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12-14-13, 01:18 PM   #1
spiel2001
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Join Date: Jun 2008
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The Brechin Heritage Foundation Startup Fund...



I'm going to bring this back up again and see where it leads. Bottom line, this is a project near and dear to my heart. I brought this up a month or so ago and got a pretty severe backlash from it. However, the asshats aside, I wanted to take a second stab at this in the gaming community. I believe that, at its heart, the gaming community is filled with well meaning, intelligent and capable people. People who understand teamwork. People unafraid to spend endless hours devoted to reaching difficult goals. People inclined to take on difficult challenges and overcome them.

Notwithstanding the crap I took from an incredible number of bottom feeders the last time, I also got a lot of support and feedback from people who truly cared and honestly appreciated what I was trying to do. I'd rather believe in the latter than cow to the former.

Bottom line is that if we can make a success of this, I am going to "donate" nUI to eco-geeks.org (or, more specifically, The Brechin Heritage Foundation). nUI will become a part of the non-profit and all donations to it will become both for a good cause and tax deductible. It is, at least in some small part, my way of showing my deep commitment to what I am trying to do here. I am putting my time, my money, my work and nearly eight years of effort building and maintaining nUI on the line. Will you support me in that?

So... if we succeed, nUI and its support will remain in the public... I will volunteer my time and effort and hosting and give both nUI and its proceeds to the non-profit. Otherwise, if the support isn't there, I will remain on the path toward taking nUI private as my only means of filtering out the users and abusers and denying them access to the benefits of my work.

Either way, those who support me now, and have in the past, (not just financially, I might add) will continue to have access to nUI. The question is, what does the community at large want?

For the campaign itself, or to make a donation, look here: http://igg.eco-geeks.org

And here's a bit from that page...

What We Are Doing

eco-geeks.org is the social media face, originally organized in the gamer community, of what we hope will soon be a full-fledged 501(c)(3) non-profit working to crowd fund responsible conservation, scientific research, education and public awareness. It's an idea born of passion for the outdoors and wilderness (eco), with a thirst for scientific knowledge and understanding (geeks), combined with a heritage of public service.

Founded upon a family history and tradition of military and public service, philanthropy, and a deep appreciation of the land, scientific understanding, and education, we are now seeking to build this effort to the next level through the creation of a non-profit organization dedicated to this task: The Brechin Heritage Foundation, Inc.

To that end, we are seeking to raise up to $2500 to help defray the legal, fiscal and bureaucratic costs of establishing a proper 501(c)(3) non-profit corportation through which we can achieve our stated goals. The mission statement for this new foundation is as follows:
  • The Brechin Heritage Foundation, in a continuation of generations of public service and charitable work, is a family run volunteer non-profit committed to intelligent conservation and preservation of threatened ecosystems, the support of scientific research and education surrounding the biodiversity they contain, and the development of public awareness of their intrinsic value through the creation of sustainable and accessible eco-friendly destinations and exploration programs.
In a nutshell, the foundation will be volunteer run in order to maximize the benefit it creates. Unlike most, the Brechin Heritage Foundation is not, and never will be, a cash cow for its founders and board members. We will volunteer our time and donate the office space, equipment and travel it takes to run it.

We will take no salary. We will file no expense reports.

We will, instead, give of our time, energy, talent and resources in order to make it a success. Why, after all, should we ask others to donate to the cause if we are unwilling to give fully of ourselves?

We will provide the sweat equity and the infrastructure.
We ask of you only that you help us make it fiscally possible.



What We Need

Our needs are quite simple... we need to fund the cost of getting the 501(c)(3) incorporated and registered. Both the budget and the goals are very straight forward and modest:
  • Articles of incorporation: $125
  • Florida Secretary of State: $70
  • Federal Application: $500
  • IRS Fee: $850
  • Cost of perks: $750 (estimated)
  • IndieGoGo Overhead: $205 (estimated)
Total Budget: $2500

PLEASE GIVE! Even a $1 donation makes a difference. And, honestly, we would rather see 2500 people give $1 than see just one person give $2500. As much as this effort is about conservation, research and education, it is about awareness. Give what you can and spread the word... just a $1 donation and a few minutes sharing our links on social media and networking with family, friends and associates could reach our modest goal in a few hours.

Anyone, rich or poor, can afford a single dollar... just skip your next can of soda or cup of coffee and take a few seconds to make an enduring difference in the world and our future.

Stretch Goal

100% of any proceeds we raise above and beyond the budgeted goal will be turned over to the foundation and applied toward our principal goal of purchasing between 450 and 2000 acres of Costa Rican primary rain forest for conservation, research, education and exploration. We will be seeking to raise up to $3 million toward that goal in the end.

We have one property in particular and several others in the area targeted for conservation. It is our goal to buy as much of it as we can budget and transfer the land which has not yet been degraded to the Piedras Blancas National Park in Costa Rica for conservation. There is a short video in the "Impact" section (below) that talks about why this kind of conservation of primary rain forest is important. Please... watch it and share it.



Approximately 90 acres of the land situated between the unspoiled primary rain forest and the Golfo Dulce, already degraded as old cocoa and banana plantation and accessible only by boat, will be kept to develop a sustainable, off-grid, eco-lodge in order to support access to the western extent of the Piedras Blancas National Park with facilities for research, study, education and exploration as well as support for an eco-friendly travel destination. We have already retained [SPG] Architects, an architectural firm with a true understanding of sustainable design and development, to help us plan the lodge and develop the design and budget. You can see the initial concept drawings they provided us here (downloadable PDF).


Please show your support for nUI,
for the gamer community, and for this dream
http://igg.eco-geeks.org

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What people don't get is that I am, ultimately, an artist at heart.
My brush has two colors, 1 and 0, and my canvas is made of silicon.



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