bowdacious,

50 replies to a thread under 500 reads is a phenomenal response rate. Remember 10-20% of these reads are actually rereads by previous readers checking back to the thread so you really have a bigger response rate for donors than you might think. I do direct mail for my company and that is a multimillion dollar response rate if you had an item that retails for $20. You actually have a huge hit on your hands. There's no problem with your statistics and I'd be careful to not rub it in too much to those not choosing to get involved. Let the thread run it's course and donate as much as you can after a few days. No bridges burnt.