Thank you for your continued interest in the WantToKnow.info email list. I am most appreciative of the dozens of supportive emails I receive every week thanking me for the information provided. The website continues to grow in popularity. WantToKnow.info now averages almost 2,000 visits a day, and has received a total of 750,000 visits in our two and a half years of existence. A Google search for "WantToKnow.info" (include quotation marks) shows that over 6,000 webpages now link to us. The word is definitely getting out, and we are making a big difference! Thanks to each of you for helping to spread the word and for your continued commitment to building a brighter future.

Though I continue to be passionate about this work, at times lately, I've felt overwhelmed by the amount of work generated by this increased interest. For the past two years, I've been managing four websites, three email lists (now totaling over 1,600 subscribers), and answering an ever-increasing volume of emails every day with very little help. Most of the members of our WantToKnow.info team have made invaluable contributions by providing key information and advice, but I alone am the one who compiles all of this information, posts everything to the website, sends out emails to this list, and answers the large volume of emails sent to the websites. Though I have one regular volunteer who gives a few hours a week when he can and a couple other very occasional helpers, I have no one else helping me with all of this.

As a result, I have averaged well over 40 hours a week on this labor of love for the last two years. With the ever increasing volume of emails to be answered and all of the management aspects of this work, I've had very little time lately to work on improvements to the website or to review some of the excellent materials that some of you have sent me, or that I've learned about through my network of informants. I am most grateful that the $3,700 in donations we've received this year is a significant increase over last year's total of $750, yet we are still far from having enough to hire someone to help me with this important work.

I have thus far been committed to sending out email messages to this list once every two or three days. With all of the research, compilation, and adjustments necessary to compose each email and then post each message to the website, I've recently seen that my commitment to this frequency of emails is the main reason I end up feeling overwhelmed at times with this work. In order to move more fully from a place of passion and inspiration, I've decided that until we are able to hire some help, I will send out emails in the future less frequently. This could mean that some WantToKnow.info emails may still come only two days apart, while others may be separated by as much as a week or more, depending on the amount of time, energy, and enthusiasm I have available.

Right now, the main focus for WantToKnow.info is to get 501(c)(3) nonprofit status so that you can receive a tax deduction when you donate to us. This will likely take six months or so to complete, but in the long run it will enable us to receive more contributions and hopefully to hire some help. One of the key criteria to be granted official nonprofit status is a broad base of financial contributors. The more people who are willing to contribute even $10, the better it looks on our application. I would greatly appreciate a donation of even $10 from as many of you as feel called to support us in this. To send a check by mail, click here. You can make a secure donation by credit card at http://www.wanttoknow.info/donationswtk

I greatly appreciate help in any form that you might be able to offer. If you don't feel called to support with time or money, just forwarding the emails to your friends and colleagues helps to spread the news about our work and to inform others of all that is going on behind the scenes. I welcome any thoughts on all this, and again, thank you for all the warm and supportive thoughts and emails I've received from so many of you. Together, I have no doubt that we are making a big difference. Take care and have a great day!

With very best wishes,
Fred Burks for the WantToKnow.info team

P.S. If you've missed any emails we've sent out, almost every message is archived by both date and subject on WantToKnow.info at http://www.WantToKnow.info/medianewsarticles  If you haven't seen it yet, I also highly recommend visiting our new webpage which lists the best of all information on our website at http://www.WantToKnow.info/bestinformation