THE NATURIST LEGACY FILES
Our Fundraising: Pay Now or Pay Later
Our fundraising for Naturist Legacy Park has slowed to a crawl. We raised just $250 in December. We raised nothing at all in January. This is concerning, of course. We still have a lot of work to do. One way or another, that work is going to cost us!Just thinking about that fact reminded me of something the guys at the service department where I take my truck are always telling me: "You can pay us now...or you can pay us later." This is their not-so-veiled "carrot" and "stick" sales pitch to encourage me to spend more on scheduled maintenance. If I put more money into routine maintenance now, I'll have a better driving experience later. That's the "carrot." If I scrimp on routine maintenance now, I'll likely face much more expensive repairs later. That's the "stick." Either way, it's going to cost me!
There are elements of this "Pay us now or pay us later" proposition that actually fit pretty very well with where we're currently at in our fundraising effort. For example...
You're a couple. You've got a seasonal lot at Naturist Legacy Park and you've never done a pay forward. In a few weeks we'll be billing you $300 for membership fees and $600 for lot fees. That's a total of $900. Unless we change our pricing, we'll also be billing you $900 in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 for a total of $4500 over five years.
Whether you pay us $4500 in advance (with all of it credited back to you in five years), or whether you pay incrementally at $900 per year, your membership and lot fees are going to cost you the same amount over that five year period.
However...
If you pay us the full $4500 in advance — if you "pay us now" — we can use your money to build things that will benefit both you and your fellow nudists right now! By contrast, if you pay your $900 each year instead — if you "pay us later" — it will literally take us years and years to accumulate enough money to build or develop the kinds of things that so many of us (including you, ironically) would like...right now!
Here's another way the "Pay us now or pay us later" proposition applies to us:
When we originally began planning the development of Naturist Legacy Park, our washrooms and indoor showers were going to be located in one corner of our brand new clubhouse. However, fundraising did not keep pace with our planning and so the clubhouse had to be put on hold. We still needed washrooms, however, and so they ended up in a small building of their own. In the same way that vehicle maintenance delayed can often result in higher repair costs down the road, delaying the clubhouse resulted in standalone washrooms being built that cost us extra — probably a couple of thousand dollars extra! We can ill-afford these extra costs, of course, but we really had no choice. Any other projects that get postponed will also cost us more later because of inflation.
Pay us now or pay us later. "That's all well and good," I can hear this couple in my example saying, "but we'll be sacrificing investment income on that $4500 if we pay it to you all at once." Yes, you will, but please consider this: Whatever sacrifice we are asking you to make now pales in comparison to the sacrifice made by the seven Naturist Legacy founders who between them put up more than half of our entire $250,000 fundraising goal. Without their personal sacrifice, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now. Naturist Legacy Park would not exist. Organized, landed social nudism in Manitoba would not exist.
So yes, we are asking for a sacrifice from some of you...but only a small one. We now live in the days of low interest, low dividends and depressed stock prices, after all. The seven founders (none of whom are wealthy) have already done much more than their share of the "heavy lifting" for us, and we're all directly benefiting as a result. But they can't do it all — nor should they. We are all supposed to be in this together. Doesn't this mean that everyone should be doing their share — if they are able — to finish the task before us?
The founders have always understood that the reimbursement of their large pay forwards would take substantially longer than everyone else's (which, of course, represents yet another layer of sacrifice on their part). Though we really need your generous help, we're not asking you to pay forward more than we can credit back in five years...unless you wish to truly step up and join the ranks of the founders!
Here are the maximums that we can credit back in five years at current pricing:
If you're a couple with a seasonal lot, it's $4500.
If you're a single with a seasonal lot, it's $3750.
If you're a couple without a seasonal lot, it's $1500.
If you're a single without a seasonal lot, it's $750.
Can you pay us now instead of paying us later? If you've never done a pay forward to Naturist Legacy before, can you help us by making one now? If you've already done a pay forward, can you help us by topping it up to these maximums? Hitting these reasonable targets would greatly assist both the pace and the quality of our park's development. Not only that, it would also free you from ever having to write another cheque for membership or lot fees for the next five years. It would all be taken care of! Paid in advance. Paid in full.
You've seen ample evidence by now, we hope, that your board of directors can get the job done for you if it has the funds necessary to do the work required. This lack of funds is, in fact, the only major thing holding us back now. We need your help to close our fundraising shortfall and complete the good work that we've all started together.
Whether you pay us now or pay us later, it will pretty much cost you the same in the end. It will help Naturist Legacy Park and your fellow nudists enormously if you can pay us now. We hope that you'll consider doing just that!
Thank you so much!
John K., President
PS: Please don't forget that we also gratefully accept donations from members. They're worth twice as much as pay forwards to us because we don't have to credit them back!
SOURCE: This article was published in both the members and non-members editions of the February 1, 2012 Naturist Legacy News Update. Check out the 2012 Photo Galleries to see what was accomplished during this ambitious year of construction and development at Naturist Legacy Park.
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