Announcing the OPR Fundraising Challenge!

John · November 21, 2008, 10:54:33 AM

As you may or may not be aware, OPR recently lost an annual $10k grant from the Herb Block Foundation. Due to the recent downturn in the economy they could not continue with the annual grant which was a critical financial resource for OPR operations. As you can imagine, the loss of that grant was a huge hit to OPR's bottom line. Therefore we are turning to other revenue streams in an effort to help sustain OPR as we have known it. Some recent good news includes that OPR was recently approved for a Google Grant. No... this doesn't mean we're being bought out for a gazillion dollars, but rather OPR is now appearing in Googles search ads anywhere that a Google ad can appear. For example, if someone is on a photo website they might see an ad for OPR, or if they search for a photo related topic on Google we might appear there as well (we even appeared on a recent search for 'cat pee on photo'!). So we're seeing an increase in traffic to the OPR website as a result of this latest development which can only help spread the good word about all the good work that we are doing as volunteers for OPR.

You may have noticed that the yellow 'Donate' button has been replaced by a neat widget that will allow us to track donations going forward. Not knowing what the response would be to a fundraising drive, I set up an arbitrary goal of $5000. Now, that seems like a lofty goal, and it is. But collectively we can do it! If we each chip in a couple bucks, or whatever we can afford, we can do it quite easily. We have over 1000 registered volunteers. If everyone put in just $3, we'd pretty much have our goal covered.

So what do you say? Let's do it!

Donations can be made via the ChipIn button on the forum page or at this public link: http://opr.chipin.com/operation-photo-rescue-inc

Thanks so much for everything you've done to bring OPR where it is today!

John

Mhayes · November 21, 2008, 12:40:05 PM

John, this is great and gives everyone a chance to see how we are doing. We really need donations right now so that we will be able to do copy runs in places hit by hurricanes and those by flooding.

Thanks everyone!

Margie

david_gr · December 06, 2009, 09:49:08 PM

John,

At the Austell copy run, we had a fellow who was helping a flood victim. He is interested in photography and when helping clean up flood damage he salvaged photos that some folks had thrown out. When he tried several searches on Google about photo restoration, he had no success. He found out about OPR from a friend. (I tried a couple of searches on Google. I had some luck using "photorescue" but none using "photo damage" or "photo restoration". The commercial photo restoration services filled it up the first few pages.)

The good part to the story was he contacted the people whose photos he found and they were able to give us 20 photos to restore. He also expressed an interest in joining OPR.

I don't know if you can do anything with getting Google to get us more visibility but I wanted to share this with you.

I want you to know I appreciate what you do to keep this site up and running.

David Gr

John · December 07, 2009, 01:53:40 AM

Thanks for the feedback. We do have a Google Grant that we are using to try and get ourselves visible on Google. We're using a general group of keywords relating to disasters and photo restoration that have been getting us about 5000 clicks a month. That's not a huge number, but we have a pretty narrow niche in a very competitive search category.

If you've got some ideas for search terms, please post them and I can add them to our ad budget on Google Ads.

Again, thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it.

John

Tess (Tassie D) · December 07, 2009, 05:57:27 PM

Here are the most popular meta keywords for the top ranking sites.

photo restoration, digital photo restoration, Photo Restoration Service, Photo Restore, flood Restored Photo,old photo restoration, photo restoration services, photo restoration tutorial, photo fixing and restoration, photo repair and restoration,photoshop photo restoration, photoshop restoration and retouching, photo restoration example, using photoshop, restoration photo, program, photo restore restoration, photograph restoration, photograph restore, photo photograph restoration, US photo restoration,

Mhayes · December 07, 2009, 08:48:33 PM

Thanks Tess! That was really interesting and may help us with more keywords that will get more users headed our way.

Margie

John · December 09, 2009, 09:30:12 PM

thanks Tess!

Marydh · December 11, 2009, 10:07:33 AM

I tried to "chip in" using the chip in button but
it doesn't seem to be working for me. Any
suggestions?
Mary

Tori803 · December 11, 2009, 11:23:41 AM

I also took a look at the chipin link and the page said it hadn't been updated since 2008.

Marydh · December 11, 2009, 12:34:48 PM

I used the yellow donate button and it did fine.
Mary

startup_eng1 · December 13, 2009, 06:58:46 AM

Just a suggestion. The website RetouchPro recognizes those members who donate by placing the word "Patron" below their name in the forum. This is in addition to the forum member level status. It's kind of neat to see who is walking the talk so to speak. Does the OPR forum software allow doing this?

Hannie · December 13, 2009, 03:05:06 PM

I wouldn't want anyone on the forum to know if I donated money to OPR. People that are struggling financially but donate their time to restore photos for flood vicitims would not get that extra bit of recognition, I think that would be wrong.

Hannie

Mhayes · December 13, 2009, 03:12:40 PM

I'm not sure that our website is capable of doing the "Patron" as well as the member's status for number of post. I'm also not sure that I want to go there for two reasons. One, right now I have members who have donated generously and are now suffering financial hardship with savings depleted and their spouses have been laid off. There are others who joined in that say on their sign up form: I can't help you money wise, but I can donate my time and talent. Many members have given of their time, so the idea of having walking the talk has already been shown. Two, the forum seems to be an inner group that really doesn't reach the majority of members. I wish it wasn't so, but interest in participating comes and goes. Some members feel like they don't have time to read the forum, others prefer to only do the restoring--so what do you do?

Next year we hope that we can pool our ideas together for better ways to make OPR grow stronger and I have no doubt that we.

Margie

Atlantis · December 14, 2009, 06:02:20 AM

I totally agree with Hannie. Some people have time and talent, that's their donation. Others don't have time or talent but do have (some) money to donate. I think both kind of donations are equally important. Only money would not get the restores done, would it.

John · December 14, 2009, 10:18:23 PM

We have let the ChipIn run its course until our next official fund raiser, hence it's grayed out status. If you would still like to make a donation, the easiest way is via the donate button on the donate page. When we are ready to launch another formal fund raiser, we'll reactivate the ChipIn widget.