black_cats_tell_all
#AdorableAdoptables & Shelter Stories

Black Cats Tell All: Plan B includes #btC4a

July 15, 2016 / 38 Comments
If you love cats, sharing makes us purrrr :-)

Black Cats Tell All: Plan B includes Blog the Change for Animals, a quarterly event where bloggers come together to share ideas and organizations with the purpose of being the change for animals.

There are endless ways humans can help animals from doing TNR, volunteering at a shelter or advocating for a cause. I’ve been involved in cat rescue and advocacy for twenty years which paved the way for spearheading Black Cats Tell All, a book project with the goal of helping rebrand black cats as more adoptable.

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Our 30 day Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for Black Cats Tell All, our nonprofit book ended last night. There were no popping of Champagne corks but we celebrated anyway. The campaign generated over 200 backers from 11 countries and close to $9000 but did not reach its goal which means zero dollars. The support and offers for private funding is beyond anything I could have imagined but there is a long way to go. About a week ago, I felt it was time for a serious Plan B. The weird thing is had everything gone to plan, Plan B, a better plan and I believe a better book, could not have materialized.

So much happened, I’d like to share the last entry of my diary The Secret I Didn’t Tell You that I shared privately with my backers. It’ll give you a better idea about the journey. It’s long and I doubt most readers won’t have time to read it all but I felt it was important to mark this passage formally. I’m only keeping it up for a few days so don’t bookmark it. What’s most annoying since writing it and the campaign ended, I’m getting sad messages from backers who didn’t get my update, don’t know about Plan B, thinking the campaign failed and the dream is dead. I have no idea if I can reach them to tell them otherwise.

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Kickstarter is an unforgiving platform. You can’t extend a project or edit certain things after launching. After a campaign ends, you can’t change or remove any content which stays on the the Kickstarter website forever. I decided to remove most of the campaign content and will create a streamlined version for a mini-Kickstarter launching next week and lasting only a few days. Moving forward, we’re looking at a POD and e-book launching in October but need to rustle up the remaining backers or find new ones. The most valuable outcome of the intense journey were the hundreds of messages, emails and conversations with supporters and black cat tribe members. I felt the book needed to be more than stories with a few photos. It needed a visual punch of more images. I’m not going to share all my secrets but I’m putting out a call for photo submissions.

Email me if you think your cat would like to be included. Share this post with anyone with a fabulous black cat. There is a small submission fee in lieu of a donation to the project. After all, it is a nonprofit and 100% of proceeds goes toward our black cat awareness campaign to promote shelter adoption. If for any reason the photo is not used, the donation will be returned. So give me your best shot! Max 3 images per entry in as high res. quality as possible.

The project still has wonderful stories including one from Cole of Cole and Marmalade and a glowing book blurb from Homer the blind cat author, NY times bestselling writer, Gwen Cooper. We also have exciting sponsor interest for other collaborative projects. All that’s missing are a few more sponsors. If you’ve already made a contribution, thank-you. If you pledged recently, you can either contribute privately by check to the nonprofit (email me for the address) or pledge again next week. Anyone who pledged to the campaign, please note: your credit card or debit card was not debited. For backer questions about payment, visit Kickstarter FAQ

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