2012 Annual Letter to Friends of A2Ethics.org

Dear Friends of A2Ethics.org

As a longtime ethics teacher and aspiring civic ethicist, I’ve been thrilled to see A2ethics.org develop from a tell-all blog and flog into a confident, growing, nonprofit news-and-ideas website and nonpartisan events organization.

Day by day, we're expanding our role as reviewers, storytellers and reporters of the local ethics scene. Our mission is unpretentious: to give ethics considerations and discussions a permanent voice--and place--in our corner of the world.

The Unique Appeal of A2Ethics.org

A2Ethics.org is not your typical ethics forum and web network. For one thing, we advocate--and support--live public explorations of ethics-related issues by local artists and actors. For another, we leverage the democratizing opportunities of communications technologies to host regular events that broaden the ethics talk space. Our very popular Working Ethics Podcast Series, available on iTunes, is just one example.

And yet another difference: we’re not affiliated with a university or think tank. Don't misunderstand. University ethics centers and think tanks are crucial to the ethics economy we want to help support and grow. But the fact is, we're far more likely to do our best thinking in a hot tub than in a fishbowl.

Finally, and most notably, A2Ethics.org is a community-based organization. We trust the community to bring ideas about ethics out into the open and to provoke grass-roots discussions of the big questions. Our now annual Big Ethical Question Slam, world-premiered at a local brewpub in 2011, affirms our community's affable interest (at least in lubricated settings) in working out answers to our biggest dilemmas of all.

And we rely on the community for support---to grow us both intellectually and financially.

Help us “ethicize” our corner of the world.

A2Ethics.org is working hard to become the best ethics news website as well as the leading civic innovator in the ethics economy of Michigan.

Ethics education does not come free. Our plan over the past four years has been to accomplish our goals as creatively and frugally as we can. Our operating budget remains steady, hovering annually around $17,000. Even so, we would like to have a more comfortable cushion. More importantly, to help create awareness of the big, and getting even bigger ethical questions of our time, we need to grow.

Consider this: if we raise $20,000, a modest but--for us--significant increase in our resources--we can sustain current successful launches, including the Michigan Ethics Economy Initiative, and take on several important new ventures. Among them:

Building on the favorable reception for Generational Leaders, a mentoring program for cultivating tomorrow's civic ethicists.
Investing in additional curated productions that bring ethics issues to the public in fresh, powerful, remixed and provocative ways, such as our 2011 co-sponsorship of "Liberty Awakes," a historical exhibit of the local woman's suffrage movement.
Securing support for The Ethical City project, an ambitious undertaking to study different municipal government ethics programs, and to encourage elected officials in Ann Arbor to consider a model City Ethics Code.

Together, we can make ethics a vital and innovative force within our society--and our economy.

By making a gift to A2Ethics.org now, you'll be helping to end an era where being mindful of ethics has been regarded as an enemy to success rather than as an essential companion to it. We know that even bringing up ethics in our society sometimes takes courage. We want to recognize you for doing it. On this site and through our events.

We plan to invest your gifts wisely, with courage...and with ethical awareness.

With sincere thanks,

Jeanine DeLay President