Suggestions on paid subscriptions of IV

[up_guy]

Suggestions on paid subscriptions of IV

Currently IV seems to have paid subscriptions for minimums of $25 for a commitment of 6 months and 12 months. My suggestion is that if IV reduce it for lower amounts such as $5 for life or until you become US citizen or $10 or $15 per months for 24 months then more people will become paid members and it will result overall higher collected amount each month.
IV can also keep higher amounts for people who wanted to contribute more.
Regards
Manish

[amitjoey]

You have a good suggestion. However, I would like to point out that in the past IV only had a $50 or $100 recurring option. IV members then had the same argument that if we have a smaller option like $25/month we might get more members to contribute. Now that we have that option, we want $5/month.

There is an option for members that only want to do $5 a month. Do a $60 one time a year. The problem with setting $5 option a month is a lot of the $5 will be eaten by fees (Transaction fees. Ex:Paypal fees). If members send checks, can you imagine having to collect $5 checks from 100 people and depositing it. That is a lot more work for IV Volunters (whoever is doing the accounting).

Frankly, We have a lot of members (approx 30,000). But only a small fraction of those contribute. We cannot achieve anything with the small sum of money we collect with member contributions. While, IV recognises that it is a tough economy and appreciates recurring contributions, The fact remains that it is just not enough. We are up against non-immigrant lobby groups that raise 20 times more money than us.

All members need to contribute, but we all know that is not going to happen. Only a few members will contribute. Those of us who do contribute, should try to do atleast $25/month recurring. Alternatively, members can always do a one time contribution of any amount.

[sanju_dba]

You have a good suggestion. However, I would like to point out that in the past IV only had a $50 or $100 recurring option. IV members then had the same argument that if we have a smaller option like $25/month we might get more members to contribute. Now that we have that option, we want $5/month.

There is an option for members that only want to do $5 a month. Do a $60 one time a year. The problem with setting $5 option a month is a lot of the $5 will be eaten by fees (Transaction fees. Ex:Paypal fees). If members send checks, can you imagine having to collect $5 checks from 100 people and depositing it. That is a lot more work for IV Volunters (whoever is doing the accounting).

Frankly, We have a lot of members (approx 30,000). But only a small fraction of those contribute. We cannot achieve anything with the small sum of money we collect with member contributions. While, IV recognises that it is a tough economy and appreciates recurring contributions, The fact remains that it is just not enough. We are up against non-immigrant lobby groups that raise 20 times more money than us.

All members need to contribute, but we all know that is not going to happen. Only a few members will contribute. Those of us who do contribute, should try to do atleast $25/month recurring. Alternatively, members can always do a one time contribution of any amount.

Thanks for the details...
I was just curious and ran some numbers after looking at paypals website. please correct for any corrections...

MEMBERS EACH beforefees 1.9% 0.30/trax Effective$
5000 $5.00 $25,000.00 $475.00 $1,500.00 $23,025.00
10000 $5.00 $50,000.00 $950.00 $3,000.00 $46,050.00
15000 $5.00 $75,000.00 $1,425.00 $4,500.00 $69,075.00
20000 $5.00 $100,000.00 $1,900.00 $6,000.00 $92,100.00
25000 $5.00 $125,000.00 $2,375.00 $7,500.00 $115,125.00
30000 $5.00 $150,000.00 $2,850.00 $9,000.00 $138,150.00

Please add comments .... Lets fuel up again with more reasons

[amitjoey]

That is the cost to the members- (buyers of services- In paypal terminology).
I do not know what the cost is to IV (Which is seller of services- In paypal terminology).

[Rb_newsletter]

I feel 'people not donating' is not directly connected with money. For example lets aasume tomorrow USCIS opens up a premium service for 485 approval saying you pay $50,000 and your 485 processing will be completed within 6 months and this queue has unlimited visa numbers. Will people not pay 50K and get into that queue? I would say 50% of IV members would pay and make use of that.

The point is not about affordability.

[cbpds]

Excatly, there is no compelling reason that IV has provided for us to join like the case below.

I feel 'people not donating' is not directly connected with money. For example lets aasume tomorrow USCIS opens up a premium service for 485 approval saying you pay $50,000 and your 485 processing will be completed within 6 months and this queue has unlimited visa numbers. Will people not pay 50K and get into that queue? I would say 50% of IV members would pay and make use of that.

The point is not about affordability.

[sanju_dba]

I feel 'people not donating' is not directly connected with money. For example lets aasume tomorrow USCIS opens up a premium service for 485 approval saying you pay $50,000 and your 485 processing will be completed within 6 months and this queue has unlimited visa numbers. Will people not pay 50K and get into that queue? I would say 50% of IV members would pay and make use of that.

The point is not about affordability.

You are right , its not about affordability, but I guess its the state of mindset.
You buy services with a preset fees and expect outcome. ( affordability )
You Contribute/Donate for a cause...
- Expect outcome ( easy way to justify your donations , current members who are contributing )
- Donot expect outcome ( very tough to get donations , need to focus on this group ).

[up_guy]

If IV has to be a bigger and mass organization then it must be able to have capacities to receive any donated amount through credit cards and pay palls as I don't think these options require any manual work in receiving the money. If just 20,000 people gives $5 each month then its become $100,000 collection each month.
By keeping lower amount IV can get members paying $5 or $10 per months even after getting GC and getting citizenships just for good cause. I am pretty sure that overall net collection will go up and more people will prefer to be a paid member than now.

[dummgelauft]

Suggestions on paid subscriptions of IV

Currently IV seems to have paid subscriptions for minimums of $25 for a commitment of 6 months and 12 months. My suggestion is that if IV reduce it for lower amounts such as $5 for life or until you become US citizen or $10 or $15 per months for 24 months then more people will become paid members and it will result overall higher collected amount each month.
IV can also keep higher amounts for people who wanted to contribute more.
Regards
Manish

I agree, IV should be a paysite with a more reasonable ($5,$7..$10 per month) or a $100.0/year type of SUBSCRIPTION. This will help accomplish :

(1) More collection
(2) Less, way less obnoxious, pointless and divisive postings (Like the ones by this "Blog Feeds" dude.
If would rather run an organisation with 5000 serious, contributing members, who dutifully pay $5 or $7 every month (that leads to $ 25,000.0 per month!!, BTW. This is WAY more than the $10,000.0 goal of IV), than a losely put together clump of people who can vent for free (I am guilty of this myself). This will guarantee a steady flow of funds to IV.

[greyhair]

I watched different forums for over 2 year without contributing and without posting anything. I have already spent more than $15,000 on the lawyers who never return my phone call. Then I realized that this forum is giving me more value than my lawyer. Every couple of days I read the posts from Pappu/Admin in the forum. For me that is worth more than $25. I have read different views on different forums for last 2 years. The make-up of people on these forums is such that I don't think reducing or increasing subscription will change anything substantially. If IV want more members then they should remove subscription. Reducing subscription will NOT bring more people to contribute. Increasing subscription will bring more donations.

[sanju_dba]

Things that can push

Privileges like
only a active paid subsribed member can post new threads.
access to donor only threads can continue and can eloborate.
Can do search/advance search.

[ravi.shah]

I agree IV must become a paid forum IF IV is in need of raising more money and that in raising that money it will be able to help much more to raise peoples voice with the Govt.

This is my 1st/2nd post, but i am a heavy reader of IV. I am sure 60% people are here just to read and increase their knowledge. Secondly, I am a desi by nature. I will not shell out even 1c for an item if its available for free. Its not that I cannot afford, but its my nature.

3. The amount of knowledge people share on this forum is extra ordinary. Geniune people will definately be willing to pay some money to be a part of forum. Infact I beleive, if people are forced to pay up for the subsciption, they will want to post up in the forum too rather than just reading (people like me). This will only mean even more knowledge sharing !!

What say you guys ???

[easygoer]

All marketing guys here can confirm what I have to say. More visitors to IV bring up it's advertisement rate high. So each visitor directly or indirectly contribute to IV as I see lot of advertisements (lawyers etc ) nowadays on IV.

This does'nt mean we should not donate but we should not restrict the visitors in this internet age.

[sanju_dba]

All marketing guys here can confirm what I have to say. More visitors to IV bring up it's advertisement rate high. So each visitor directly or indirectly contribute to IV as I see lot of advertisements (lawyers etc ) nowadays on IV.

This does'nt mean we should not donate but we should not restrict the visitors in this internet age.

I am guessing , these ads are cash only when its clicked on, now imagine what kind of cash we are looking at.

[PresidentO]

Suggestions on paid subscriptions of IV

Currently IV seems to have paid subscriptions for minimums of $25 for a commitment of 6 months and 12 months. My suggestion is that if IV reduce it for lower amounts such as $5 for life or until you become US citizen or $10 or $15 per months for 24 months then more people will become paid members and it will result overall higher collected amount each month.
IV can also keep higher amounts for people who wanted to contribute more.
Regards
Manish

Joke?? Or Serious?? Why not take 1$ or even 1c from members? Your value for this effort is 5$ a month and you are naively assuming that 20,000 others will also feel and follow your 5$ mantra. Get real dude! oh B T W, you are not the first one to suggest this. Its the mind set. There are people on this forum who are citizens and GC holders and still are committed to the cause and donate 50/100$. Its us who dont have a GC need to be committed to the cause and I am sure as some one said people will bring money out of the hole if CIS has premium processing for 50K but think that 25$ is too much.

Mind set guys! Do we ever change?