August 17, 2010

BPCares for Sale

Image courtesy of <a href="http://www.streetgiant.bigcartel.com/product/bp-cares-green">StreetGiant</a>.

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I’ve been getting a lot of emails from Joseph Rollins, a guy in North Carolina who owns “BP Cares” and related web domains shortly after the oil spill. And I do mean all of them:

www.bpcares.com
www.bpcares.net
www.bpcares.org
www.bpcares.info
www.bpcares.us
www.bpcares.biz
www.bpcare.net
www.bpcare.org
www.bpcare.info
www.bpcare.biz
www.bpcare.us

Rollins has put them up for sale, asking for $68,000 for all 11 domains. He says he’ll give half of the proceeds to Gulf coast charities. He also says that he wants to sell them to someone other than BP, as he thinks the oil giant has been trying to buy them up:

Since the situation in the Gulf, I have received hundreds of calls per week from individuals, groups and organizations indicating there interest in acquiring the domains. I have received inquiries from individuals claiming to be working on behalf of BP who were very interested in acquiring the domains. I have communicated with BP. BP may be using individuals, groups and organizations to acquire the domains from me.”

I’m not endorsing the dollar figure he wants for the sites, but considering all the fun BPglobalPR and BPCares have been having with this meme on Twitter (and all the work BP has done to drive viewers to their site rather than anything critical of the company), the sites could be an interesting investment. His phone is 803-665-6348 or you can email at jrollins005@carolina.rr.com.

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

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