Keeping the hunt free
Sponsor the hunt Every dollar goes to the record.
The hunt is free to play and always will be. The research behind it is not free to do: the scans, the certificates, the microfilm, the hours in the record. Sponsors pay for those. In return they are named, thanked, and shown exactly what their money bought.
What sponsorship buys, and what it never buys
Sponsorship funds the work. It does not choose a case, shape a finding, or see a report before readers do. No sponsor’s name goes beside evidence. If a sponsor ever asked for any of that, the money would go back. That is the whole bargain, and it is why a sponsor’s name on this site means something.
Four ways in
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Individuals
Friend of the hunt
Any amount, once or monthly
- Named on this page (or anonymous, as you prefer)
- The Benefactor tin badge in your field book
- Thanked in the feed when a case you helped fund is solved
Most friends give $5 a month or $25 once. Every dollar goes to the record.
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Individuals and families
Patron of a case
$300 · one case
- Underwrites the next case on the board: research hours, scans, certificates
- Named on that case’s page: “Opened with the help of …”
- A copy of the sourced report when the case closes
- The Patron badge
Patrons fund the next case in line. They do not choose it, and they never choose the answer.
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Businesses
Business sponsor
$500 a year · three places
- A card in the sponsors’ strip on the home page: your name, one line, a link
- Named on this page and in the yearly ledger
- Thanked once a quarter on Project Scroll’s Facebook page
- Never placed beside a case’s evidence, never in a post
Set like the business cards in an old county newspaper. Three places only, so each is worth having.
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Organizations
Underwriter
$3,000 and up · a season
- Underwrites a whole hall of the hunt, a document series, or a year of the Document of the Month
- “Presented with …” on the hall’s page and in the feed
- A short letter of agreement, and the ledger line that shows what it paid for
For a library, a historical society, a lake association, a family reunion, a foundation. Research to your own question is a commission, not a sponsorship: the research desk.
Other ways to keep it going
- Give a document. A scan of a county history, an atlas, a letter, a photograph of a place as it was. Credited by name on the page it opens.
- Give a record. Buy one certificate or one microfilm reel for a case and we post the receipt in the ledger beside your name.
- Give your time. Transcribe a page, read a reel, walk a cemetery with a camera. Every finding is marked with its finder.
- Give the hunt a room. A library or society that hosts a hunt night gets the cases, the worksheets and the research desk for the evening.
- Remember it. A gift in a will, to carry a hall of the hunt after its first sponsor. Ask us and we will send a line of wording.
The ledger
Every quarter, what came in and what it paid for, so that anyone can see the money went to the record.
| Quarter | Received | Spent on |
|---|---|---|
| Autumn 2026 | — | The first quarter. The ledger opens with the first gift. |
Friends of the hunt
No names yet. The first will be here, and so will the hundredth.
Want a labelled place for your business instead? That is advertising, and it is kept separate: Advertise with us.
Sponsorship is income to Project Scroll, an independent research desk, and is not a tax-deductible gift. Sponsors are listed with their permission and may be anonymous. Questions: research@projectscroll.com.