The blog has done extremely well this past year, thanks to you the members and the core of people who work to keep it going. Here on our annual last day I’d like to take look back on what has happened and talk a bit about what lies ahead.
I’m particularly pleased that we have continued to meet our two goals for the blog, which drove us to start it over eleven years ago now:
- To provide scholarly knowledge about the historical Jesus, the New Testament, and the other Christian writings of the first three or four centuries to a broad non-scholarly audience.
- To raise money for charities while doing it, highly reputable, responsible, and effective organizations that deal with hunger, homelessness, disaster relief, and literacy.
To start with the charity: once more we have done extremely well, having distributed (as of today) just over $480,000. To put that into a bit of perspective, our first full year of operation, exactly ten years ago, we raised $54,000. I’m no mathematician, but by my count that’s about a 489% increase over ten years. Whoa. When you add this year’s total to last years, we have contributed nearly a million dollars.
Most of those funds come from our membership fees, which start at $29.95/year (or $2.99/month) at the Bronze level – i.e., well, less than 60 cents a week. Seems like a pretty good deal! And remember there are higher levels of membership for more perks: Silver, Gold, and the Yowser-level Platinum. Check them out! https://ehrmanblog.org/register/ . Other moneys have come in from generous donations many of you have chosen to make (completely tax deductible, as are the membership fees themselves) and our fund raisers, the book club, and the movie club – all of which we plan on continuing with gusto in the year to come.
In addition to those funds, this past year we have done some private fundraising for the operating expenses of the blog, specifically to enable us to move forward with an entirely new platform, to be built by our Chief Technology Officer Ben Porter, in the coming year.
This Blog 3 will be much improved over what we have now, which itself is an impressive construction unlike almost any other on the face of the planet in what it allows us to do. Blog 3 will be more powerful, efficient, user-friendly, and helpful. We’re eager for it, and the good news is that the money is in the bank to make it happen. (Again, not a *penny* of membership fees or regular blog donations has gone to this fund, or to any of our operating expenses, this past year or ever. All that is paid for privately.)
In terms of what the blog has provided this past year for the those of you who have joined, I think by any standard we can say it has been … a lot. I continue to post 5-6 times a week, each and every week, with archives going back nearly twelve years now, all searchable (just do a word search for what you’re interested in). There are in all about 3,800 posts, of which 3,472 are mine (the others are by “guest posters,” almost always top-level scholars with something they’d like to say to the blog).
This year’s blog posts have also received nearly 11,500 comments from blog members (all members at the Silver Level and up are allowed to comment on what they read). And I have replied to about 3,600 of them – trying to answer every question I get.
For those at the Gold level, I have done a monthly Gold Q&A (audio); and Platinum members, in addition to being able to access these, have had four webinars with me every year (on various topics of wide interest!).
Finally, I’d like to thank all the members, donors, employees, and volunteers who make the blog happen:
First, the two employees who do masses of work, often above and beyond the call of duty:
-
- Diane Pittman: Chief Operating Officer and righthand person, who does just about everything from customer support, to coordinating, scheduling, and running events, to disbursing funds, to many hours of advising the boss, so that he needs to do little now besides provide content. Diane keeps all the trains running on time and the blog wouldn’t be happening without her.
- Ben Porter: Chief Technical Officer. Ben does everything connected with the technology of the blog, including making it run and fixing it when it’s broke. He will soon be taking on the responsibility of producing the new platform for Blog 3. We are moving into a Brave New World.
Second: a group of a group of volunteers from over this past year who have generously give of their time to do much of the work that the blog needs in order to function:
-
- Brandon Bender: Reader of Gold-member Audio Posts
- Dave Bohn: Devoted Business Manager
- Lance Boyer: Coordinator of the Blog Book Club
- Robert Gilbert: Director of the Blog Forum
- Chris Huntley: Provider of Social Marketing strategies
- John Paul Middlesworth: Reader of Gold audio posts
- Ken Teutsch: Reader of Gold audio posts
- Vanessa Porter: Coordinator of Social Media
- Sharon Roberts: Reader of Gold-member Audio Posts
- Glenn Siepert: Graphic designer & Guru of social media
- Doug Wadeson: Structural organization of the site
- And the Committee that handled oversight of the planning phases of the Blog 3 construction, a group that, once formed, began to call themselves the Blog Squad: Kevin Grant (chair); Dave Bohn; Cheryl Pletcher, and Doug Wadeson. They were extraordinarily helpful in conceiving and planning how we are to move ahead, and unusually generous in providing their time and expertise. We are eager now to move on to the construction phase.
In short, it’s been a really good year for the blog. And we look forward to what lies ahead.
You too can help us in that venture, not just by participating in the blog yourself but by making others aware of it: family members, neighbors, work associates, financial advisors, dentists, and physical therapists – anyone you suspect may be interested in taking a look. It doesn’t hurt to tell them about us and to suggest they check us out.
I hope you have a good year lying ahead of you. May we all thrive and grow, and be concerned as well for the good of others.
You must be logged in to post a comment.Share Bart’s Post on These Platforms
16 Comments
Leave A Comment
Congratulations on a great year!
Many thanks also for Diane. She is my problem solver, altho I may be her #1 PIA. She is remarkable.
I am rewatching some early webinars and am seeing how subsequent MQJ and other programs have helped me understand the early ones better.
All the best for the new year and thanks to the team who has made the blog possible.
So glad to be part of this! 🙂
As well as being a treasure trove for anyone interested in early Christianity and its evolution, the blog is an amazing – and pretty unique – achievement in how much money it generates for charitable purposes.
Re this section:
“once more we have done extremely well, having distributed (as of today) just over $480,000. To put that into a bit of perspective, our first full year of operation, exactly ten years ago, we raised $54,000. I’m no mathematician, but by my count that’s about a 489% increase over ten years.”
I’m not sure where you got 489% from; by my calculation, it’s actually an increase of some 788%.
Is it really? WHOA, that’s WAY better!! And that’s why I’m not a mathematician.
You’re quite right in saying “I’m no mathematician.” In percent, the jump from $54,000 to $480,000 is 889%, not 489%.
Someone else just told me (with equal authority) that it is 788%! I’m glad I deposit dollars instead of percentages….
It’s true that 480,000 is 889% of 54,000. But since 54,000 already represents the start point of 100%, the jump/increase is 789%. (I rounded down to 788 rather than up to 789.)
OK, but for you math guys: If you take five loaves and two fish to feed 5000 how many baskets of leftovers to you get? (This is why NT scholars can’t add)
Why, twelve, of course! 🙂
Wow, sounds like a Star Wars Battle Squadron on the move, “May the Force be with You”.
Good people. Chuffed to be on this doubly-worthwhile journey with you.
In a good way you remind me of the guy who started project gutenberg – he took his expertise and made it good for mankind, where he could have aimed just at personal profit.
Great thanks to you, Bart, and your whole team, for building and sustaining this valuable institution while simultaneously raising so much money for good works. The intellectual stimulation and education we get as a result is invaluable.
I know you like to learn new things, so here it is if you want to calculate this in the future:
480,000/54,000 -1 = 7.8889 = 789%, alternatively:
54,000 x (1+ 7.8889) = 840,000
You subtract or add 1 so the math works. If you had zero growth it would look like this:
54,000 x (1 +0) = 54,000
Your average growth rate for each of every 10 years is 24.42%
54,000 x (1+.2441844)^10 = 54,000 x 8.88888 = 480,000
Based on this sustained growth rate, it is time for an Initial Public Offering (IPO)!
I am clearly in the right line of work….
In 2003 I tried to upgrade from Silver and was happy about listening to a recorded blog post.
That did not function for me, even after reaching out for help; so, I downgraded back to silver.
Maybe in Blog 3, people will be able to adjust the size of the text in recent posts and in the Forum. In the past, people could adjust the size of the text in the Forum.
I haven’t heard of others having problems. Did you contact Diane at Support?