50 days ago, SSDP was in trouble. A significant grant we had historically relied on was held up and at risk of not coming through, and it looked like we might have to scale back our efforts to fight the Drug War in 2014. But before giving up hope, we launched a crowdfunding campaign and reached out to our supporters to see if we could make up some of the difference, and wow, did you come through!
Just hours before the deadline, we broke $100,000! / screenshot credit: Sam Tracy
We set out with the ambitious goal of raising $100,000 in only 50 days. To be honest, some of us weren’t so sure we could do it. That’s a huge amount of money for any group, let alone a lean-and-mean nonprofit with a very small staff and an annual budget of less than $500,000. But our amazing network of students, alumni, and supporters rallied to the cause — 449 donors contributed a total of $100,641, bringing us over our goal and ensuring we’ll have the resources we need to continue our important work.
And even more great news: near the end of the campaign we were notified by our major donor that we will still be receiving our large grant for 2014, meaning that rather than being used to make up for losses elsewhere, this crowdfunding campaign will allow us to seriously step up our efforts. This money will help us provide free starter kits for new chapters across the globe, more scholarships for students to attend our 2014 International Conference and Lobby Day, and one-on-one staff support for thousands of students working to end drug prohibition, one campus, state, and national policy at a time.
Every single dollar contributed to this campaign will help us pursue our mission, but we’d especially like to thank the generosity of Scott Banister, who donated at our $50,000 “Superhero” level. In appreciation for his support, we’ll be creating the Scott and Cyan Banister Award to be presented at our annual awards ceremony. We also greatly appreciate the group of Colorado businesses who provided a $10,000 matching donation to help bring us over the top. We couldn’t have done it without them or the numerous others who chipped in and became a part of this campaign:
$50,000+
Scott and Cyan Banister
$10,000-$49,999
Anonymous
$5,000-$9,999
Vicente Sederberg, LLC
$1,000-$4,999
Anonymous (3)
3D Cannabis Center
Jim Marty and Associates
Mountain Medicines
Kevin Herbert
Joby Pritzker
Charles Smith
$500-$999
Anonymous (3)
Hotel Company Inc.
Alec Foster
Davis Kiyo
Aundre Speciale
Eric Sterling
$250-$499
Frances Fu
Katrina Haffner
Sahana Rajan
Kellen Russoniello
$100-$249
Anonymous (8)
Arya Adibi
James Anthony
Dale Bewan
Kathy Bonner
Kathy Cadigan
Samuel Caplan
John Chamberlain
Micah Daigle
Eric Eisenberg
Neill Franklin
Frances Fu
Jacob Gordon
Danielle Harbison
Randy Hencken
Robert Hencken
Todd Huffman
Richard Kennedy
Paul Kuhn
Ted Kurkland
Andrew Livingston
Kris Lotlikar
Sean Luse
Madalyn McElwain
John Morrissy
Amanda Muller
Genifer Murray
Kat Murti
Diane Naughton
Josh Nermon
Gena Pennington
Victor Pinho
Joe Quirk
Joshua Reagan
Lori Roscoe
Ryan Safner
Daniel Shanahan
Brown SSDP
Eric Sterling
Andrew Tatarsky
Jurriaan Van den Hurk
Chris Wallis
Jason Welte
Tyler Williams
Bill Wojtkowski
abhinavsivasailam
cdelatorre11
sdave
njudell
$60-$99
Anonymous (3)
Brandon Alonzo
Robert Bommicino
Frank Briggs
Kylie Campbell
James Carroll
John Chase
Buddy Cosner
Jessica Coutts
Etienne Fontan
Jim Foster
Dan Goldman
Andy Groff
Kathryn Humphries
Braum Katz
Kevin Lee
Andrew Livingston
Aaron Lotlikar
Genifer Murray
Jonathan Perri
Onyx Pietersen
Christopher Rasch
Julie Roberts
Lori Roscoe
Michael Russell
Kellen Russoniello
Cary Scobbie
Eric Sienknecht
Kenny Tan
Renee Thompson
Vivian Wong
$25-$59
Anonymous (17)
Michael Alahouzos
Melvin Barnhart
Alex Baskin
David Braginsky
Frank Briggs
Daniel Brumbaugh Sr.
Kynthia Brunette
Brad Burge
Kathy Cadigan
Dan Carvajal
Ryan Cassidy
Scott Cecil
Jess Cochrane
Sara Conrad
Stacia Cosner
Cara Crabb-Burnham
Scott Dennis
Andrew Dolgin
Shep Doze Jr.
Shamus Durac
Evan Eisenberg
Andrew Elam
Kean Erickson
John Everest
Frances Fu
Grace Gabel
Brooke Gilbert
Sandra Goodall
Michael Hamilton
Kyle Hartz
Meagan Heller
Kat Humphries
Jonathan Hwang
Daniel Jabbour
Jeffrey Kinnard
Ron Knaus
Andrew Koosed
Kris Krane
Darren LaFond
Dustiney Laizure
Ian Langmore
Jason Levin
Ben Levine
Alyssa Lloyd
Sue Lunbeck-Butler
Rishi Malhotra
Curtis Marder
Todd Matier
Daniel McGrath
K. Millnick
Jared Moffat
Bob Nichols
Evan Nison
Don Noel
Laura Notini
Raquel Ortega
A. Kathryn Parker
Jonathan Perri
Loretta Pirozzi
Linnae Ponte
Teresa Pugliese
Philip Purciello
Chelsea Rachel
George Ray
Joshua Reagan
Bryan Richards
Jed Riffe
Megan Roberts
Clayton Russell
Matthew Russoniello
Bob Schubring
Stone Shen
Marco Shuet
Stephen Silberman
Taylor Stockton
Jesse Stout
Ruth Stromberg
Vanessa Stroud
Adrian Stubbs
Joshua Swain
Morton Tenzer
Eapen Thampy
Sam Tracy
Lauren Van Hoesen
EJ Vassoc
Brian Wallace
Bill Watson
Ethan Watters
Judd Weiss
Rachel Wissner
Robin Wood
Yee Wu
Kevin Zhao
Veganjenny
akkin
gdjoy
Chester
Ben
cliff310
derkgilday
Gerry
shrink1
whiteside1
kachandler
OnyuLee
jgayder
Maggie
$10-$24
Anonymous (19)
Gregory Adams
Irina Alexander
Tom Angell
Kelly Barber
Clark Battle
Amanda Batts
Conrad Behrman
Jean Belden
Evan Bernick
Monica Black
Arina Bleiman
Kathleen Bock
Rose Bono
Greg Boyd
Dustin Boyer
John Bracaglia
Carolyn Brown
Gregory Bruno
Linda Bucklin
Lauren Buzinski
Robert Cecil
Michael Christison
Nicholas Clawson
Mitchell Colbert
Casey Colby
Taylor Cornish
Olivia Cowenhoven
John Cowgill
Graham de Barra
Paul DeMaggio
Eric Dombrowsky
Stephen Duke
Alexavier Estrada
Kevin Fan
Mike Ferroni
Alex Finkelstein
Jared Fisher
Marcus Foo
Kevin Garcia
Samantha Gbur
Kyle Gregoire
Mikayla Hellwich
Matthew Hilliard
John Hines
Lynn Hochman
Carter Holland
Patrick Houston
Daniel Hurwitz
Angel Jimenez
Chloe Judell-Halfpenny
Lawrence LaFevre
Michael Lamble
Gerry Lanning
Robyn Latchford
Daniel Lazar
Gillian Levy
Sean Lynch
Gregory Lyons
Curtis Mah
Sara Martucci
Lauren Mendelsohn
Alexis Monahan
Bryce Montgomery
Spencer Moon
Amanda Muller
Reid Murdoch
David Myers
Victor Nava
Kelsey Nunez
Matthew O’Brien
Joseph O’Leary
Brian Ortiz
Juan Palenzuela
Marko Pavisic
Blake Paxton
Brian Petrocelli
David Pettus
Samantha Powell
Ben Price
Alison Reid-Cunningham
Robert Robertson
David Roddis
Sean Ryan
Sarah Saucedo
Jordan Schaeffer
Seth Shoemaker
Thom Silverstein
Malcom Smith
Kathleen Spain
Robbie Spencer
Lucy Stanus
Jill Stazewski
Devon Tackels
Dakota Tackels
Gary Taylor
Polina Tchebotarova
Leigh Torrence
Lauren Traitz
Kayla Westbrook
Cassandra Whalen
Scott Whitlock
Merle Widmer
Antonia Yang
Nadejda Zaharieva
Nicholas Zaiac
Jenny Zhou
bep89
slevy43
mjvotaw
shadrach_z
rerickson
eelgravey
willis010101
rekastner
thevirtunaut
Nitin
actortress
Ryan
Alice
Undisclosed Amounts
DanceSafe
Betty Aldworth
Alejandro Alvarez-Flor
Simon Board
Marc Brandl
Victoria Chillinski
Dave Cosner
Joseph Do
Diane Fortune
Luis Garcia Diaz
Stephen Huh
Jonathan Hwang
Stefanie Jones
John Jones
Bronwen Keller
Su Yeun Kim
James Kowalsky
Brandon Levey
Debbie Livingston
Amanda Muller
Mikki Norris
Lauren Padgett
Brian Rodrigues-Brown
Lucille Roscoe
Reed Wurts
ackbar321
nagasakisue
soulinthemachine