Last year, in a technological arms race we’d been winning for years, Congress passed us by.
Our Educate the Powerful System (ETP) delivers your letter to the WEBFORM located on the web pages of your Representative and two Senators. You don’t have to go to all three websites and send three different letters. You send one letter. Our ETP delivers it to three different web forms.
But we discovered that a California Congressman’s office had put in place a technological barrier (a new type of CAPTCHA). His constituents couldn’t use the ETP to deliver a message to him. This barrier was considerable. After talking to our staff programmer, then two more besides, we were stunned to learn two things:
- Building a solution would be complex. No one would give us a set price for success. This was a “time and materials” job. When you’re solving a puzzle “it costs what it costs.”
- A programmer, trying to be helpful, suggested that perhaps we might want to set a cap on the project. We could pull the plug when the billing hit $10,000. In other words, there was no guarantee of success. We might spend considerable money and still not solve the problem.
Things got worse…
We discovered that a Senator’s office added this same barrier. Then, another House office did so. That was the beginning of a trend.
But things got still worse…
That same Senator’s office added a second barrier! And this was no mere hurdle.
- The good news was that there was an obvious solution to this second barrier.
- The bad news was, we would have to practically build a new system, from scratch. If past experience was any guide, that might cost us $40,000 and about a year’s worth of effort.
Was this the end of DownsizeDC.org?
THEN WE DISCOVERED A SOLUTION.
Someone else has built the tools we need! They have solved these problems. Acquiring their system will cost us just $12,000 per year. You see, as a commercial provider of this service, they could profitably spread the costs for their solution over many clients. However…
We’ve been in business for nearly 12 years. That means we have data and processes we need to maintain. To accommodate this new system, we also need to set up some infrastructure on our end. This will be a one-time, capital investment. We estimate that it will cost an additional $26,000 for one-time development work.
$12k + $26k = $38,000 TOTAL… With guaranteed success at overcoming these barriers.
Things get better…
To get started, we went to some of our VIP donors. And they’ve supplied us with more than $15,000 thus far! As of right now, we only need $23,000 to complete this project.
Things get even better…
We acquired the system!
There are so many benefits to YOU — 16 of them, actually — that we’re going to take a handful of messages to tell you all about them. Plus…
In our next message, we’ll tell you the name of this system. Stay tuned!
In the meantime…
We need your help to set up the back-end infrastructure to launch this brand new website. We’ve developed a three-stage implementation plan.
Any money you contribute to this appeal will go towards that programming project, because…
One major donor and our present monthly pledgers are paying the bills that allow us to keep working on projects like the One Subject at a Time Act, 28 pages, and the Free Competition in Currency Act.
But that’s not all!
When we launched Downsize DC, we memorialized the Founders. Twelve years have gone by, and they’re still listed on our About Us page! And they will be there on the new site too.
You can see their names at the bottom of this message. Getting on that list required a minimum contribution. But, if you make any contribution to this effort…
We will announce your name at the bottom of these emails. Help us fill the box below.
Plus…
We will create a new acknowledgment list for the website. It will be called, “Refounders – 2016” There, donors 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.
Thank you for being a DC Downsizer,
Jim Babka & Perry Willis
Downsize DC