As the year closes out I would like to share some news on the Visual Editors fundraising effort - a vital function of our public charity. As you know this year we were granted 501(c)(3) status by the Internal Revenue Service allowing contributions from donors to qualify as tax deductions.
Here’s the official letter from the U.S. Treasury.
WHAT IS VISUAL EDITORS?
Visual Editors is a proven social and educational organization that may match many of your outreach goals.
- • It’s a 501(c)(3) educational charity
• Provides an engaging and interactive education for journalism scholars
• Has global reach every day with a targeted, influential niche audience
• Does not charge for any of it’s services.
Visual Editors is the online classroom and meeting hall where student and young journalists working in newsrooms around the world come to study the latest reporting, editing and design techniques, story forms, media trends, and interactive strategies.
WHY SHOULD I GIVE?
Aside from qualified tax deductibilty as a donor you get official recognition of your support on the site (if you desire) and the ability to see the impact of your gifts in students lives. In fact, it was the testimony from dozens of VizEds scholars that convinced the IRS that Visual Editors deserved to be classified as a public charity and education group.
Users get feedback on their work from working pros and other students and have an equal voice in every arena and are now writing high-profile blogs that are getting picked up by top journalism organizations like Poynter and Columbia Journalism Review.
Supporting Visual Editors has the potential impact of gaining instant global media awareness for your organization. Donors can always choose to remain anonymous.
• The Visual Editors peer-to-peer education concept has proven to be beneficial to student journalists and to make the workings of newsrooms more transparent to lay people. We use the latest Web 2.0 social networking tools to make the online experience rewarding and educational.
• Visual Editors reaches influential and hard-to-reach decision makers in print newsrooms around the world every day — designers, developers, media executives, editors, IT managers, and publishers check in to this very sticky online classroom.
• Visual Editors is the fundraising phase and is selectively seeking foundation gifts to the Visual Editors Endowment Fund that will provide a permanent financial trust to sustain the non-profit’s operations and future charitable activities. The IRS 501(c)(3) certification provides additional incentive for significant donations. There are specific events and sections of the Web site that can sponsors can support directly.
Bottom line
There are several targeted opportunities from sponsoring specific Web destinations on the Web site to underwriting VizEds events like workshops, scholarship drives and research projects where VizEds is leading the way in developing low-costs multimedia journalism.
And, of course we are looking for visionaries to make lasting contributions to seed the endowment fund that will allow Visual Editors to meet it’s operating expenses and allow other private donations to benefit the members with improved programming and support. Since it’s inception in 2004 - the administrative fees paid from funds raised has been $0. The executive director and board members have volunteered their expertise and invested their personal money and time to build this non-profit.
Some of the specific packages that sponsors can target include:
- 1) Scholarship fundraiser(s)
2) VizEds symposiums and workshops
2) Annual fundraiser lunch (2007 will be in Boston)
3) Special event multimedia projects Visual Editors will be directing at world-leading journalism workshops like the World Newspaper Congress and Society of News Design.
4) Job board page on Visual Editors (A high-profile destination)
5) The redesign blog (e.g. Currently Font Bureau is a sponsor)
6) The chat room
The impact of Visual Editors.
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Poynter review and comments from VizEds scholars
VizEds video reports from Moscow - World Newspaper Congress
World Digital Publishing Conference - London videos
Media Giraffe Project - University of Massachusetts
Online Journalism Review - Interview
Trends in Newsrooms - Our multimedia future A special report
At the Visual Editors fundraiser lunch in Orlando members raised $600 in cash that will be donated to the Visual Journalism scholarship at Eastern Illinois University. Recipents normally receive $400 from this scholarship but thanks to generous supports, next year that student will get $1,000.
Sponsors for the lunch event were the Font Bureau and Topix.net. Next year’s annual ‘lunch’ event is in Boston at the Society of News Design conference.
More statistics and details about Visual Editors
I am hoping that Visual Editors is making a good case here for your support.
Please contact us to answer any additional questions or to explore possible areas where we may customize your support in the future.
Robb Montgomery - Executive director
Let’s look a little closer into the new Gannett initiative — which I find very interesting. As the founder of Visual Editors I am obviously a fan and promoter of the concepts of interactive journalism and empowering the audience.
