the United Kingdom has for quite a time now been at the head of the field in exploring how the digital environment can be used by the humanities. The last ten years has seen Intute, GalaxyWeb, Transcribe Bentham, and many, many more cutting edge projects come out of JISC and other government department funded projects. Some have survived while others have not.
One might think that in the face of major budget cuts new digital humanities efforts would grind to a halt. No, not for the British. This morning a new website wedidthis.org.uk was announced. The premis of this project is that donors will contribute to projects and the larger their contribution the larger the reward is for the donor. So, say you give 500,00 dollars (I'm completely making these numbers up) you may get to weigh in with your decisions on how the conductor has the orchestra perform the piece, or which 4 items of 20 get digitized for a specific topic of an online exhibit. Donors who contribute a million dollars may get to choose 4 items of 20 preselected items and are invited to a champagne reception for the launch of the exhibit with the composer or author. Of course, I'm completely making up these dollar figures and scenarios but it there really is a point here. Why throw obscene amounts of money at potential donors in an effort to get their donations when you can pay for a donor party with their own, prepaid, donation? Ummm, remind anyone of the adage 'Why pay for what you're already getting for free?'!
How many institutions do you know that have members groups or friends groups that they perpetually ask for money but the donors get little or nothing in return? Moving this aspect of institutional fundraising online eliminates the highly expensive dinners, receptions, galas and other events that institutions put on to invite potential donors to their institution to show them what they do and entice them to contribute to it AND it gives donors a greater reward for their generosity.
If you are skeptical that this may actually work I invite you to check out The White Review. The White Review, an art and ideas magazine, is a product of cowdsource funding by wefund.co.uk.
Brilliant... but the Brits always are.
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