[CIMC-working] FW: [Imc-finance] personal note on fundraising

[Chris Kaihatsu]

------ Forwarded Message
From: breitbart@indymedia.org
Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 18:00:43 -0500
To: imc-finance@indymedia.org
Subject: [Imc-finance] personal note on fundraising

Hello, imc-finance. I=92m a former member of this list. I left when I moved
away
from New York City and felt I couldn=92t represent the NYC IMC any longer. Bu=
t
I
stayed involved in www-features -- where I still spend most of my Indymedia
time
-- and I got involved with the then-new Michigan IMC. Now I=92m back in New
York,
my home town, getting reacquainted with the NYC IMC and working on some
non-Indymedia independent media projects. I=92m not sure who=92s on this list,
but I
know I=92ve met at least some of you in my travels. To the rest, nice to meet
you.

Even though I am not on this list, I am involved in fundraising efforts tha=
t
intend to support the Indymedia network. I am not trying to raise money for
=93Indymedia,=94 but for local IMCs and complementary projects. Since some
people
have asked questions about how and why I and others are doing this, I
figured I
should offer an answer. I don=92t speak for anyone else here. I=92m just trying
to
tell you as much of what I know and think about this while still being
clear.
Please accept my apologies in advance for being monolingual and lengthy.

One recent fundraising effort was a letter of intent submitted to the
Threshold
Foundation for an =93Indymedia Growth in Africa Project.=94 This letter was
recently
accepted by Threshold, which means they now want a full proposal. The grant
would be for $16,500 that would go to travel and equipment for African IMCs=
,
technical development/support (specifically the U-C IMC wireless project),
and
general operating expenses at the U-C IMC. I prepared this letter in
consultation with the U-C IMC finance group. We are reaching out to people
from
the IMCs in Nigeria and South Africa to help with this next stage.

The second proposal is to the Open Society Institute, funded by the
capitalist
George Soros. A program officer there indicated a willingness to fund some
projects =96 summaries for Indymedia=92s many lists, an encuentro, North/South
tech
trainings, some software development =96 that could really help Indymedia wor=
k
more efficiently and cultivate leadership outside of the United
States-Canada-Europe-Australia axis. The ideas for these projects have been
around for quite some time, but haven=92t been acted on probably because they
require money. So a handful of people who are keen to these issues, have
struggled with Indymedia finances before, and could come together to develo=
p
a
proposal in a short timeframe (two weeks) dove in to do this. This grant
could
be for as much as $60,000.

For both of these things, I ask everyone to keep your fingers crossed. We
are
talking about very useful sums of money leaving the United States to do ver=
y
useful things in the South. Both of these proposals are technically project=
s
of
the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center, which has 501(c)3 tax exempt
status in the United States (which is required to receive funds from
foundations). It has also shown itself to be very willing and able to
coordinate
international funding efforts -- something other local IMCs, Seattle for
instance, have done with some success, but that the network as a whole has
shown
itself completely incapable of doing.

Given the network=92s geographical diversity and disparate views on money, I
don=92t
see how the network will or even should become capable of handling
international
finance. The better way seems to be for a local IMC or a few IMCs to
initiate
projects to benefit some or all of the network. I think this is as true whe=
n
it=92s the Tech Collective taking paypal donations to buy a new server or the
New
York City IMC raising a few hundred dollars for the Jerusalem IMC or when
it=92s
the U-C IMC raising thousands of dollars for Indymedia in Africa. The scale
is
different, but the principle is the same.

I think imc-finance should be a place where local IMCs share information
about
emergency needs, best practices for local sustainability, and international
funding projects (so we don=92t all wind up working to support some IMCs or
regions to the exclusion of others). What to do with the 40 or so thousand
dollars in the =93global=94 bank account is an interesting mental exercise, but
really more of a distraction. I say, give the $35,000 back to Chumbawumba
with a
list of local IMCs that could use it to the network=92s benefit, spend the
balance
on securing the domain name for the next 100 years, and then let=92s get down
to
business.

I also think that there are some projects best kept out of Indymedia
entirely,
even if they seem highly complementary. Indymedia is great =96 working with
all of
you and even just looking at the portal and local pages are the highlights
of my
day (even of this part of my life) =96 but it has some obvious dysfunctions.
It
has worked amazingly well for some specific things, but it can=92t solve all
of
the problems the world faces, even all of the media problems. We need to be
building off of the lessons of Indymedia without building onto Indymedia.

This was one of the things that motivated me to help start Allied Media
Projects, a 501(c)3 devoted to participatory media with a focus on the
United
States. We (the editors of Clamor Magazine, who founded AMP) sometimes
describe
our goal as doing for filmmaking, music production, book and magazine
publishing, and web design what Indymedia has done for journalism. Indymedi=
a
is
a great alternative to CNN, but I don=92t think Indymedia can encompass those
other fields, and we need to press forward on all fronts if we are to take
on
omni-media empires like News Corp and AOLTimeWarner. AMP may recruit people=
,
utilize distribution pipelines, and draw inspiration from Indymedia, but it
is
completely separate, with its own applications, foibles, and challenges.

Many of the people working on the OSI grant have a similar idea and are
working
to establish an organization called the Tactical Media Fund to support
international media engaged in the struggle for justice and against
corporate
control. As with AMP, Indymedia fits squarely within TMF=92s purview (or will=
,
once TMF has a structure and a mission statement), but it intends to range
beyond Indymedia. For now, the TMF is a project of the Urbana-Champaign IMC=
,
with a focus on initiatives that will enhance Indymedia=92s impact and
increase
its efficiency.

As I find myself working, to a greater or lesser extent, to build and
sustain
each of these organizations =96 AMP, TMF, the U-C IMC =96 I get asked why I
don=92t
focus on one. The bottom line for me is not about which organization does
what,
but what=92s the best way to achieve global justice. Trying to fund Indymedia
projects through the global network is not the best way to do that. We need
multiple tools for multiple tasks.

Those of us who truly love Indymedia and have devoted  chunks of our lives
to it
sometimes forget that Indymedia is just one small part of a very big
project.
One day Indymedia won't feel so unique. One day Indymedia will be a node on
a
bigger network, as local media makers are to a local IMC and local IMCs are
to
Indymedia. So instead of trying to perfect every element of Indymedia let=92s
refine its ability to provide a global, internet-based communications syste=
m
and
to deliver immediate, street level news. And let=92s incubate other projects
to
solve other problems. We need two, three, many Indymedias to accomplish our
true
goals.



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