2021 Fundraiser

[Helene]

It's that time of year, when we ask for your support to keep Ballet Alert! up and running.

We ask yearly for just enough to pay for the Ballet Alert! and Ballet Talk for Dancers sites, bank fees, and payment processing fees for the next year.  These are about 4K in total, which is a formidable amount.  We are asking each person who uses the site to consider contributing $20, but we do understand that everyone is still being asked for contributions from every direction: from arts organizations, from relief organizations, to support local businesses, and that personal finances can be precarious, with job security still an issue, too. 

We keep the sites up as long as we have funds to support them, and we hope that we'll have enough support to keep us running until 2022, when, hopefully, we'll be able to be in theaters in person.  We'll also keep the links up here, even if they disappear from our home screen.  

If you are seeing this on your mobile phone or tablet using the software's mobile view, you'll need to scroll to the bottom to see the widget and links.

PayPal:

PayPal has finally freed our bank account to be linked to a business account, and you no longer need a PayPal account to contribute.

If you're able to use the widget that PayPal has provide, please:

1. Fill in your username
2. Fill in the contribution amount
3. Select one of the payment options:
   1. PayPal, if you want to use your PayPal account
      1. This will open up a separate PayPal screen.
   2. Pay Later, if you have a PayPal account and PayPal deems this eligible
   3. Debit or credit card -- select this option if you don't have/want to use a PayPal account
      1. This will open up boxes that appear to be on our site, but are actually embedded and controlled by PayPal.

If standard ad blocking is making the PayPal controls inactive.  this is the live link:

 https://paypal.me/BalletTalk?locale.x=en_US

We'd appreciate it if you'd enter your login name in the notes or memo field.  This will open up a separate PayPal screen.

Edited to add:  If you prefer to donate directly from inside the PayPal application, from the "Send & Receive" option, please use the following email address as the recipient:

contactbabtford@gmail.com

Zelle:

Since many people have the Zelle option through their banks and credit unions, we've set up our bank account to receive payments through the email option at

bt4d.ba@gmail.com. 

If you do use Zelle, especially if you are using it for the first time, we'd appreciate it if you'd either reply to this thread to confirm that you did use Zelle -- you don't have to specify any amount -- or PM me, since none of the comments are transmitted to our bank, Bank of America.

Update: I just found where the Zelle email notifications were being sent, and they include any notes you send us, including your user names, even if they're not included on our bank statement.  Thank you to everyone who contacted me before I figured this out!

Checks:

The box is no longer available.

[Helene]

I'd like to thank everyone who has contributed so far.

At least for as long as I can remember -- although my memory is getting increasingly spottier after what seems like three years of February 30th -- we haven't acknowledged our donors by name in this thread for privacy reasons, and it's been a while since people have posted replies to our announcement threads that they've sent checks, etc., 

But we appreciate every last dime to keep the site going .

[Helene]

After the first two weeks, we're at the 40% mark, and we'd like to thank the generous members who've donated so far.

We understand there have been a lot of asks and need especially over the last year and that everyone's circumstances are different.

We keep asking until we have enough to support us through the next year, and hope that if you can, you'll consider us.

[vipa]

Thank you for the reminder Helene.

[Helene]

Thank you and everyone who has contributed since for responding so quickly .

[Helene]

The update is that after two months, we're at the 60% mark, which will get us through early Fall.

We really appreciate everyone who has contributed to date: we have many long-time supporters, who are the foundation of our site.

We also know that everyone's circumstances are different, and that are are many, many asks for extremely good causes.  But if you were planning to contribute, we'd really appreciate if you would soon, so that we can close the fundraiser for the year.

Thank you!

[Helene]

We're coming up to Memorial Day, and our Fundraiser has ground to a halt, leaving us with enough funds to get through 2021.  We've never had to stop the fundraiser and do another later in the year, but the holiday season is not a viable or fair time to restart.

We already have had very generous support this year, both in size and ability, mostly from members who've been long time supporters, and we are specifically not asking them for more.  We are asking that if you haven't already contributed and you can, that you do help us to get to the winter of 2022.  It does take a village, and we are grateful for donations of any size:  we know that there are a lot of different circumstances and the last year has been very hard, and there are still so many worthy asks.  In our case, we can only keep the sites up as long as we have funds in the bank, and we hope you can send a few dollars our way.

Thank you!