What on earth is going on at NaNoWriMo HQ? Here's a high level summary compiled by an anonymous community member.
The Great NaNoWriMo Road Trip
The Great NaNoWriMo Road Trip is the summer 2017 fundraiser for National Novel Writing Month. It took place from June 5-16, 2017, and was announced on June 5 via email and NaNoMail.
The purpose of the fundraiser was to raise $50,000 to rebuild and launch a new NaNoWriMo.org website. According to the Road Trip page:
Our vision: a website that better serves you, and better serves our mission: to help people find their voices, achieve their creative goals, and build a better world on and off the page.
Wrimos raised $57,320 during the two-week fundraiser. $26,700 was raised during the Creative Routes Giving Day on June 10, which featured virtual write-ins, prompts, a special key for $30+ donors, and a real mini road trip with Grant Faulkner and Chris Baty.
The website design funded from this drive launched to fundraiser donors in January 2019, followed by a beta tester period. The site fully launched in September 2019.
Background
While the fundraiser was announced on June 5, 2017, the thought process behind the fundraiser dates back to February 2017. NaNoWriMo staffers gathered and shared what they had heard from participants and volunteers so they could start planning for a new website to serve Wrimos' wants and needs.
March 30, 2017 led the NaNoWriMo staff to the IDEO office to learn about design-thinking so the staff could serve Wrimos' needs even better.
On April 20, 2017, board members Buster Benson (Slack), Julie Russell (Medium), and Michael Sippey (Twitter/Talkshow) led the NaNoWriMo staff through a design sprint, where the staff and board dreamed big and brainstormed what the new website might look like.
In May, NaNo staff spent the weeks preceding the fundraiser talking to Wrimos of various experiences, helped by a call on Twitter on May 15 looking for Wrimos to interview.
The Fundraiser
For the first time, NaNoWriMo supported creating a fundraising page for the summer fundraiser. Wrimos wishing to help fundraise--in addition to or instead of donating directly--can create a fundraising page via Facebook. While NaNoWriMo executive director Grant Faulkner and Board of Directors member Tony Shen experimented with fundraising via Facebook during #GivingTuesday 2016, The Great NaNoWriMo Road Trip marks the first fundraiser to fully support Facebook fundraising.
As with fundraising for regular NaNoWriMo events, Wrimos receive donor goodies for the highest level they fundraised to; for example, Wrimos who raise $90 receive the goodies for the $90 level.
Donation Levels
- Day Tripper ($10) - Donors at this level receive a halo on their NaNoWriMo profile and recognition as a founding donor on the redesigned NaNoWriMo website.
- Scenic Router ($30) - Donors at this level receive the above plus a Great NaNoWriMo Road Trip postcard signed by the NaNoWriMo staff and a Great NaNoWriMo Road Trip bumper sticker.
- Road Revver ($60) - Donors at this level receive the above plus a Viking helmet keychain.
- Mileage Master ($90) - Donors at this level receive the above plus a Great NaNoWriMo Road Trip shirt.
- Lane Changer ($300) - Donors at this level receive the above items.
- Country Cruiser ($600) - Donors at this level receive the above items.
- Major Mover ($900) - Donors at this level receive the above items.
- Road Builder ($3000) - Donors at this level receive the above items.
- Highway Paver ($6000) - Donors at this level receive the above items. The first $6000 donor in the United States receives an in-person visit from Grant Faulkner, who will gladly speak at a writing group, visit a writing group, or tap dance.
Because donor goodies are made to order in this fundraiser, they will ship near the end of July, once the staff know how much of each item to create.
