I need advice on fundraising. If the Mt. Lebanon Commissioners do appeal the Office of Open Records Final Determination, it appears that I will need an attorney. For the first round in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, I need to raise $3500 to start. If there is an appeal after that, I will need additional funds for Commonwealth Court. Don't worry about me wasting taxpayers' money since the municipality has an annual contract with Buchanan Ingersoll. The appeals will come out of my pocket.
I have been looking into gofund me. They take 8%. It looks like fundrazr charges the same amount. I'm thinking of starting a paypal account instead. Anybody out there who could give me some friendly advice either here or privately at EGillen476@aol.com?
Update December 16, 2015 6:49 AM As of now, I have not been served. Mt. Lebanon has until December 24 to appeal to the Court of Common Pleas. I have decided to go with gofundme for the reasons that were mentioned in the comments. I do have a Paypal account, but I don't think is what I need in this situation. I don't want to go live until I am served, but we need help from someone who has some experience with gofundme and who can provide us some guidance with the nuts and bolts of gofundme.
The advantage of "Gofundme" is that you could link the media to the story, and it might go national ... then, anyone interested in supporting civil liberties and transparent government might support you. If you do go the Gofundme route, I would volunteer some time and efforts to assist in the larger campaign and specific press releases to local and national media outlets.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jason. Lots of people know about MtLebo's deer cull throughout the country and perhaps if info about the need for this funding is shared on Facebook, you will find a lot of support, hopefully, near and far.
ReplyDeleteI would go with the Gofundme route. People can share it on Facebook and Twitter and this will help to socialize and spread the word. It sucks they take out 8% but you will raise more rather than going with Paypal. Just my humble opinion. Otherwise, you can always start with Paypal and then move to Gofundme later. (I think Paypal takes a chunk too.)
ReplyDeleteDo PayPal. Small scale.
ReplyDeleteI think Gofundme too, for the reasons everyone above said. One question though: do you have to reach your goal to get any money raised, or can you get whatever is raised regardless?
ReplyDeleteNope. That is one of the things I checked. The fund must have $500 in it before it goes public on their list, however.
ReplyDeleteElaine
Also, I believe you can chose to return the money to donors if necessary by acquiring pledges that only go through once the campaign goal is met.
ReplyDeletePayPal--- as quietly as possible.
ReplyDeleteI agree with 11:06 on this one. It might be slower-going, but it retains the element of surprise and doesn't show your hand before you are ready to play your cards. Just saying...
ReplyDeleteUsing Go find me does publicize. Maybe keeping it quiet isn't the best way to go here. The purpose is to raise funds for Elaine's fees, so am not sure what benefit there is to keeping an element of surprise.
ReplyDeleteThe commissioners do not like being seen in a negative light. I may be wrong but am thinking the more negative publicity they receive, the better.
Don't make this easy for them!
Try Neighborhood Legal Services, they work on many cases pro bono. Also remember, the burden of proof is on MTL, not you, to argue why the previous ruling was incorrect. This isn't a trial de novo, it's up to MTL to successfully argue why the prior judge was wrong. If NLS won't take your case, you may want to consider a pro se approach while funding a further appeal (which will be $$$) in Commonwealth Court. All you'd have to do is argue the previous merits of the decision already in place.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand the quiet strategy (PayPal) vs. the loud strategy (Gofundme). Perhaps there is a good argument for quiet, but I don't see it. But I see lots of benefits of this going public--very public--big and far.
ReplyDelete