EiR Blog
A Blog For Those Affected By Environmental And Invisible Illnesses Written By Fellow Survivors
The Environmental Illness Resource Needs Your Help!
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Dear Friends,
Over the past 10 years I have grown used to writing for The Environmental Illness Resource with the aim of helping all of you out there, who like me, have had your lives turned upside down by environmental and invisible illnesses. Today I must take my turn and ask you for your help.
For those who might be unaware, I (Matthew "maff" Hogg) have designed, built, maintained and written the majority of the thousands of pages of content on the site entirely by myself. People often email me saying they thought the site was run by a group of volunteers or a company, but no, it's just me!
With over 3000 people having registered on the site and a database of over 8000 pages you can imagine that it's a lot for one guy with ME / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (and the rest!) to handle alone. I can "get by" with the technical side of the site but I am no software developer and have lost count of the nights I have been up into the early hours trying to solve issues I realistically had no hope of solving, plagued as I am by brain fog!
I spent all last year upgrading the software of the site to give it a cleaner look for ease of reading and developing phone and tablet versions - which thankfully has been a success! Unfortunately the site software is now so complex that there I problems I cannot solve myself. The current design was meant to focus on building a friendly and informative community for those with EI and invisible illnesses to easily connect with each other for support and sharing of information.Sadly however there are issues with registration, login and the forums that need professionals to resolve.
So, I will stop waffling on and get to the point! Being unable to work a regular job due to my own ill health, I am to be totally honest - flat broke. I have spent all my savings on employing software developers and web designers who simply were not up to the job in my attempts to make The Environmental Illness Resource what it should be. The advertising you see on the site barely covers the bills from the hosting company to keep the site online. To fix the issues with the community aspects of the site requires the big gun developers who really know what they're doing - but as you can imagine they do not come cheap!
I am therefore asking that if over the years you have found the information and support at The Environmental Illness Resource helpful at all and would like to see the site continue to grow and develop - please take this opportunity to make a small donation via the PayPal Donation button below to help me get things running smoothly.
I can then focus my own efforts on writing new informative content and helping those looking for answers in the forums and community!
Please only give what you can afford - I know all too well how our illnesses affect our finances! If you can spare just $5 / £5 as a one off and appreciate my efforts in putting this site together I would be more grateful than I can express in words. I am sure future visitors to the site would share this sentiment also.
Wheather you are able to donate or not I want to offer my sincere thanks to the countless numbers of you who have given me reason one way or another to continue putting all of my limited energy and money into the The Environmental Illness Resource. I feel truly blessed to be able to help you in any way I can.
If you have any questions or would like to contact me for any reason at all please feel free to email - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Thank you friends, may you find better health very soon,
Maff
Matthew Hogg BSc (Hons) (Nutritional Health)
Founder - The Environmental Illness Resource
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Maff
Middlesbrough, UK -1.1893981000000622 54.49406310000001 http://maps.google.com/maps?z=15&q=54.49406310000001,-1.1893981000000622 PermalinkThanks again for the suggestions and researching the links for me ataraxy, I really appreciate the help.
It does seem like setting up as a charity in the UK is fairly straight forward. Income from the site is currently well below the level to even require official registration it seems. Obviously as a charity I would hope to generate some financial support that might change this so worth doing things properly from the start if I were to take things in that direction. You've certainly made me think more about this option. One thing holding me back is that EiR is a one man band at present. A charity requires at least 3 trustees and for me to feel personally that the site is worthy of charitable status I would like others to come on board. In 10 years of running the site nobody has shown any interest in joining me in any capacity!
Patreon certainly looks like the best of the crowd funding options I have seen. Well done for finding it, I've not come across it in my previous searching. It looks like it can provide ongoing funding rather than aiming for a single target figure. This would be perfect and the monthly target would be much lower than a lot of the other projects I have just browsed through on their website. I'll sign up and look into this further.
Thanks again for your kind support.Like 0 -
Looks like setting up a charity is pretty easy: https://www.gov.uk/setting-up-charity/set-up-a-charity
Given the advantages that it gives you, it might be worthwhile.
If you want to go down the crowd funding route, https://www.patreon.com/ might be what you need. Not sure about the multiple currencies, but otherwise I think that it will work.
Good LuckLike 0 -
Maff
Middlesbrough, UK -1.1893981000000622 54.49406310000001 http://maps.google.com/maps?z=15&q=54.49406310000001,-1.1893981000000622 PermalinkComment last edited on about 8 years ago by Maff MaffHi ataraxy,
Thank you for your suggestions and apologies for taking so long to reply. It's been a tough time for me lately but I'm now refocused and motivated to get things back on track here.
1. I didn't actually think it would be possible to get funding through such bodies to be honest. Not being a registered charity probably limits the options but it's certainly something I could look into.
2. No, not set up for Gift Aid. Again the site would need to be a charitable organisation wouldn't it? Donations were gratefully received but only relatively small in number and have dried up completely now so I think I'd be able to achieve greater income through commercial routes to be honest.
I've thought a lot about crowd funding but there are complications with that such as 1.) I can't find a provider that supports multiple currencies (site visitors come from all over the world) and 2.) I can't really offer anything in return other than the promise that all monies would go into employing professionals to work on the site, purchasing software updates...and that I would continue to give all my own time and energy to work on the site.
It's a tough one so I'm also considering getting a part-time job (if I can manage it in my state of health) and putting a portion of my pay into the site or offering paid services from the site such as consultations and ebooks e.g. describing my journey to complete recovery from multiple chemical sensitivity 11 years ago.
I really appreciate you taking the time to offer suggestions. Thanks and best wishes.Like 0
