I'm amazed it makes due with so little. But the level of donations also goes to show you how little people care about its mission (which is unfortunate), slacktivists on HN and Reddit aside.
Electronic Frontier Foundation Survives on $5M/year
31–40 of 53 posts
Re: Electronic Frontier Foundation Survives on $5M/year
#32Just got off my lazy butt and added a recurring donation equal to 1% of my monthly income. Will you do the same?
Re: Electronic Frontier Foundation Survives on $5M/year
#33I'd love to begin making small monthly payments to the EFF, but here's my hurdle: I don't like authorizing anybody (not even the EFF) to charge my VISA more than once. And I don't like having PayPal take a cut when the money's going to a charity. In my home country, I do regular donations to charities by setting up an automated transfer in my bank, hence "pushing" the money. I prefer having nothing "pulled", even by…
I'm sure if you have your bank mail them a check every month, they'll cash it.
Haha, sometimes the US-European disconnect is very cute. I mean no offense, but checks went out of use in my country like 20 years ago. (Anectodally, they can still be cashed, for a service fee of $30 or so). Oh, and mailing something to the US would alone be more than PayPal's cut.
Re: Electronic Frontier Foundation Survives on $5M/year
#34I'd love to begin making small monthly payments to the EFF, but here's my hurdle: I don't like authorizing anybody (not even the EFF) to charge my VISA more than once. And I don't like having PayPal take a cut when the money's going to a charity. In my home country, I do regular donations to charities by setting up an automated transfer in my bank, hence "pushing" the money. I prefer having nothing "pulled", even by…
You can donate through Flattr, too: https://flattr.com/profile/EFF
Nice! Do you know how much of a cut Flattr takes? Wikipedia suggests 10%, which is just too much.
Hey, EFF, if you ever read this: An option for being sent an email monthly with a link to a one-click payment of the same amount as last month would get people like me donating!
Re: Electronic Frontier Foundation Survives on $5M/year
#35many years ago both me and my partner decided we should donate 1% of our earnings to some good cause (there seems to be a common 'meme' of giving one percent of earnings - googling turns up a lot of different ideas). it was a good idea, and we did it once, i think, before forgetting. then a few years passed, we remembered, and did it once again. and then a few more years passed and we felt bad and got our acts togeth…
Yes, it's a very old meme. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tithe And I'd consider putting 10% of my income towards social good a much better goal. It's not one that I always hit, but I think almost all of us could stand to carve this portion of our income out of our budgets, especially when it can so greatly benefit the causes we really care for. EFF is certainly one of mine.
I agree. I give anything I make that is over the median income level in the US to charities or kickstarters, which is currently about 50% of my income. I just made 1% of that EFF. Maybe this is not desirable for most hackernews readers, but carving out a fixed percentage of your income is a good way to fund projects you care about.
Re: Electronic Frontier Foundation Survives on $5M/year
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can donate through Flattr, too: https://flattr.com/profile/EFF
Nice! Do you know how much of a cut Flattr takes? Wikipedia suggests 10%, which is just too much. Hey, EFF, if you ever read this: An option for being sent an email monthly with a link to a one-click payment of the same amount as last month would get people like me donating!
I've read 10% too, yes.
I don't think that's too much though. It's not just a tool to donate, they provide the infrastructure for an alternative model to earning a living online. Their approach replaces the incentive to create artificial scarcity by an incentive to share. I would love to live in a society that worked like this.
Try to put some credit on a flattr account and donate to a few projects you like, I think you will get a better feel of what I meant. : )
Re: Electronic Frontier Foundation Survives on $5M/year
#37The question nobody is asking: would more money help?
Re: Electronic Frontier Foundation Survives on $5M/year
#38While I love, love, love the EFF, I'd also really like to point out that Public Knowledge are another, lesser known non-profit fighting for your rights and doing incredible work.
Unfortunately the tech community is much less aware of their existence. Public Knowledge are the folks who work day to day in DC lobbying for tech policy. While EFF lead efforts around activism and the legal side, they decided years ago that they wouldn't be involved in the DC side of things. And while being uncompromising is a great ethical position to take, actually making things happen on the ground is crucial.
I spent the last week taking meetings with staffers in DC around §1201 reform for my project, FixtheDMCA.org, and PK set up a dozen meetings with judiciary committee staffers with a weeks notice. They're well-respected in DC, and were critical behind the scenes in organizing the anti-SOPA/PIPA campaign.
Take a minute, read about them, and donate now:
Re: Electronic Frontier Foundation Survives on $5M/year
#39The nice thing about donating to an org with a small budget (unlike, say, a presidential campaign or your alma mater) is that you feel your contribution makes a real difference to them.
For example, for a large-but-imaginable donation of ~$2500 you can fund their entire operation for an hour — and that's assuming 2000 business hours in a year (the cost per hour is a lot less if you amortize over evenings and weekends :)).
Re: Electronic Frontier Foundation Survives on $5M/year
#40I'd love to begin making small monthly payments to the EFF, but here's my hurdle: I don't like authorizing anybody (not even the EFF) to charge my VISA more than once. And I don't like having PayPal take a cut when the money's going to a charity. In my home country, I do regular donations to charities by setting up an automated transfer in my bank, hence "pushing" the money. I prefer having nothing "pulled", even by…
Set aside the money every month, then make one lump donation?