About the Fund Raising Campaign

The American Daffodil Society provides world wide internet services to the growing daffodil public. Our Global leadership through these unique services: Daffseek, Daffnet, Dafftube, Dafflibrary and more, continues as an often used and valuable asset to all daffodil enthusiasts throughout the world.

The current server is now over 8 years old and is becoming unreliable, requiring much more effort, both labor and travel, to operate. It is time to replace this server with new equipment to better match our increasing workloads.

Our Internet Services require support in three areas:

  1. Administration Labor
  2. Monthly Data Center Costs
  3. Capital Funding for Hardware and Software

Administration Labor

The ADS server is currently administrated by volunteers at no cost. I can personally say that Nancy Tackett and myself have dedicated thousands of hours to the management of our servers since 2000.

Our web sites have been supported by many volunteers who contributed as developers or editors, or by posting messages and photos.

I am the primary author of DaffSeek, which was introduced in 2006, and I continue to develop this site to be compatible with both desktop and mobile devices. Lachlan Keown of South Island, New Zealand, developed the pedigree charts for Daffseek.

Mary Lou Gripshover has worked for many years updating Daffseek cultivar data and is fully committed to adding historical and current documents to DaffLibrary.

Lynn Slackman now maintains our Daffodilusa.org site as well as Facebook content related to our services.

Monthly Data Center Costs

The ADS operating budget contains a majority of repeatable expenses and revenue. The monthly data center costs are funded by our operating budget with costs ranging from a $3,000 to $5,000 per year.

Capital Funding for Hardware and Software

The first server to operate the ADS internet services in 2000 was privately owned at no charge to the ADS. The ADS funded the current server in 2010 with costs charged against the operating budget over five years. This charge, combined with the monthly data center costs, were major expenses during that time and made it difficult for the ADS to achieve a balanced budget. Rather than paying for the new replacement equipment from our operating budget, we have decided to have a capital campaign to raise the needed funds.

Our goal is to raise $25,000, by year end. These funds will be used to:

  • replace the current equipment,
  • to provide a better back-up facility,
  • and to better match our increasing Internet workloads.

We are appealing to all ADS Regions, clubs and suppliers in this Country and to those across the world who use these services, to help us reach this goal.

If you feel as passionate as we do about Daffseek, Daffnet, DaffLibrary or any of our sites and want to help us maintain these services to the world, please donate.

You may donate for this fund raiser by using a Credit Card, PayPal, or a Check. If you reside outside the United States, you may prefer to use PayPal or a Credit Card.

Please donate via our web-store at: https://stores.daffodilusastore.org/fund-raiser-for-server/

11 comments for “About the Fund Raising Campaign

  1. Ben,

    Thanks for explaining the ADS fundraising campaign.  Many of us feel very passionate about our web resources, as I’m sure many on Daffnet do also.   Do you enjoy the photos posted by our photographers around the world of show winners?  Or maybe seeing the latest new seedlings?  Or do you enjoy sitting in on the “conversation” between hybridizers in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S.?  Does your club have a website that is hosted on the ADS server?  Maybe you’ll consider making a donation to help keep things running smoothly.  We can all watch the temperature rise in that thermometer at the top of the page. :-)

    Thanks, Ben, for all you do to keep everything running smoothly.

    Mary Lou

  2. BIG Ditto what Mary Lou says, and hopefully you and Nancy won’t have to work quite so hard with the new server!

    I am going to suggest that the Daffodil Societies, both here and abroad, consider making a donation on behalf of their memberships who may not see the daffnet posting themselves. This may also prevent DaffSeek.org from being a subscription service, which is one of the (many) ways being discussed to finance the computer side of ADS.

    Suzy

  3. Excellent post, Ben.  What a concise explanation!  I’m certain the Greater St. Louis Daffodil Society will participate in the fund drive, as will I, and I hope that everyone who uses the American Daffodil Society’s (ADS) amazing online suite of free information will participate to keep these options fully functional.  As a member of many plant societies, I can attest that there is no better and more user-friendly resource base than what the ADS has created.

    If I may:

    1. How much has the donate tab, featured on the various ADS sites, generated to fund these online services over the years?
    2. Of these donations, how many originate from unique users who may not be members of ADS (and other national daffodil organizations) but use our services for their benefit?
    3. Of the cost of an ADS membership, what percentage of this fee is earmarked for online support?  (These are questions for the Finance Committee, too, I suppose.)

    It appears you’ve somewhat reconfigured the sites to feature the fundraiser campaign; otherwise, I only readily notice Help Support DaffNet–Join the American Daffodil Society as the obvious header tab to click to contribute.  But for the casual user who may not be as daff-centric as members of various national daffodil organizations, is there a way to have a simple and ongoing “Please Donate to Support DaffNet (DaffSeek, DaffLibrary, etc.) to Keep This Service Free for All”–or something similar–tab, so that it doesn’t immediately appear that one needs to join the ADS to simply support this online service?  I realize one can find a “donate” link at the very bottom of the “Join the American Daffodil Society” tab’s page, but many users won’t read that far, let alone tick the tab that says “Join”; memberships can be daunting.   Is this a possibility going forward, following the campaign (and during?), to modify the way we approach potential donors, if only for the online services they most frequently use and not for an ADS membership?  At the very least, could such an immediately visible tab be added to the hand-held device format for DaffSeek?  I very rarely use my computer–my smartphone is my go-to device–and the vast majority of my DaffSeek use is conducted through the phone.  And I’m not alone.   It could benefit from a donate tab on its main search screen.

    As ever, keep up the good work, each and every one of you who contribute to this invaluable endeavor.

    Jason

  4. It may be of interest to know that at our recent Fall Social NCDS voted to contribute $1000 toward the new servers. Our website is hosted on these servers. If each local or national society so hosted could contribute similarly, that would be about what is needed.
    Melissa Reading
    in Northern California

    Sent from my iPhone

  5. Check written happily as I am a huge Daffseek user. Thanks for explaining the need. Being sent to:
    ADS Executive Director
    Frank Nyikos,
    8374 E State Rd 45
    Unionville, IN 47468

    Sent from my iPhone


    Image1

  6. Daffseek and others are fableous, I will see what I can do in Europe.

    Success Ben ao.

    Kind regards Jan Pennings

    Verstuurd vanaf mijn Phone

  7. It looks like this very worthwhile campaign is off to a great start.  The Middle Tennessee Daffodil Society is sending a donation.  We hope others will contribute whatever you can to keep the incredible ADS educational resources available to the public.  Also, a huge THANK YOU to all the volunteers who keep these resources going!

  8. The Washington Daffodil Society enthusiastically supports this campaign and as they say “The check is in the mail!”

  9.  

    The South Western Ohio Daffodil Society (SWODS) members unanimously decided to send a healthy check to this project.  The check is in the mail !

    Every one of us uses at least one of the DaffNet offerings regularly.

    In addition, we are proud  of our members, Mary Lou Gripshover and Tom Stettner, for their work on project DaffNet and chose to support their efforts.

    A big  ‘Thank You‘  to Ben Blake for bringing this worthy fundraiser to our attention and to all those who have made it such a success.

     

    Linda

  10. The red line on the thermometer is slowly creeping upward!  Let’s keep it going!

    Mary Lou

     

  11. It’s good to see the red line on the thermometer is up to 60%!  So we’re getting there, slowly but surely.  Many thanks to those who have already donated.  It’s not too late to donate and help us reach our goal.

    Mary Lou

Comments are closed.