Funferal

K5 update

As a follow on to yesterday’s rumination on Kuro5hin‘s fundraising effort, its interesting to see the decision to change the target level to $35,000, and progress matters over the next 6 months.I should stress that I have no doubt that Rusty is proceeding in good faith. However, its obvious that the various developments are happening very much on a reactive rather than proactive basis. I would hazard a guess, also, that non-profit, and indeed participatory, ventures are a relatively new experience for all those involved with the site.The constant changing of targets runs the risk of alienating donors, though the fact that many donors are actually receiving fixed goods, such as text ads and “memberships” should aleviate this. The problem, however, is that if the most ardent supporters are taking out annual memberships now, they won’t do so again at a drive in 6 months, so it may be difficult to raise the same amount at that point in time.At least one reader has assumed that members will have a governance role, though there has been no mention of this from Rusty.The whole situation raises, however, an issue to which I alluded in passing yesterday. This is the quite complex matter of the role of pre-eminent members in an evolving organisation, in particular one which is developing along participatory lines. Small organisations are often founded through the persistance of one or more individuals. The move towards a democratic framework can be difficult: if the group is too immature (to use a vague term) it cannot support formal structures. The transition requires care, and I hope to add some thoughts on this soon. Any comments are of course welcome.I also hope to add some more ideas on funding models. There’s enough experience out there to show what works, and why…