CSAC Fundraising Drive
======================

The Cyberspace Snow and Avalanche Center is now working on raising funds 
to keep the project growing. Some thoughts on the philosophy behind the 
project and a list of some of the things we need follow.

We are a nonprofit corp registered in Oregon, USA and have 501c3 (Tax 
Exempt) status pending. Our address is:

CSAC
297 Hawthorne Ave
Eugene OR 97404

Thanks for your support!

Jim Frankenfield
Director


Project Philosophy
==================

1) We have started this project with close to no money by making use 
of partnerships, small change, and a whole lot of donated time and 
energy. The idea has been to develop something which people would be 
willing to support, rather than having to ask for funding for something 
which had yet to be demonstrated. We have received a great deal of 
positive feedback and use of the site continues to grow, so people seem 
to like what we've created. Now we hope they will help support it.

2) We are a user-oriented organization. Our focus is on providing hazard 
bulletins to the public in a timely and efficient manner, providing 
educational resources for the public, and making items such as accident 
reports available. We do provide a few services specifically for 
avalanche professionals. We feel it is important for users to contribute 
to ensure that the project continues to focus on public service. 

3) Our goal is to seek a variety of funding. We have had discussions with 
possible sponsors, and hope to have corporate sponsors soon. However, the 
entire cost will not be underwritten this way and user contributions will 
be important. Especially this year, since we got off the ground in 
November and were not able to get sponsors for the year. (We are now 
working on sponsors through next year.) We also hope to be able to get 
one or more small grants in the future, but this will take time.

Financial Needs
===============

All work on the project so far has been done with resources donated to us 
or bartered for. Our server is provided by PEAK, which has been part of 
Oregon State University, in return for the services of Jim Frankenfield 
as their volunteer information manager. PEAK will become a private sector 
company by June, and it is time for the CSAC to be able to pay for our 
server resources. (It is not possible for Jim to work for free for PEAK 
as well as CSAC indefinitely.)

The CSAC does not own any computer resources for access to the server and 
needs a computer. Preferably a notebook which we can take to conferences 
and retailer shows. Jim Frankenfield does own an old B/W laptop 386 which 
is ok for command line work, but he has no telephone to dial into the 
server. The CSAC would like to get a telephone line, and ultimately some type 
of office space. 

Finally, we need some money to cover occasional travel expenses. It is 
extremely important for us to be highly visible at the next International 
Snow Science Workshop in Oct. It would also be very helpful to be able to 
send somebody to the outdoor retailer shows to promote the project to 
potential sponsors and to help maintain a strong network with existing 
sponsors.

Perhaps all that is a bit ambitous, but those are some of the expenses we 
will need to be covering. We will prioritize and make the best use of 
whatever funds we can raise. So far we have done everything on a budget 
of about $400. Just recovering that start-up expense and our ongoing 
costs (postage, phone calls, etc...) would make us happy! 


Please Help
===========

If you use our site regularly we hope you will consider helping the 
project along. There are many things we would like to do before the start 
of next years avalanche season. Contributions of any size are greatly 
appreciated - for the statement of appreciation they represent as much as 
for the dollar amount. All contributions will be acknowledged by snail mail 
and the names of contributors will be listed on our Organization page 
(unless you request not to be).

Contributions of equipment by either individuals or organizations could 
also help us out a great deal.