Thank You! Happy New Year!

I really, really dislike fundraising.  More precisely, I hate to ask people for money.  I’m happy to go out and encourage people to give to good causes, of course.  And I have several good causes — the Interpreter Foundation is certainly way high up there on my list, as well as a principal responsibility of mine — to which I’m more than happy to call attention.

But when it comes to sitting across from specific people, face to face, and asking them for contributions, I really hate it.  I find it embarrassing.  I dread rejection.  I dread their embarrassment when confronted with the request.  I’m delighted to talk about what we’re doing, but when the “ask” comes — if, as often happens, there is somebody else there to actually make it — I tend to look at the floor.

That said, I have to do it.  (I did it today, up in Park City, with people visiting from out of state who have already been remarkably kind and generous.)

I really believe, for example, in the Witnesses film project that we’ve undertaken, and in the good that has been done and that will be done by the Interpreter Foundation.  And I know that, even though lots and lots of volunteer time and energy is being given by many people, especially to the Interpreter Foundation itself, these undertakings demand money.  They cannot be done without costs.

We have come as far as we have only because of generous contributions of time, energy, enthusiasm, and sometimes rather tedious labor, as well as generous financial donations.  Without the uncompensated work of scores of authors, for example, Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship would have nothing to publish.  Without the dedicated efforts of source checkers, editors, peer reviewers, and page-layout specialists, we wouldn’t dare to publish.  Without the consecrated labor of people doing bookkeeping and secretarial tasks, Interpreter would soon entropically collapse into the chaotic and ineffective disorganization that is my own personal native element.

So now, as we in the place where I’m currently typing approach within hours of the end of 2019, I want to thank all of those who have contributed, in small ways and in great, to the successes, thus far, of the Interpreter Foundation.  Especially to those who have contributed during 2019.  In many ways, it has been a banner year.

But even better things are in store.

Which means that I’m also issuing a warning.  Most of you have a few more hours to make a financial contribution to Interpreter (or to any and all other charitable organizations of your choice).  But we’re not going to be done with fundraising at the close of 2019.

So I’ll be back.  We’ll still need donations.  (If you happen to read this in 2020, you can still send in a contribution.)

We’ll still need volunteers.  We’re picking up the pace.  (If you’ve been paying attention, some of that has already been evident.)

Whatever you do or don’t do, however, I know that I speak for everybody involved with the Interpreter Foundation in wishing you a wonderful, healthy, satisfying, and prosperous 2020.

Sincerely,

Daniel Peterson