Update, 2014 Aug 29: Unfortunately, this fundraising effort did not pan out. Only one individual reached out with a "pledge" for the EFF; rather than go through the rigmarole of collecting a single donation, I simply took him at his word that he donated the pledged amount, and set him up with a signed copy of Clojure Programming. Yes, this means I still have a pile of the books sitting idle.
Through a strange set of circumstances, I recently came into a decent-sized cache of copies of Clojure Programming (which I co-authored, in case the blatant self-promotion to the right didn't tip you off already). The only other likely option for them was to lay disused for some years, and then end up in the bin; so, I bought them (at a steep discount) from the prior owner, not quite knowing what I'd do with them.
If I didn't live in the hinterlands, I'd just drop them off at the nearest gathering of Clojure enthusiasts; but, lugging boxes of books hours away to Boston or New York had little appeal. My next thought was to simply sell them, but the economics are just crummy, given the PITA logistics of handling payments, boxing, and shipping for one book at a time, all for something like $15 or so net. (Yes, sorry, I'll file this under #firstworldproblems.)
But, a better idea came eventually, one that I hope enough of you will cotton to to make an impact:
Surely you're familiar with the EFF already; if not, you should be.
The "rules" here are very simple; basically, this is a first-price sealed-bid auction:
If it's not completely clear, I'll not be keeping a single cent of the pledged amounts; everything will be going to the EFF. In fact, I'd like to use Dwolla if possible for all donations, which would effectively eliminate transaction fees; I'm pretty sure the EFF can do more with that 3% than Visa, Mastercard, and Paypal.
Sound good? Pledge away, and feel free to ask any questions here or via Twitter.