The QuakerQuaker community is amazing. Last Thursday I sent an email appeal out after my laptop died. The response has been amazing! In just this week, 62 people have donated a little over $3000. That's amazing, and I feel very humbled. I have replacement equipment and have been able to pay off many of outstanding communication bills. Thank you all so very much!

The overwhelmingly-positive response answers two of the most pressing questions I had posed: Is this a project that readers want to support? Answer: YES! f so, how can we organize that support? I had been considering trying out a optional subscription paywall but that now seems unnecessary. There's such a groundswell of support that I think a twice-annual "Pledge Week" kind of drive would work well. I like the idea of keeping the site as open as possible so that newcomers can engage quickly and easily with the Quaker conversations.

Now that the immediate dead-equipment crisis is over, the major ongoing need is for regular monthly donations. If enough of these come in to cover the regular bills and cover a bit of staffing time, then I can spend more weekly time hosting discussions, conducting reader polls, maybe having weekly interview of community member. There are a number of ways we could consciously build the community--and use it to help build the Religious Society of Friends.

If any of you who have donated or have thought about donating want to help out this way, the easiest thing to do is to the you go to the QuakerQuaker donation page at http://www.quakerquaker.org/donate. There you'll see a drop-menu for monthly subscriptions. The amounts listed are $3, $10, $25, and $50. These also go through Paypal, which makes them super-convenient, as most of the monthly bills are tied to the Paypal debit card. Money comes in and goes out and I can keep focused on the community-building work.

A Friend emailed me earlier today saying he is planning on moving to a city and country where there isn't a nearby Friends meeting. He's considering switching some or all of his current meeting support ($50) over to QuakerQuaker. It's an interesting idea and would be quite wonderful. But most of all I see it as a sign of how web communities are maturing. They're not a novelty anymore. They are growing into yet another tool for supporting the wider Friends movement and reaching out to new seekers.

Thank you all for the support you've given. I'm going to be spending the next few weeks writing many thank-you emails and notes. I feel blessed.
In Friendship,
Martin Kelley