We'd first like to thank you again for your generous contribution to the All About Jazz fund drive. You've helped us reach 25% of our goal, and for that, we are grateful.

The web culture is a tricky one and it has proven quite difficult to convince our readers to contribute even a modest sum. We were hoping for a 2% (reader) commitment and fell way short.

We do have additional ideas to help improve donations. We're working with several visual artists to create a jazz screen saver. We're now selling a variety of AAJ products (mug, mousepad, baseball jersey, wall clock, etc.) through Cafe Express. We're considering an art auction. And lastly, we plan to continue to reach out for support beyond the conclusion of the fund drive on a project-by-project basis.

Though we haven't quite reached our goal, it in no way will discourage us from moving forward and developing the two new systems that we feel will transform the site: my.allaboutjazz.com and the regional calendar of events (see details).

We've put initial fund drive dollars to work and have purchased a firewall. We've installed software on the server to prevent our data from being harvested. We are also now backing up AAJ to tape. Your contribution made this all possible.

We can't thank you enough for your generosity and for believing in our vision. AAJ is a special website and your support will help enable us to move forward with our plan.

We'll be back in touch with more news soon...

Sincerely,

Michael Ricci
Founder/Publisher
AllAboutJazz.com