Give a little, help a lot
February 5, 2009
Many, many of you have asked me to add a “donation” button, so you could help BookMooch grow by giving a little bit of money.
You will now find a “Give” button in the main member menu. Any questions, please ask away on this blog entry.
I’ve made a page at BookMooch all about this new “Give a little” idea.
Finally! We’d be happy to help out.
I am guessing the $$ amounts on the linked paged are in US dollars? Might be good to clarify…
re: currency in USD?
You can choose whether you want to give in US Dollars, Euros or UK Pound Sterling. There is a drop down choice of currency symbols. It doesn’t have to be in dollars.
-john
Yeah, but the $ symbol isn’t clear. They could be Canadian or Australian dollars…
You should also note that when people navigate to a particular book on Amazon through BookMooch, then BUY that book on Amazon during the same session, Book Mooch gets money. If moochers can remember that little extra step before buying, it would probably also increase income a fair amount (in addition to little gifts).
Drop down is where again please.
Not finding it on my member page. If you can walk me thru where to find it.
Tnx for this great idea.
Thanks John! I’ve always felt awful that you’ve had to pay so much for the mooch cards and now the bookmarks so this is a nice way for those of us who can give back a little bit to do so.
Thanks John- another great idea!
The “give a little” page is found either from clicking the “give” button at the bottom of your member menu:
http://bookmooch.com/m/
or go directly to this page:
http://bookmooch.com/m/give_a_little
the “drop down” choices for the currency you prefer are just to the left of the amount.
Mikko, thanks for the “Yeah, but the $ symbol isn’t clear.” comment, I’ve now added USD/EUR/GBP to the label, so it’s clearer.
Really glad to be able to do something fiscal to mark my appreciation of this place. More particularly, the incredible generosity that you’ve always shown, John. Not just your money, but your time. So thank you. (Ka-ching!)
Hi!
It’s impossible to donate 20 USD (or 20 anything), it becomes
30 USD instead when going to Paypal.
“You should also note that when people navigate to a particular book on Amazon through BookMooch, then BUY that book on Amazon during the same session, Book Mooch gets money. If moochers can remember that little extra step before buying, it would probably also increase income a fair amount (in addition to little gifts).”
I would love to help out in this way, but I rarely buy from amazon because of their relatively high postage charges to Europe. If only bookmooch could be linked to play.com, which does not charge postage at all, and from which I buy books all the time.
Any chance you could add a scale or something showing how many members have donated and what the total donated is? (If that’s not a lot of work…)
Great idea overall, thank you very much for adding it!
I was just thinking that I wish that there were a way for you to automatically get even one cent for each book mooched that you’d have had quite a bit by now and no one would even miss the penny! I didn’t see a way to make a one time payment, I guess that would be to mail a check.
im glad to give a little back, i love this site, thanks for all your hard work John, we really appreciate it
I love the amount choices!! I’m so glad you did this. Thanks to you, and to Mark and all the other volunteers. I don’t know how you keep it running as well as it does with all the traffic.
Glad to be able to help keep BM going great guns. I’ve been having a ball this past year with it and spent a big chunk of money on postage. Nevertheless, I’ve met some really great folks (worldwide) through sharing books, I’ve expanded my reading horizons considerably while thoroughly enjoying the banter in the BM Forum every day. My check will be in the mail on Monday. Thanks John for giving the world BookMooch.
Is our cash donation tax deductible?
Hi John. Where’d the one-time give a little option go? I was about to give but then it’s not there anymore. Thanks!
Over on the nanowrimo site, if you donate money you get a cheesy little icon next to your name, I think it is a halo. Have you thought about doing something like that here, maybe an icon of the little alien bookreading guy next to our nickname….
http://www.nanowrimo.org/
Make checks out to BookMooch or John Buckman?
It’s impossible to donate 20 USD (or 20 anything), it becomes 30 USD instead when going to Paypal.
I’ve fixed that.
Any chance you could add a scale or something showing how many members have donated and what the total donated is? (If that’s not a lot of work…)
I wanted to do that, but it’s a lot of work, because Paypal’s way of telling me about subscriptions starting & being cancelled is very complicated, and sometimes paypal delays payments for days because of pending bank wires, and then cancels the payment a few days later.
So far, I’ve received about $400 in on-time donations, and $71 in monthly gifts.
Is our cash donation tax deductible?
No.
Where’d the one-time give a little option go?
I removed the one-time gift option, because I got a bunch of emails asking “which is better for you, $30 now or $3/month?” and I asked around to other friends who run non-profits (such as the Open Rights Group) and all the advice I got was that a very-small-amount every month is best.
Make checks out to BookMooch or John Buckman?
BookMooch
Julia wrote:
Over on the nanowrimo site, if you donate money you get a cheesy little icon next to your name, I think it is a halo. Have you thought about doing something like that here, maybe an icon of the little alien bookreading guy next to our nickname….
I agree, and I do that now. If you “give a little” then :
a) your bio page says “I give a little” bright purple text. See for example: http://bookmooch.com/m/bio/buckman_ca
b) the mooch requests the system sends out via email include the words “I give a little” (and a link explaining that), so that people getting your mooch requests know that you’re an especially good moocher.
c) more to come… (probably, postings on the upcoming forums feature will include this too)
John, I’m on it. I’ll send monthly checks in the amount of $10. I use bookiemooch a lot, and I love it. I’d hate to see it become commercial. Thanks so much for what you have done. I love what you created.
I love the idea of a little icon when you donate! Bookcrossing does the same–you get “wings”.