Wait, before you send our email address into the "block" category . . . The Fundraiser is complete.

In the past, we have usually held two fundraisers, one in the spring and one in the fall. The fundraisers generally last a month during which time we send around 5 emails, spread throughout the month.

Because you all helped make our Spring Fundraiser so successful, we wanted to see if we could skip a Fall Fundraiser and save you a month of emails. We hadn’t quite reached our 2007 financial goals, however, so we decided to have a quick fundraiser during November with a goal of $3000. Earlier this month, we sent an email to our past contributors offering them first chance at our remaining underwriting spots. Last week, we sent an email to our new 2007 subscribers, explaining a little about how we do our fundraisers and encouraging them to make a small contribution. Then, this week we sent out a major fundraising email to our entire list and a quick reminder about it today.

The two emails this week in quick succession may have annoyed some of you and made it feel like we were throwing more emails at you than normal. In the end, most of you received only two emails, some of you three and a few of you four.  We were trying to see if it was less painful to get them all at once and get them over with, or if it would be better to keep our past strategy of sending an email a week for a month period. If you have an opinion on the matter please post a comment so we’ll know.

A couple of people were annoyed enough that they asked to be taken off the subscription list and we don’t faul them for it. Our Inboxes get pretty full as well and with the amount of time it takes to get through all the junk we begin to wonder if emails are really a time-saver. We know they are a money-saver, though. Through the years we have managed to produce 15 Bytes with your financial support. And that support has come through our email solicitations. Normally, when an organization has a fundraiser they have to devote time and money to pulling off an event, including sending out invitations through the mail. Our email fundraisers mean we have zero overhead and that every dollar you send goes towards the programs we sponsor. While there is no overhead, that does not mean the fundraisers are cost-free. The cost is the annoyance you have to put up with from our email blitzes.

We appreciate that you have put up with us this far — for some of you it’s been six years! We make every effort to keep the emails to a minimum. If all goes well, we will only have one email blitz fundraiser in 2008. And if we’re really clever with our emails maybe we can keep them down to one or two and still achieve our goals.

We’d like to thank all those who have donated during this mini-fundraiser. As of Wednesday evening, we had raised around $2500, and if things go as they have in the past, we expect to see the remaining $500 in the next few days.

And to those we have bugged, sorry. If we can figure out a more effective, less bothersome way to meet our financial needs we’ll embrace it.

We thought about sending out this explanation in an email, but well . . .

Shawn Rossiter

The founder of Artists of Utah and editor of its online magazine, 15 Bytes, Shawn Rossiter has undergraduate degrees in English, French and Italian Literature and studied Comparative Literature in graduate school before pursuing a career in art.