What is the Donation Derby?

The Donation Derby is an annual fundraising contest that divides NaNo regions into six leagues. Each league is represented by a fearsome, yet cute, animal – the Kodiak Bear, the Siberian Tiger, the Komodo Dragon, the Wolverine, the Tasmanian Devil, or the Badger.

Your region is assigned to a league based on last year’s number of active, homed participants. (Active means word count greater than zero.)

The largest regions are in League 1 (the Kodiak Bears), and the smallest regions are in League 5 (the Tasmanian Devils). League 6 (the Badgers) contains brand-new regions, split regions, and regions that made no donations in the previous year.

The contest runs from midnight on October 31st through midnight on November 30th, Pacific Time. Once final data is available, the winning regions will be notified as close to December 1st as possible.

MAKE SURE YOUR DONATION IS CREDITED TO YOUR REGION!

For your donation to count for your region:

  1. You must be homed with your region AND
  2. When making your donation, you must include a valid user name.
    • If you’re donating online type your user name in the Camp NaNoWriMo/NaNoWriMo Username box. You’ll see this box once you choose the amount you wish to donate.
    • If you’re donating by check, include a valid username and home region along with the other requested information here.

LOCATING YOUR LEAGUE

To find the league for your region, go to the derby page and search for your region name. The column on the far right is your league number. Click the appropriate tab at the top and you’ll see your league page.

HOW WINNERS ARE DETERMINED

There will be two winners in each league. One winner will be the region with the highest total donation in that league. The other winner will be the region with the highest average donation when compared with last year’s average donation. Because many regions in League Six are new or split regions, League Six will now have a winner for total donations only.

Here’s an example of how “highest average” donation wins:

This year, the Land of OZ donates $100.00 and has 10 homed+active participants, for an average of $10 per person. Last year they gave an average of $5 per person, so the difference between the two years is +$5 per person.

Narnia donates $200.00 this year and has 100 homed+active participants, for an average of $2 per person. Last year, they gave an average of $5 per person, so the difference between the two years is -$3.

Even though Narnia gave twice as much as OZ, they gave less on average than they did last year (-$3), and OZ gave more on average than they did last year (+$5). That’s why OZ would be the “highest average” winner in this league.

PRIZES!!!

Each winning region will receive these lovely prizes:

  • A personalized web badge to decorate blogs and regional websites
  • A personal email from NaNoWriMo Headquarters
  • Their region name on a plaque/trophy at HQ, plus photographic evidence of same.
  • Public acknowledgement on the site
  • Not to mention – bragging rights!

MORE ABOUT LEAGUE DIVISIONS

When the forums are reset in the fall, we’ll place your region in its appropriate league, based on last year’s number of active, homed participants. (Active means word count greater than zero.) Since your region size may have changed from the beginning to the end of last year’s event, your region may be in a different league from last year. Leagues will be set by November 1st. After that, your region size may change, but league assignments will not.

Please note: Since region size is the number of active+homed participants, this number (and the data you’ll see) will fluctuate through the month as more participants home with your region, or (sadly) leave your region and home elsewhere. Data will update several times a day. Also, since we compare this year’s donations with all of last year’s, some regions may see negative numbers – especially at the beginning of the month.

THE FINE PRINT

We use the number of active+homed participants in a region as the basis for comparison, rather than the number of donors in a region, so we can more accurately reflect the amounts that are collected from groups at regional events and sent in by one person.

The Donation Derby can only show donations made directly to OLL through the donation station or by check. We can’t include donations made through StayClassy, since those donations are not routed directly through OLL. Donations will be credited if you use your PayPal account in the donation/store (and include your region and user name), but we can’t credit donations sent directly from PayPal.

For the “highest average” winner: If no region in a league exceeds last year’s average, the winner will be the region that comes closest to matching last year’s average. In case of a tie, the winner will be the region with the higher total donation for the current year.

PAST WINNERS

2011 Donation Derby Winners

Increase in average donation

  • League 1 – San Francisco, California, USA
  • League 2 – Alaska, USA
  • League 3 – Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
  • League 4 – Elsewhere in Ireland
  • League 5 – Citrus County Florida, USA
  • League 6 – Brimstone, Louisiana, USA

Total Donations

  • League 1 – Seattle, Washington, USA
  • League 2 – Alaska, USA
  • League 3 – Elsewhere in Alberta, Canada
  • League 4 – Elsewhere in Ireland
  • League 5 – Brantford-Norfolk, Ontario, Canada
  • League 6 – Los Angeles, California, USA

2010 Donation Derby Winners
Increase in average donation

  • League 1 – USA :: Georgia :: Atlanta
  • League 2 – USA :: California :: SF Penninsula
  • League 3 – USA :: California :: Santa Barbara
  • League 4 – USA :: Washington :: Lewis County
  • League 5 – USA :: Wyoming :: Casper
  • League 6 – USA :: Wyoming :: Cody

Total donation

  • League 1 – USA :: Washington :: Seattle
  • League 2 – USA :: California :: Orange County South
  • League 3 – USA :: California :: Santa Barbara
  • League 4 – USA :: Texas :: Longview
  • League 5 – USA :: Pennsylvania :: Norristown
  • League 6 – USA :: Kenosha/Racine

2009 Donation Derby Winners
There was only one winner per league, based on average increase in donation:

  • League 1 – USA :: New York :: New York City
  • League 2 – USA :: California :: Elsewhere
  • League 3 – Australia & New Zealand :: Canberra & the ACT
  • League 4 – USA :: Georgia :: Augusta
  • League 5 – USA :: South Carolina :: Spartanburg
  • League 6 – USA :: Texas :: Longview

The three regions that gave the most to NaNo were: Seattle, Washington; New York, New York; and Los Angeles, California.