Further Up & Further In with CiRCE…

As you regular readers well know, we have recently kicked off a new fund raising campaign that, borrowing from C.S. Lewis’s fantastic Narnia book, The Last Battle, we are calling Further Up & Further In.

The purpose of this campaign is to raise funds so that we will be able to more effectively fulfill our mission and our goals, so that we will be able to help you instill wisdom and virtue in your students. More specifically, the purpose of this fund raising effort is to ensure that CiRCE will be able to achieve our primary goals, from a long term perspective as well as in the near future.

Raising $50,000 by December 31, 2009 will help us achieve these primary goals:

1. Complete the Lost Tools of Writing II
2. Fund the 2010 conference.
3. Build towards the creation of a CiRCE Journal
4. Provide for greater financial stability going forward.

But we don’t ask for your help without offering something in return. So, as thanks for your generosity, we are offering downloadable materials for anyone who makes even the smallest donation. Whether you donate $1 or $100 or $1000 there is a gift waiting for you.

As we wrote in our campaign letter, in return for your help, you will be able to download talks like Debbie Harris’s popular talk Understanding and Instilling a Love of Beauty, and Andrew Pudewa’s useful and inspiring, Teaching Boys and Other Kids Who Would Rather Be Playing In Forts. You can also download Ken Myers’ talk on how to Re-educate Oneself As An Adult, or Laura Berquist’s insightful talk about Assessing Student Performance. Also available soon will be articles in PDF format and book excerpts.

We understand that this rotten economic climate makes for an untimely season in which to request funds. But we hope that you will prayerfully consider joining us as we go Further Up & Further In.

Every little bit, every dollar, will help us put on next year’s conference, will help us improve The Lost Tools of Writing, will help us build towards creating a CiRCE Journal. Every little bit will help provide financial stability for the future.

Want to help us spread the word?

We live in a time dominated by the viral spread of information and many of you are bloggers; most of you email regularly. If even a few of our readers were to post a note on their blog or send a quick email we are sure to meet our goal.

You can help us go Further Up & Further In by doing any of the following:

– Promote our campaign by pasting the campaign letter (available here) on your blogs, or send it via email to your friends.
– Post a campaign image or banner on your blog or website.
– Set our website as the homepage in your browser
– Befriend us on Facebook
– Follow Andrew on Twitter
– Join the list for our E-mail newsletter, The CiRCE Papers
– Bookmark this blog
– Promote us on your own Facebook and Twitter pages

If you have already made a donation or helped spread the word, than thank you! While you’re at it, please let us know how we can improve. What should we do (or do better) to help you fulfill your goals as educators? In what ways can we help you cultivate wisdom and virtue in your students?

We look forward to working alongside you in the coming years as, together, we climb Further Up & Further In.