Why Would I Donate?
What we've done so far. We've been able to fund Help Me Stream Research Foundation (HMSRF) internally for the past 16 months, starting on December 31, 2019, long before the current pandemic caused a drastic change in streaming consumption and delivery. With no amount of irony, we've funded HMSRF mainly through research projects that surveyed streaming industry leaders on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in areas as diverse as education, entertainment, and enterprise usage.
We've also been preparing for the post-pandemic streaming future by identifying test locations— including those that have zero connectivity, to allow true mobile delivery testing without interference—as well as a future office locations that has a large-enough storage component to help house the gear donations that we expect in the next few months. We're currently renting at a very reasonable rate, and even providing consulting to the ETSU 501(c)3 research foundation from which we're renting, in order to stay as lean as possible.
While our primary mission is to test donated equipment, learn from these tests, and provide NGOs with our findings on how to best stream their critical messaging (often in less-than-ideal environments) there are some instances where we'll also need your help in funding Help Me Stream Research Foundation.
A few examples are the occasional need to buy gear to test, if we can't get specific donations. Other examples are services for testing (think cloud-based multi-site testing) as well as infrastructure and test-preparation equipment purchases. Those needs would be both for our US-based test/office facilities, as well as for specific in-the-field projects.
On top of that, we'll also have occasional needs to pay for contractors, on-site assistance, travel, and other mission-focused expenses.
So while we're trying to run as lean as possible, without compromising the overall mission to NGOs in our three key focus areas, we'd be grateful for any donations of financial funding, mobile or computing gear, heavy or test equipment, and engineering or training time.