Friends of Underwater Sombrero:
As departure for the 2013 expedition to Sombrero is just days away, we find ourselves a bit frustrated at the lack of results we’re getting in our crowdfunding efforts. To date, the project has been blessed by the fact that the project team has covered the expedition travel expenses and we’ve had a few supporters chip in which has helped with some of the other project expenses, we are a far cry from being able to publish this book.
Please remember that once we get our book published, sales of the book will benefit the 
education and conservation mission of Reef Relief and images from the project will be contributed to the Marine Photobank, also helping others in their mission of conservation.
Based on current estimations, we’ll need to raise about $4000 to reach the next phase of our project. We still have plenty of images to capture and process, and we need to look forward to expenses such as obtaining an ISBN number and printing costs. We could really use your help.
You may remember that we’ve already tried the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter and they failed us. While we reached out to our network, what we expected from Kickstarter was some assistance expanding that network. We received none. You can read more about the Kickstarter results here. Since then, we’ve been managing our crowdfunding efforts on our own, and while we’ve had some success, we’re still dealing with the fact that our network isn’t as big as it needs to be.
You can help! We aren’t asking for donations. If you wish to make one, you can do so on our donations page. We certainly won’t turn it down. What we’d rather do is have you buy a piece of the project and have something to show for your support! Our funding incentives page details how you can do just that. We have funding incentives starting at just $10!
If a financial contribution isn’t in your budget, you can still help by telling people about our project. Get your friends to like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter. The more people that know about our project, the more likely we are to find some that are willing to help with the crowdfunding.
Don’t forget that everyone making an effort to help out our project will be recognized as a project backer, both here on the website and in the book itself. Be sure to check out our backers page to see those that have already helped out!
Watch for more images soon! As I write this, it’s less than 48 hours until we’re headed to Sombrero again!
As always, we thank everyone for the support!
Steve, Dee, Elizabeth, Dennis and Robert – The Underwater Sombrero Project Team
