Sarah Davies acknowledged her appreciation of our fundraising approach on her blog today, and I would like to take this opportunity to build upon what she said and to also say thank you.

In order to sustain Creative Commons, fundraising is vital – but raising awareness and educating the larger community is more so. We exist because of you and as the community grows – we have to grow. In order to meet your digital needs, means we have to ask for your help. We cannot raise the kind of global awareness and support needed on our own. We are a lean, grassroots operation and are honored to have such a supportive community.

As you all know (hopefully) we launched our 3rd annual fundraising campaign on Oct. 1st. But what probably most of you don’t know is that on the same day we sent out 2,500 letters to people that have given to CC before, asking them to re-invest in the future of CC. And now I’m asking the world.

Please help us celebrate the past 5 years of Creative Commons, and plant the seeds for another 5, by helping us grow the commons in 5 ways:

1. Use CC

• Use 5 CC licensed works.

2. Grow CC

• License 5 new works.

3. Spread CC

• Feature this online campaign on your blog or podcast to help us reach new audiences.

• Send CC Staff your story of why you support CC so we can compile and share them with the world (CC licensed of course).

4. Connect CC

• Introduce 5 new people to Creative Commons.

5. Sustain CC

• By giving 50% more than your previous gift to this campaign, you will help us sustain CC’s core functioning for the next year.

Final sorting of campaign letters in CC’s San Francisco office; photo by Elaine Adolfo licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike.