General GRACE News
For the past 18 months, I’ve spent 1-3 hours of just about every day answering questions and writing new posts. As many people have noted, this time comes at the cost of personal time with my wife and children and other projects I do, including work I would be paid to do. I’m happy to do it, because I believe it’s important, and I can see that many people need the service. Every day, people offer their profound thanks. But GRACE actually needs more people to show some support; I feel like I’m nearly the only person really making a sacrifice, while many people are benefiting greatly. I have tried hard to not guilt people into providing support, but sitting by and waiting really doesn’t work. This money isn’t for me personally (I’m not planning to receive any money for my time on the site), but I need help from other people, and most of them will really need to be paid at least a modest amount to justify the time they’re not spending on other activities, many of which could pay better. And I, too, need to get a better signal that other people value this enough to actually contribute.
I and the board of GRACE have been discussing a couple of ideas for ways to show support in a more concrete way. One is to sponsor specific posts, for something like a scheduled donation of $25/month (or a discount for a yearly rate of $250). There will be a box message, with or without a picture of a person, saying that a certain post is provided through the generous sponsorship of Mrs. X, etc. Other people who want to have an even greater impact can sponsor entire categories or sections, or sponsor a position for an additional faculty member, such as a university’s endowed chair positions.
The second concept is to provide tribute messages, which will be on pages that are linked from our support section and include boxed messages of varying sizes, like buying an inscribed brick at the playground or an ad in the local school yearbook. These can range from a short message of support (”In honor of Mom’s great scans, March 2008″) or remembrance of someone, to larger boxes that can include significant text, pictures, whatever. The costs for such messages will likely start at $50 and go from there. These pages will be searchable, so you and others can always find your messages of support.
I want people to be able to point to something their contribution has enabled, to take pride in how their support is enabling GRACE to help other people. You can have your name or that of someone you love providing sponsorship of this critical education, and/or you can provide a tribute on those dedicated pages that provides a personalized message and communicates that you’ve supported this worthwhile effort.
You can provide comments after this post (click on the title to open up the comments), or you can e-mail me (west@cancergrace.org) with questions or comments or offerings. We’re building these mechanisms, and anyone who provides support now will have their contributions applied toward whatever they’d like to sponsor. We’re bringing in new people, but we need everyone’s support. Plenty of people gain valuable insight and support here. Please reciprocate by supporting GRACE.
Posted in: GeneralHi Dr. West,
I just wanted to encourage everyone who benefits from this site to support it financially. I have been trying to make a monthly donation (thanks for reminding me) and I also have been encouraging my family to donate in lieu of gifts that I really do not need. I cannot image the site going away and I am sure that most of your members feel the same. I think your ideas for getting support are great, but for me, I just want you to be able to keep doing what has become a lifeline for me and others. You are correct in that thanks are not enough and I feel that my donations in no way compensate for your time and expertize…but I will continue to support Grace and urge others to do so as well.
Myrtle
Dr. West:
As you know, I’ve advocated the “sponsor a post” method of support. This morning, to follow through, I sent a PayPal donation to cover the first few months of a sponsorship such as you describe in the second paragraph of your message. This can be something of a test run to work out the details, a post with provision for member comments/input on a subject of current interest to me and I’m sure to many others: management of Tarceva side effects.
What I have in mind is to send you an email summary of my experience with Tarceva side effects, what’s worked, and what I would have done differently if I’d known at the outset what I know now. You could incorporate that into a post with your own observations, then open the door for others to jump in with comments and tips. It could be a “go to” place, an up-to-date reference for those embarking on this useful but challenging therapy. Aloha,
Ned
Thank you both. I am very gratified to know that there are people who find the time and effort worthwhile, as I always hoped and expected it would be. My concern has been from a difficulty in getting a broader group of people to feel some commitment, and by that I mean two things:
1) members who can contribute something to help cover the expenses of ongoing improvements and just keeping the lights on, and also the next steps of adding features like recorded lectures and audio interviews to download
2) other experts who will really get bitten by the bug and remain motivated to participate over time
I’m glad there are people like you who are part of this too.
-Dr. West
I think it’s an important reminder to have a post like this explaining the time and energy that it takes to run a website/messageboard/non profit AND continue on with daily responsibilities of a demanding career and family. I know first hand how incredibly hard it is to start a non profit without financial support…if only our greatest intentions could pay the bills!
I want to thank Dr. West for all of his dedication and hard work. In over 5 years of supporting people affected by lung cancer at LCSC, I’ve never seen anyone (esp. a medical professional) as dedicated as Dr. West is. I brag about him all the time, but today I will put my money where my mouth is and make a donation! Wish it could be more but I promise when I win the lottery GRACE will get a huge check! (wink)
I don’t know if you send newsletters or mass e-mails to GRACE members, but maybe a monthly update on recent posts/articles and then a reminder to contribute to GRACE at the close of the message every month??….
Sometimes we just need a little reminder.
Dr. West,
I just read the above post for the first time a couple of days ago and have been giving it some thought. I’ll leave it to others to comment on the sponsorship and tribute ideas — they sound interesting to me. My main suggestion would be to keep any prospective schemes simple and easy to understand, and as quick to participate in as possible.
However, the main comment I’d like to make is that I think the current “donate” link on the forums is probably too low key. I realize that there’s a fine line between being modestly inobtrusive and appearing to hit people over the head with a message (especially on websites), but the “donate” link just seems too easy to overlook (or even ignore). I don’t know what the percentage of donations to visitors/commenters would be, but I’m guessing that it may not be all that high. I suspect there are a few reasons for this:
1.) People often come to websites that look “official” and just assume they’re being sponsored by some large organization - perhaps a hospital, a cancer association, etc… and don’t get it that their contributions are necessary and important to the site’s existence.
2.) They aren’t getting a strong enough reminder that it would be helpful if they made at least a modest contribution (I just jogged my own memory in that regard this morning!).
3.) It seems likely that a good number of the visitors to the forum are probably being financially squeezed by the circumstances surrounding the illness that they’re dealing with (we’re having plenty of “personal experience” with that at the moment). For the record, I’ve read some pretty distressing posts on the subject of finances on several other cancer forums, so I know this to be a big issue with patients and their caregivers. Nonetheless, I think most of us feel motivated to help out, even if it is just in a small way. With this point in mind, I think it would be good to be pretty upfront than *any* amount — no matter how modest — is a great help to ensuring the continued existence of cancergrace.org. To that end, perhaps it might be useful to have some kind of “brick in the wall” page where any contributor’s name is posted into some kind of graphic - an online version of the kinds of things you see at some cancer centers, or other public-supported facilities (with no donation being too small to qualify). I think something that is “visible” might work best as people do like to see that they’re part of something. All “bricks” would be the same size whether someone donates 2 bucks or 200. It’s the “being part of” that is important.
Just a last thought. I’ve had quite a bit to do with volunteer organizations over the years and it’s been my experience that it’s usually fairly difficult to do all that much grassroots fundraising. People do try to help out, but they’re being pulled in so many directions by many worthy organizations, that the money is spread around rather thinly. I do think it likely that adequate funding will probably have to rely on corporate sponsorship or donations. I hope that will be an eventuality so that the site can grow into all that you have envisioned for it.
bev
I’d like to expand on Bev’s paragraph 3. We have the “Our Supporters” page where contributors are grouped by their level of giving, and that’s fine, but the idea of a standard size “brick” (or other graphic) recognizing a contribution of ANY amount would be an excellent addition. Instead of a separate page which requires a click to get there, these bricks could be displayed in the unused left or right column space visible on practically any non-forum page. They could be listed in chronological order (most recent at the top) so the latest contributors would be visible regardless of how much or how little unused column space exists on a particular page. If a person has already contributed, a new contribution will bump him/her to the top of the list!
Aloha,
Ned
Great ideas! Thanks.
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