Are You Not Entertained?

Since First Things in nearing the end of our Fall fundraising campaign, and since we still have a long way to go before we reach our goal of 500 readers as web donors, I thought I’d make an appeal to a specific group of readers: Those who have never donated to a web magazine before.

I suspect that category includes most of our readers. It certainly includes me. For over a decade I’ve been reading online journals and never considered making a donation to any of them (now that I’m thinking about it, I feel kinda guilty about that).

Many people will never pay—or make a donation—for a service they can get for free. I can understand that. It’s not like the First Things website is going to go away if we don’t reach our donor goal. (At least I hope it doesn’t. Maybe I should ask about that.) So I’ll narrow the appeal to a subset of the never-given crowd: Those who are entertained by First Things online.

Here’s what I propose: If you’ve been enjoyed our content as much as, say, the worst film you saw in a theater this year, why not donate the price of a movie ticket? The average price of a movie ticket is $7.89 for 88-120 minutes of entertainment. Have you gotten 88 minutes of entertainment out of the FT website over the course of a year? If so, then why not make a donation of $7.89 ?

Some of you may really like our content. Maybe you’re the type who reads the On the Square column every day, checks on the blog a few times a week, and once a month or so you read the online version of the journal’s twenty years of back issues. Now think about how many movies you’ve seen over the past few months (if you’re married with small children, substitute movies you’ve rented). I don’t get out that much, but since the summer I’ve seen (that I can remember off the top of my head): Super 8 , Captain America , X-Men: First Class , Thor , and Moneyball . That’s $47.34 I spent on tickets in just five months (I spent an additional equivalent amount on popcorn, Goobers, and Diet Coke).

I don’t think twice about giving that money to Hollywood. So why would I hesitate to give an equal amount to a website that I get even more enjoyment out of than I did those movies? And it’s tax deductible. You can’t say the same about Conan the Barbarian . (I don’t know about you, but I’ve convinced myself.)

Why not make a Movie Matching Donation right now ? Whether you donate $7.89 or $410.28 (what obsessive filmgoer Anthony Sacramone ’s matching contribution would be), we appreciate whatever you are willing to give. And if you do make a contribution , let us know in the comments what you like about the site enough to give. Maybe it’s Elizabeth Scalia’s column or the free articles we provide from the print version every month. Whatever it is you like, please let us know (you can also send me an email if you want your comment to remain private).

We appreciate our readers—and hope you appreciate us at least as much as you did the remake of Footloose .

Update: From reader David Nickol

$100 Challenge Grant!

I have already contributed a princely sum, but for every contribution of $10 (or more) made specifically in response to this challenge, I will contribute $10, up to a total of $100. I don’t need to know who you are or what your contribution is, but you must somehow let Joe Carter know you are making the contribution, and he must let me know how much (up to a total of $100) I owe.