As Jai and I try like rabid hyenas on repeat to get the word out about #SciFund, we have a a small problem. We are Ecologists. Yes, we are connected to some kick-butt scientists in other disciplines who we have contacted, but, at the end of the day, our disciplinary reach is limited. We may be emailing the heck out of the listservs we are on – Ecolog-L, conbio, DISCCRS, etc. (acronym-fest activated!), but we don’t have much (or any) reach into the listservs and announcement boards that are listened to by OTHER disciplines.

So, I’m asking you, scientists on the internet, to help us get the word out about #SciFund to YOUR discipline. Would you be game to post the following to your departmental and/or disciplinary listservs to get the word out there? We’re rolling into the last week of signups, so it’s crucial to get the word out now!

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Just an FYI that this is the final week to signup for round 2 of the #SciFund Challenge. Briefly, the #SciFund Challenge is a project that helps to facilitate science crowdfunding. We assemble a group of scientists to try and get the general public to open their wallets and fund science using small-amount donations. By doing it together, scientists are able to help one another with proposals, outreach, and successfully achieving their funding goals. You can get more information about round 2 of #SciFund at http://bit.ly/yp5YAB or other parts of our webpage at http://scifundchallenge.org.

In round 1, with 49 scientists, we raised over $76,000 last fall. And that was when we were still figuring out just what we were doing! As part of round 2, we’ll be providing a community, support, and some training in science outreach for crowdfunding. So if you’re interested, check out the post at http://bit.ly/yp5YAB and click “Sign up!”.

Registration closes on March 31st. You can feel free to contact me at byrnes@nceas.ucsb.edu or my collaborator Jai Ranganathan at ranganathan@nceas.ucsb.edu.

-Jarrett