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Read and share online: https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/help-keep-the-end-of-year-momentum-going-membership-drive-extended-to-january-20th

Dear Free Software Supporter,

We've been inspired by seeing the 262 new associate members who have decided to help us ring in the new year by joining the Free Software Foundation (FSF). We're sincerely grateful for the way they've answered the call by standing up for software freedom. We're just as grateful for all of the donations and membership renewals we've had during our year end drive. Since we've seen a strong show of support in the latter half of our appeal, we're extending the date to join and still receive one of the special pins we're offering to January 20th.

This late momentum isn't entirely unexpected. Due to supply chain delays in the mailing of the FSF Bulletin, many supporters are only just now receiving our report of the work we've done for computing freedom in the last sixth months.

Though small, the FSF staff is driven by their dedication to ensuring every computer user, everywhere can get all of the work (and play!) that makes up their digital lives done without surrendering their freedom. We hope that you'll help us continue in that mission, until we can accomplish it. We rely on your support and the support of others like you to keep up our work, like continuing resistance to Apple's power grabs, maintaining the tech infrastructure we provide to the world, and helping everyone make tangible improvements in their own freedom.

We're entering the FSF's thirty-seventh year of fighting for computing freedom. The landscape has changed in ways we couldn't have envisioned at the time of the FSF's founding, and yet, the principal issue remains the same: software freedom is a basic right of every user, and the cornerstone of a free digital society. We've made headway toward making sure that right is guaranteed in every computing environment, but there's still a long way to go. To help further our efforts, we're extending our membership drive until January 20th.

Our associate membership program helps us campaign for free software, protect the GPL, and support free software initiatives all over the world. Can you join this effort as an FSF associate member? It will enable us to carry our mission forward, and fight for your freedom in the coming year.

The more members we can count, the better we can help work for a world powered by free software and its ideals. This starts with achieving our goal of 500 new members. Associate members enjoy all of the member benefits, which include merchandise discounts, a 16GB bootable membership card, and use of our videoconferencing server.

An associate membership makes for more than just a show of support. It's a way of acting on your principles and moral convictions, and doing your part to let the world (and especially the proprietary software developers in it!) that freedom should be the norm rather than the exception. As the recent message from FSF president Geoff Knauth mentions, our associate members will have the opportunity to help shape the next steps of the free software movement.

Since each year tends to bring new and worrisome developments on the part of proprietary software, our commitment to freedom needs to be proactive rather than merely reactive. Together, as the free software community, we've already had a tremendous impact on freedom in the digital world, but we shouldn't rest content here. We need to work hard to reach the finish line, and bring digital autonomy to all. Together, I know we can do it.

In freedom,

Greg Farough
Campaigns Manager