A new reward, a new sense of urgency

Paul Morrow, designer of the first Baybayin font, and the mug he created for us

Halfway through the current campaign, and already this Kickstarter has seen an outpouring of support unlike anything I’ve done before. Literally every day I get between 10 and 100 messages from all over the planet saying how much people believe in the Endangered Alphabets Project. Some of our amazing supporters have translated the Kickstarter appeal into Japanese and Indonesian. Someone else has written an article about us in Russian. Yet the hard fact is we’re still $10,000 short of our goal with only two weeks to go.

If we don’t reach that goal we get nothing, and the cost of all of the Alphabets activities for the rest of the year will have to come out of my own pocket. Materials and mailing alone will cost several thousand dollars.

We can absolutely still reach that goal, but only by changing the way we’ve been doing things.

For my part, I’m creating some new rewards, the first of which I’ll tell you about in a minute. It gives a good feeling to support a worthy cause, but it gives a better feeling to receive something fun, interesting or useful—or all three—in return.

For your part, if you believe in the Endangered Alphabets, I have to ask you whether you can make a donation to our campaign. If you’ve made a donation, I have to ask you whether you can increase it, as some of our backers have already done.

If you’ve been waiting to see whether we really need your support or whether we can get by without it, the answer is—we can’t. Don’t wait any longer. Support us now.

And then tell your friends about the Alphabets. Hearing about our campaign from someone who has already donated is the most powerful referral. If you can’t make a donation, which I totally understand, can you still be a spokesperson for the Alphabets? Can you personally contact two or three people? That’s actually more effective than simply sharing a post or an email with everyone you know. Tell them your impressions. Send them to endangeredalphabets.com. And then give them the Kickstarter link.

While you’re at it, tell them about the new reward, the Endangered Alphabets Mug. Very affordably priced at $25, it features the phrase “endangered alphabets” in English and Baybayin, one of the pre-colonial scripts of the Philippines that is finally starting to enjoy a revival thanks to few few dedicated people interested in their heritage.

Give me an excuse to send you one of these mugs, or one of the other rewards we’re offering to backers. Support us today. Now.

Thanks.