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Read and share online: https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/thank-you-and-a-very-warm-welcome-to-our-new-members

Dear Free Software Supporter,

Please help us share our appreciation.

January 20, 2023 marked the end of our most recent fundraising campaign and associate member drive. We are proud to add 330 new associate members to our organization, and we have immense appreciation for the community that helped us get there.

We may have not reached our ambitious goal of welcoming 455 new associate members to the FSF, but we'd rather fail at meeting high expectations than aim too low from the outset. In the end, hundreds of new members signed up for the first time, and even more renewed. We were humbled throughout this fundraiser to see that, despite not making our goal, support for us this year has been immense. We want to express our appreciation to all of you, the contributors and supporters, who helped us raise more than $400,000 during this year-end fundraiser campaign. Those who donated $500 or more and give their permission can be publicly acknowledged in the monthly newsletter, the Free Software Supporter, as well as on our social media channels. Look for such donors via the hashtag #ThankGNU.

New memberships mean new connections in the movement, and we are grateful for each and every one of them. Fiscal contributions help the FSF continue to do our important work of protecting user freedom and along with that, protecting the freedom to share -- the focus of this year's appeal.

We wholeheartedly thank you for all forms of participation in the free software movement -- everything from financial support to contributing code to contributing to the Free Software Directory (FSD). And we also want to express our deep appreciation for those who took action in activities such as the International Day Against DRM (IDAD), which was held recently on December 16, 2022.

We receive so much continuous support and community involvement throughout the year. Looking back, we started this fundraiser with volunteers assisting us to send thousands of copies of the latest Free Software Bulletin, along with personalized letters, to our associate members all over the world. The volunteers of the LibrePlanet committee then began working hard to create a thrilling schedule for our annual conference (soon to be released). The ongoing support of the licensing team, which sometimes goes unseen, was described in detail in our last blog post, bringing light to their valued work. And the tech team volunteers and interns are currently performing server upgrades and many other tasks that, way too often, stay invisible from the public's attention. We have sincere appreciation for all of this generous volunteer support from the wider free software community.

Continue your support

Please continue to defend the freedom to share. Talk to your friends and family about what sharing means to you. Write a blog about it, make a video, or post a comment using the hashtag #FreedomToShare on social media networks. You can also share our #FreedomToShare videos, which bring to light how common the desire to share software, music, and e-books really is.

Continue your involvement

The FSF is inviting all current associate members to nominate candidates to serve on the board of directors. We encourage you to nominate people who share our strong commitment to our mission and values. FSF board nominations are now open until March 3, 2023, 10:00 EST (15:00 UTC), through the nomination form at https://my.fsf.org/board-nomination-form. For more information please visit the announcement of the nomination process.

Upcoming: LibrePlanet 2023

We invite you to join us for this year's conference. Software freedom in education advocate Erin Rose Glass will keynote, and we will soon announce our second keynote speaker. No matter if you plan on attending in person or online, please register to help us prepare. In anticipation of this year's event, you can read more about why it's fun to participate in the conference on Amin Bandali's blog post. Several volunteers have already signed up to help with the organization of the event. You can help both online or in person, and if you are eager to join them, please email [email protected].

Yours in freedom,

Miriam Bastian
Program Manager