X-Message-Number: 6904
Date:  Sat, 14 Sep 96 17:48:09 
From: Dave Pizer <>
Subject: fundraising disclosure

Disclosure from Dave pizer

Charles Platt wrote:
> From: Charles Platt <>
> Subject: Visser research

> Incidentally--in the interests of full disclosure, such as one might ask
> from any charity--I seem to recall that above a certain threshold, Dave
> receives a percentage of funds that he raises for Alcor. I am assuming he
> does not receive a percentage of funds that he would raise for the Visser
> research. 

At present I receive some pay for working at Alcor which includes all 
fundraising.  This is the first year I have received any pay. I do many 
things at Alcor and I would like to be on full salary but Alcor can not 
afford to pay me one.  

Before I agreed to take the fund raising job, I called several professional 
fund raising companies as I thought that would be the best way for Alcor 
to do fundraising. The minimum fees they charged were much more than 
we receive in donations. You have to pay them regardless of whether they 
help you collect any money or not.

 So in order to make fundraising cost effective, Alcor offered me a 
position where Alcor would be guaranteed they can stay well ahead of the 
costs.

Alcor does pay me money,  which I use to reimburse my expenses and pay the 
workers that help me do the fund raising.  There is an amount left over 
that is *my* pay.  

As of the end of August 1996 I have received a total of $2,627.03 gross 
income from Alcor.  Out of that I have paid 3 Alcor staff members (who help 
me when they finish their Alcor work) create the printed material and do 
the mail-merging and do other work.  I have also paid other expenses.  The 
total expenses I have paid out of the $2,627.03 I received are $1,355.87.  
That leaves a net income to me of $1,271.16 so far.

I think that Alcor needs to pay someone to do  fundraising.  In the 
past we did not pay anyone to raise money and we have not raised a 
significant amount.  I am certainly not apologizing for wanting to be paid 
for working at Alcor.  Working for Alcor is very exciting and I am proud of 
my association with Alcor and I believe I earn the money they pay me.  

Before this year I was volunteering 30 or 40 a hours a week for Alcor.  I 
have also donated over $100,000 of my money to Alcor in the past.  Some of 
the volunteer work I have done was the procurement of the building Alcor 
and a few members now own.  I helped this group make several hundred 
thousand dollars on this investment.  I own a very small part of the 
building myself.

This year the Alcor board wanted to try to increase the activity in fund 
raising.  Either no one else wanted to do the work or perhaps no one else 
felt they had the time or expertise to do the work.  It takes about 20 
hours a week for me to do what I am doing. In addition Joe Hovey and I are 
taking fundraising courses at Arizona State University on 2 days a week.

If this turns out to not become a cost effective method for Alcor, or if our 
members thought it was wrong for Alcor to pay me to do this work for Alcor, 
then we will discontinue this program.  We are also trying to learn how (if 
it is possible) to go outside the cryonics community for donations to 
cryonics.

One of the disadvantages of fundraising for Alcor is that we can only 
accept contributions. People can not invest in Alcor and own part like they 
will be able to do in Prometheus, or like they were able to do when we 
formed the LLC to buy our building.  Unlike Prometheus which may offer a 
chance to save ones life and maybe make some money, donating to Alcor (or 
IS) only gives one a chance to *maybe* help save their life.  There is no 
opportunity to make any money, although they can take a tax deduction..

Not counting the Dick Jones' money, Alcor has only raised $23,288.03 through 
the end of August 1996.  Just as Wakefer wants to raise millions to 
learn how to help end death, so does Alcor.  What we are doing now might be 
considered a pilot project.

To get a more complete picture, members will be able to keep track of our 
fundraising progress and all the expenses of it by reading our annual 
report every year.  We will welcome their suggestions on this.  I have 
already received several good ideas from our members.  Thank you.

Dave Pizer 


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