If you'd like to give money to an organization who has the material and ability to preserve films, here's the Library of Congress donation page:

http://www.loc.gov/philanthropy/index.php

If the OT.com petition page was to ever update again, i'd forward people there.

Oh ...official... then restart the thread when Lucasfilm starts up the Kickstarter SW Restoration page. 

How do you not become a laughing stock when you make bazjillions and yet still ask the public to fund a project.  Lucasfilm could completely get away with it, as they are quite beloved but it's humorous on several levels.

More OT.com kickstarter reading:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Kickstarter-Tiers-Getting-the-OOT-on-BD/topic/13963/

RRS-1980 said:

I think you misunderstood me: I said official, which means Lucasfilm, not fans. His claims about such restoration being too expensive would be nullified this way - the project backers would prove there's a need and money in this.

As I've said before, Lucas' "too expensive" claim is almost certainly just an excuse. It's not about the money. Lucas can afford to restore the original versions, and he knows it. His refusal to do so is not out of miserliness, but out of stubbornness and ego.

Even if a theoretical Kickstarter project would raise a ton of money from the fans, Lucas would never sign off on such a thing because he just plain doesn't want to restore the original versions, even if it doesn't cost him a dime.