The blegging will continue until morale improves

I see that with two days to go, the Center for a Stateless Society's May fundraiser remains far short of meeting its goal.

A few months ago, the Center changed fundraising tacks: Instead of raising funds each quarter in advance for what it intended to do, it began raising funds each month for what it had actually done.

In May, the Center published 29 commentaries and seven feature articles. These weren't random blog posts, they were commissioned pieces keyed to current events and written for the purpose of building public awareness of, and support for, market anarchism.

In May, the Center also increased its investment in developing the Stateless University program. That program's pilot session began in March. Its second, expanded session starts in July. Stateless University will culminate in a certificate program including six required classes and a variety of electives.

Finally in May, the Center promoted me from within to spearhead a media outreach program. Writing the articles isn't enough. We have to take a serious approach to getting those articles published in "mainstream media" -- newspapers, magazines, etc. -- and getting our people onto talk radio and news television to discuss the issues the articles address.

My new job and its new pay didn't start until June 1st, but the Center paid up-front for two essential tools: A "pro" membership with a media list provider, and a phone for me to answer "Center for a Stateless Society, this is Tom, how may I help you" when the media responds to our op-ed submissions, guest pitches, etc.

To see the results of my new work so far, read my first report to the Center's supporters.

The Center's May fundraising goal, exclusive of recurring pledges, is $1,235 by June 9th. Next month it will be more, but still probably less than $2,000.

I cringe every time I make cross-institution comparisons, but they're worth making:

Last time I noticed, the Cato Institute's budget was about $18 million per year.

AntiWar.Com asks its supporters for $70,000 per quarter.

Both of those institutions do good and important work. C4SS is doing good and important work, too, and we're doing it on, by comparison, a shoestring. Please help us tie that shoestring.