International Spaceflight Museum

[Update, March - all five items drew sponsorship/gift bids, raising a total of U$78 for ISM. Thanks to all the bidders!]====================================
International Spaceflight Museum
Exhibit Sponsorship Program auctions
February, 2008
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Five exhibits are up for auction this month.

To submit a bid on eBay:
1. Go to http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZism_exhibits
   OR
   a. Go to www.eBay.com .
   b. Click on “Advanced Search” near the top.
   c. In the Search panel on the left, choose “Items by Seller”.
   d. In the “Enter seller’s User ID” field, type “ism_exhibits” and click Search.
2. Go to the exhibit you’d like to sponsor, enter a maximum bid amount and click Place Bid.

Auctions will end on February 27, 2008 around 8pm SLT.

Sponsorships will begin on March 1, 2009 and end on August 31, 2009.

Lunar Roving Vehicle (Item # 120381271015)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Bravo/39/96/23/
http://ism-exhibits.wikidot.com/ism-LunarRovingVehicle

Mars Pathfinder (Sagan Memorial Station) (Item # 120381271268)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Alpha/223/236/634/
http://ism-exhibits.wikidot.com/ism-MarsPathfinder

Pluto New Horizons (Item # 120381271488)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Alpha/184/216/751/
http://ism-exhibits.wikidot.com/ism-PlutoNewHorizons

Mercury 4 (Item # 120381271718)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Alpha/124/97/34/
http://ism-exhibits.wikidot.com/ism-Mercury4

Minuteman II (Item # 120381271862)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Alpha/153/101/34/
http://ism-exhibits.wikidot.com/ism-MinutemanII

The application for federal tax-exempt status — non-profit, or 501(c)(3) — has been filed with the US Internal Revenue Service on behalf of the ISM Corporation. This corporation is the Real Life organization that manages the financial affairs of the International Spaceflight Museum. Now we wait to hear from them.

Assuming the application is approved, we can then petition Linden Lab to lower our “land use fees” (server costs) to the level charged other non-profit organizations, which would cut our costs drastically. Since buying our first island we have paid full retail for our space-space, with current costs running nearly US$400 per month. But in the meanwhile, again assuming the application is approved, anyone who has made a financial donation to the museum and who pays US income taxes can include those donations in their itemized charitable deductions back to the corporation’s founding in October 2006. This is possible because we submitted the application (just barely) within twenty-seven months of incorporating.

In the meantime, thank you for your past support, and please don’t stop! We need your contributions to keep the museum running, so visit our donation page, or just click this button to send a gift to the ISM now.