2017

Is Downsize DC gone?

The answer to today’s headline is an emphatic No! Behind the scenes, we’ve been working as hard as ever.

One month ago, yesterday, we sent our last newsletter message to you.

Two days later, our team began the transition to our new site, using CQRC software. Doing this required us to take down our old Downsize DC site.

We thought we were just two weeks from showing you a fresh, beautiful site. Plus, we were (and still are) sitting on some incredible news, with which we intended to launch. Boy oh boy, we were excited. But…

That transition was not smooth.

And here’s the nub of it from our perspective: Our needs exceeded their system’s framework.

Yes, they’ll bring us near-100% delivery of your messages.

Yes, they’re going to save Downsize DC money.

Yes, they’re delivering more than a dozen new capacities or tools to you.

Despite the considerable struggle, we couldn’t…

  • Make the design and the user-experience work correctly, on several levels.
  • Tweak the system sufficiently to our strategic approach and tactical methods.

What’s next?

Well, we’re going to use Old DownsizeDC.org for about the next three weeks or so. In the meantime…

We’re rapidly building a new website. We can build on the vast work we’ve already done to move quickly. We’ll also scale back a bit at the start so we can launch the new product even faster.

From there, we will enhance the website so that we can implement most of the promised Engage features. We’ll do it one-by-one if we must. But they’ll come rapidly, especially at first

Making lemonade[When life gives you lemons...]

There was no way to know what we know now. You live; you learn. But what we know now is going to work out even better in the long-run. We’re making lemonade! In fact…

We just spent the last three days laying out all the ingredients and starting to mix them. And…

It looks like it’s going to be delicious! Our new website will be more…

  • Modern and attractive
  • Simpler to use

…than it would’ve been if we’d stayed with the pre-sold recipe.

I have only one remaining concern…

This software toolset was supposed to be turn-key. Even so, we didn’t plan it that way. We budgeted with the assumption we would need to do programming and web design work of our own. Yet the snarls we encountered were bigger than the extra amount we budgeted. And our current new approach adds still more cost.

Despite these troubles, we’ve paid all our bills on time. But we’re about to hit a wall.

We need your help. We have the support of our wonderful monthly pledgers. But we need to do two things between now and June 30…

  • Add 31 new monthly pledgers.
  • Raise a mere $6,500 from those new pledges and one-time contributions.

That’s an incredibly modest amount given what we’re about to deliver. I hope that you can see that, despite the hardships, we’ve been shrewd and efficient with your support.

Will you update or start a new pledge? And if your pledge has lapsed, will you please renew it? Or…

Will you make a generous one-time contribution? In fact…

  • There are people reading this who can give a quarter, a third, half, or even all of our $6,500 goal. If you’re one of those people, will you please make that contribution now?
  • Every amount helps! Contributions of all sizes will likely be required to meet this humble goal. We need you to help us make lemonade!
  • And we’ll report back to you on our progress both with the new website and the fundraising.

Thank you for being a DC Downsizer,

Jim Babka, President

DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

If your comment is off-topic for this post, please email us at feedback@downsizedc.org

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