Time flies when you’re having fun.
While the Legal Insurrection website dates back to October 12, 2008, the tax-exempt Legal Insurrection Foundation was launched on March 1, 2019. Donations are tax-deductible.
For the full story behind the decision to launch the Foundation, see my March 1, 2019, post, Introducing the Legal Insurrection Foundation. Here’s the short version.
The Foundation is a research, investigative, and educational project that was been years in the making for me. I first considered forming such an entity in 2014, after the fights involving the American Studies Association adoption of the anti-Israel academic boycott. I’ve always been most proud of our original research, reporting, and investigation, but I was frustrated that our lack of resources did not allow us to do as much as we wanted in that and subsequent efforts.
Faced with the somewhat daunting task of putting it all together, my own tendency towards procrastination, and then family health issues, things got delayed. By years.
We finally filed in September 2017, and received IRS approval in March 2018. Even with that IRS approval in hand, it was uncertain whether the vision ever would become reality. Planning remained on hold through the summer and fall of 2018. Finally, in December 2018, with improvements in my wife’s health, we decided to go for it.
The legal, regulatory, accounting and operational requirements were more daunting and expensive than I anticipated. I made a substantial personal donation to the Foundation to get us started.
Someone once described us as “disrupters,” a characterization I hadn’t thought of before that. It is this spirit of disruption and impact that drove the website for a decade, and now drives the Foundation. Grabbing onto an issue, digging into an issue, driving a narrative, and not letting go, is what we do best. With the Foundation, we hoped to have more resources to do more.
That ‘soft’ March 1, 2019, rollout turned into a fast start. Here is a partial list of what we did in the year since launch:
Florida here we come: I have campus appearances on March 24-35-26 in Boca Raton, Gaineswille and Tallahassee, in that order. At the moment, we’ll likely have a reader ‘meet-and-greet’ in Boca Raton on March 24 from 5:00-6:30, location tba. We’ll have a separate announcement when details are worked out. We’re still considering the other locations. Let us know in the comments or by email if you are interested in Gainesville or Tallahassee get-togethers, so we can gauge interest.
Reader donations are so important to our efforts. I’m not understating it when I say we can’t do it without you. Our donation page allows donations by credit card or PayPal, or you can mail checks to Legal Insurrection Foundation, 18 Maple Ave #280, Barrington, RI 02806. All donations are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law.
As many of you know, I didn’t plan to start Legal Insurrection. It just happened after an argument with a liberal friend. I have told the story many times, but if you are not sick of it yet, you can listen to my on-stage conversation in Austin.
I can’t imagine not having started voicing my opinions. It would have been so much easier just to keep my mouth shut.
But maybe this all was meant to be. I have come to cherish so many of the people I have met along the way — bloggers, authors, readers, vendors, and now donors. The Foundation is a continuation of the Legal Insurrection mission. I’m honored to have your support.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY
