Sarah Davies

Sarah Bunting of Tomato Nation promised her readers that if they donated at least $40,000 to the blog fundraising challenge at DonorsChoose.org, she would put on a tomato suit:

I don’t mean some wear-a-red-outfit-with-a-green-hat, only-go-outside-to-buy-milk bullshit either. I mean a big old spherical tomato-mascot rig, red tights, foam leaf hat, the whole bit — on the subway. To Rockefeller Center. Where I work, on the same floor as Saturday Night Live, 50 feet away from the president of Bravo. And then out for lunch, where I will pause to perform the post-kiss Angela dance from My So-Called Life in the plaza. And then back to work. And then out for a drink.

And I will film it.

Her courageous self-defacement got not only her $40,000 goal, but a total of $101,280 from 1,099 donors and secured her win in the contest. And we all get to enjoy knowing that DonorsChoose.org got that money out to needy teachers all over America, oh, and we get to watch the video:

I got a letter in the mail this week from Creative Commons. I get lots of fundraising letters from organizations I’ve donated to in the past, and I generally find it annoying. Doctors without Borders is the worst. I donated to them some time in 2004, and every week I get pictures of dying children and pleas for moremoneymoremoneymoremoney. I think they’ve frittered away my entire donation on postage and printing costs to send me all this crap years later!

EFF is better. When I joined EFF, rather than sending me a letter that said thanks for your money, now give us more money, they sent me a letter saying thanks for your money, you’re a good person, here’s a bumper sticker to show that you’re a proud member. (Said bumper sticker is still on the wall of my cube at ACLU)

But Creative Commons was truly remarkable. This is what they sent me:

They asked me to take action four times before they asked me for money. This came with a simple card showing what sorts of stickers and t-shirts I would get for donating different amounts, and that’s it. No full color 16-page expose on starving artists, just a letter and a card. Bravo!