FSF fundraiser a success

Dear LWN,

**You did it: thanks to your generous support, the Free Software
  Foundation raised $452,000 in its winter fundraiser. Thank you.**

 ![Lighting the way for free software.]
 (http://static.fsf.org/nosvn/images/candle-lighting.png)

Once again, the free software community helped put the FSF in a strong
position to tackle our list of free software initiatives in 2016, by
giving $5 or $10,000, becoming a member for the first time, donating a
little bit extra this year, and simply helping spread the word. We've
said it before, but we'll say it again: we really can't do this work
without your passion and generosity.

Here's what you helped us achieve:

* 4,124 membership contributions (annual and monthly)
* 2,163 one-time donations -- an increase of 629 over last year's fundraiser
* An average one-time donation of $97.39

And finally, you smashed our goal of 400 new members:

* 495 new members

In addition to feeling humbled by your generosity, we get some
heartening takeaways from those numbers. More people than ever are
supporting the FSF's work defending user freedom -- in addition to
welcoming more new members than in any previous fundraiser, more
people gave, and gave more generously, than in the past. Modest giving
made an impact, too: those who gave $30 or less contributed nearly
$7,000 more than last year, proving that every little bit really does
add up. We always appreciate any new membership, but this year, we
witnessed an especially moving commitment from hundreds of people who
have made the choice to pledge ongoing financial support to the FSF,
bringing our total membership to nearly 4,000. Imagine that: four
thousand candles lighting the way.

Your support is our mandate. We will continue our work to serve as a
guiding light for the free software movement. In the coming weeks,
look for a report on our findings from the FSF Vision survey, an
update to the [High Priority Free Software Projects
list](https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-projects/), and rousing
conversation and community building at [LibrePlanet
2016](https://libreplanet.org/2016/), as well as more announcements
from the [Respects Your Freedom certification
program](https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-you...),
further action resisting the [Digital Millennium Copyright Act's
Digital Restrictions Management anti-circumvention
provisions](https://www.defectivebydesign.org/they-are-starting-to-li...),
and upgrades to the FSF and GNU Project infrastructure.

Once again, thank you for your contributions to the free software
movement, and your support of the FSF. Remember that [FSF
membership](https://my.fsf.org/join) offers many
[benefits](https://www.fsf.org/associate/benefits), including gratis
admission to our annual [LibrePlanet
conference](https://libreplanet.org/2016/). [Register
today](https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/event/register?id=29&reset=1) to
join us at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Stata Center on
March 19-20, 2016, where we will present LibrePlanet 2016: Fork the
System, in partnership with MIT's [Student Information Processing
Board](https://sipb.mit.edu/).

Happy hacking,

Georgia Young
Program Manager

Read this online:
<https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/you-did-it-the-fundra...>
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