I've been enjoying this - thanks John. If I didn't have my limited disposable budget for contributions tied up in a couple projects I'm involved with I'd send you something. You demonstrate credibility, growth, a competent management in an understandable structure, and good groundwork and planning. Your ask is for a reasonable amount of funding to complete a project that's already well advanced, so you are essentially trying to tie up the loose ends of what's already a success.

I was an English major a long time ago, and the skills you need to write good solicitations or grant proposals isn't covered in the curriculum - just the technicalities of communication in language, and I didn't even get deeply into that in my area of study. A person skilled in the specialties of development - whether contracted or developed in house - is what's required to produce dollars. Good fund raisers are out there if you don't have your own - look by working through any local or regional nonprofit advocacy group. Ethical fund raisers don't work on a contingency basis, you pay them for the work they do, and their efforts will require you have good information to give them to work with, so get your houses in order first.

Mr. Lewis,

Saying I write faster than I think, you are (Yoda)? Nooooo......come on! Maybe you know me too well? Okay, yes often I type much faster than I think. I am also ADD. They have come to find that most high level CEO's are ADD/ADHD. I am an out of the closet foamer, too. Anything else you want to know about me? :-)

GW75 (I like your name....reminds me of a locomotive I ran at HVRR many years ago...I had some great fireman on that locomotive.....!!!)

The problem I have with social media is the dumbing down of our young people. My children are not allowed to use words or phrases like "r u comin tnight" You English majors know that language is a constantly changing and evolving method of communication. It has evolved since the beginning of time. However, the degradation of language is far different from the evolution of language. As such, we strive to maintain a balance between what we post on social media, making sure it remains in line with our more formal means of communication, our web page. Themes and consistency are critical. You don't see different themes, logos, pictures or media when you move between our web page and our social media pages. Sometimes I feel like we "dumb down" on RYPN. Why should we not all strive to be better at what we say and post and not "bumber." (not a word, right?)

Thanks for the kind words, Dave.

Though we are very grateful for the kind words, support and the financial contributions, when you look at my original post, I intend to do this thread as an experiment to see which would generate more support. Over the past 24 hours, we have had pledged to us well over $800.00 in donations! THANK YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH. It is all very kind and will be used well.

In contrast, over the past 24 hours, the Chinese Engine has had a total of, what appear to be, zero new donations.

Our social media pages have seen a total of what appear to be 44 new views, the bulk of which are on the WRRC Facebook page, followed by the Railcar Repair Page, followed by Cheyenne Steamers. Our web page for Cheyenne Steamers has seen what appear to be very few new views. This is a little more difficult to track. We watch our pages and the views to see how certain pages, like RYPN, TO and our on line advertising bring us traffic. The truth is, it is all a numbers game. The higher the numbers, the higher the exposure, the higher the potential, the higher the end outcome.

This experiment could come to a close. It is my hope that what has been proven is;

Have a game plan and have it detailed way beyond the fact that "trains are cool."

Be very open book and willing to show/provide anything and everything if asked.

Make sure you keep the cart behind the horse and as noted, have the house in order first.

Make a good presentation. Hire an English major or at least somebody who rights (ha ha) better than I do!!!!

Make sure you have skin in the game, a real tangible project and some good history behind it. If you have all of these things I suggest that you go start a campaign. Too many of you have some great ideas and you do nothing with them, while too often, we see some poor ideas that actually took action. Maybe we should try to turn that tide?

Thanks again for the donations so far. If any of you want to donate you can contact me direct or mail a donation to;

Cheyenne Steamers
P.O. Box 20425
Cheyenne, WY. 82003

We will mail you confirmation of the donation and a letter noting our tax status.

I can be reached at info@wrrc.us If you wish to call, please dial 307-778-7458.

It is my hope that this helped. It was intended to help, not hurt. Thanks for the great thread!

JohnE.

I would almost call it "Web 2.5". Web 2.0 was just about 10 years ago now and I can see evolutions since then.



And he's done a great job with it too, and (mostly because of the contributions of one or two of the other members) it's brought out some fantastic historic images that we wouldn't have otherwise seen.



That is a big challenge. Although I am surprised sometimes at how many older people are on Facebook, its not enough and we still need to use other methods of reaching people.

I should also mention that we have worked with our local Lions Club, which is full of a great bunch of older-generation people. This last Cheyenne Depot Days, they operated their little rubber-tired train out in the parking lot next to our venue and directed people who were getting on and off the shuttle busses that provided easy access to our venue. (Bringing this back to the original topic...) The Lions club does many other charitable and fundraising events, and some of them may have those grant-writing skills as well, so this is another great resource to have in terms of networking and finding sources of money. I'm sure there are a lot of other places where you can find a concentration of a particular demographic, and gear your marketing appropriately.

Maybe this has been mentioned before, but another aspect of "credibility" for a crowdfunding cause is to look at how many different sources are they trying to tap for money or other in-kind donations? You mentioned risk earlier, and if the burden of risk is shown to be spread out and/or minimized, then it become a more feasible project. It seems the Chinese Locomotive deal is relying solely on GoFundMe donations, whereas we can say, "Look, we already had donors, etc. contribute to the construction of this water tower, other donors are contributing to other projects on the site, we just need a little extra help with the installation of this thing."

Another thing to consider is that some (not all) of these crowdfunding services are an all or nothing deal. Either you raise your goal of half a million dollars, or you don't get a single dime. While that may be an extreme example, it's unfortunate when 30 or 50% of the goal amount is still a sizable chunk that could do some good. It would be better to break down the project into smaller, manageable, and realistic chunks. In essence, we will take whatever we can get, so even if we can't completely fund the project with one source, we will find ways to make up the difference, or put the project on hold until we can make it work.

Other exposure we're doing this winter: Since the two locomotives we have won't be running until spring, they are working hard as static displays. Currently our Cagney No. 2 is on display with the Sherman Hill Model Railroad Club, which just moved into a suite in the Frontier Mall across from the movie theaters. (https://www.facebook.com/cheyenne.steam ... =3&theater) The locomotive is displayed in the window on a rolling stand. Two sign holders sit on the tender and discuss a brief history of the 1911 Cagney with a few pictures, and then mentions that folks will be able to see the locomotive run next summer at the park.

Our Crown Locomotive No. 119 will be on display later this week to help promote Christmas charity at a local business.

Unfortunately, tourist railroads don't have the luxury of placing their equipment on display at various locations around town during the off season. ;-)

Actually, Mike, some of us can and do - here's Esmerelda, mid-restoration, taken out of the barn with the paint temporarily touched up and dressed up for the Belmont Parade last Saturday. Belmont Trolley isn't operating yet, but we are engaging the public as best we can.

This forum needs a "like" button.

Very nice! So, Mike Pannell ("car57") had UP Caboose No. 2516 on site at our park this summer, now back in covered storage at his facility outside of town. The hopes are next year Car 57 itself will be an attraction at the park, provided the needed roof work and weatherproofing can get done. (Hmmm... Sounds like a candidate for a GoFundMe campaign...)

.

We like to think that Caboose 2516 added to the Cheyenne Steamers park this last summer, it was certainly popular and illustrated the history of a famous Union Pacific icon. We had a few dollars in donations and many many children enjoyed climbing and jumping all over the caboose and learning about the purpose of a caboose, even some adults had no idea why a caboose was on the end of a train.
We High Plains Railroad Preservation are a Non Profit 501c3 and we would love to hear from any who would like to support the re roofing of Car57 our 1887 Pullman car so that she can see the light of day next spring. We also will be taking on a 1923 UP CA-1 caboose this winter and will be unique in having 2 consecutive build UP cabooses in our care.
Contact us via private message on RYPN ....thanks in advance.

Mike Pannell

Meant to add this....fascinating thing is people are astonished to hear the Miniature locomotive is 3 years older than the caboose......

Mike