A Little Year-End Help, Please?
2021 has been a bizarrely contradictory one for the Endangered Alphabets.
On the one hand, it has been our most ambitious and successful year of our 11-year life. Highlights include:
* the creation of Ulus: Legends of the Nomads, an entirely original tabletop game designed to promote traditional Mongolian culture, language, and calligraphy that is drawing rave reviews especially from, most importantly, Mongolians;
* an enormously successful three-part Zoom series for the Library of Congress on endangered and emerging scripts of Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia;
* the first live Alphabets presentation in two years, at the US Naval Academy; and
* the publication of Endangered Alphabets Carvings, the latest Alphabets book.
On the other hand:
* the impact of COVID meant that two other Alphabets books have been delayed a year by their publishers;
* our ability to bring the Alphabets to the public has been dramatically curtailed for the same reason; and
* after our phenomenally successful 2020 Kickstarter campaign had funded our game Ulus, the worldwide delays in the supply chain cost us $10,000, and on top of that the cost of shipping the game mats and shagai from Mongolia, for which we were quoted $1,500, ended up with us receiving a bill for more than $8,000.
All of which is to say: I believe we are doing a good job, the right job, the job our supporters want us to do–but we could certainly use a little help. If we could raise $5,000 by January 1, we would be in a much better position to pay that shipping bill!
So, if year-end giving is part of your financial strategy, it would be wonderful if you would consider including the Endangered Alphabets Project. Donations can be made at https://www.
Thanks so much–and may your 2022 be the year we have all been hoping for since 2019.
Tim
