This year, the Austin Penguins have an ambitious goal: collect $4,000 for National Novel Writing Month. And you can help.
Last year 411 Austin writers donated a total of $2,268.87. That’s only $5.52 per person, less than the price of one takeout lunch. This year we’re aiming for $10 a person, the cost of two venti mochas at Starbucks.
Why donate? Think back to the first time you decided to write a story. Maybe it was just a short time ago. Maybe you’ve been penning tales ever since you could grasp a crayon. But there was something out there that called to you, that made you do it. It’s different for every writer, but that feeling is unmistakeable. That is some of the feeling we get when we participate in the amazing event that is NaNoWriMo. No time else, no place else, are hundreds of thousands of writers coming together to achieve the same goal. And NaNoWriMo is a nonprofit organization, which means that we are the ones that continue to fuel this collective machine.
Ways you can help:
1. Donate directly to NaNoWriMo with credit card, PayPal, or check. A $10 donation gets you a halo on the site. Higher donations have additional thank-you gifts. This is quick and easy.
2. Purchase merchandise from the NaNo store. Most merchandise makes around $6 for the Office of Letters and Light. Also, if you order “No Plot, No Problem” using the Amazon link on the front page, Amazon returns a small percentage to NaNo. This money goes to NaNo, but doesn't count for our local total.
3. At write-ins, drop your spare change into our coffee pot. Lazym, Ciri, and some write-in hosts will be collecting donations to send in to HQ. A dollar here and there can go a long way. Or even give up one of your fancy coffees or pastries in favor of giving the money to NaNo.
Get others to donate for you:
1. Blog about NaNo and put an icon on your site that links to AuNoWriMo PayPal donation page. Ciri will be collecting the money throughout the month and sending it in to HQ. The icon and PayPal code can be found here. The button numbers will be updated throughout the month as our donation totals go up.
2. Create a GiftTool site. NaNoWriMo makes it easy to make your own page by going here. Notify your family and friends that you’re raising money for NaNoWriMo. If you raise $200 or more by November 18, you’re eligible for the Night of Writing Dangerously on Nov 22nd in San Francisco. Money raised through GiftTool will not count for our region in the total donation numbers tallied on the website, but it helps NaNo all the same!
3. Ask your workplace about donating to NaNo and find out if they have a matching gift program. Some companies will donate to a charity in return for your volunteer hours. This way you can help out lazym at a NaNo event and make money for NaNo at the same time.
4. Offer incentives in return for donations. Let them read your novel as you write it. Create characters based on them. Bake them a cake (in December). Do all their Christmas wrapping. The possibilities are endless.
Broke?
1. GoodSearch donates a penny for every search, once you set up NaNoWriMo as your charity. The pennies add up! In 2008, GoodSearch donated over $1,200.00 to NaNo.
2. Keep an eye out for other opportunities. For example, LJ donated $1 per member who won NaNo last year. We'll be sure to post about offers like this on the Austin NaNo forum
Cut and paste the following code into your blog!
<center><form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick">
<input type="hidden" name="hosted_button_id" value="8873267">
<input type="image" src="http://megan.stetted.com/nanowrimo/donorpot2.png" border="0" name="submit" alt="PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!">
<img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" height="1">
</form>
</center>
It will look like this:
(but with the fancy PayPal linkage)
Ciri will be continually updating this blog to keep everyone updated about our donations, and will post about any other donation opportunities we come across. For more information on what happens to your donation, check Where Donations Go on the NaNo website.
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No one told me there would be *work* involved.
50,014 / 50,000
Oct 26, 2009 - 16 41
How cool is this?
We raised $40 from our media sale yesterday at the kickoff, plus another $23.55 in the real-life coffeepot. We're more than half-way to a $100 donation from the Austin Penguins - and a beautiful red poster to give away at the TGIO celebration on Dec. 4th.
Thanks so much everyone for bringing books and other media to sell. Ciri will be taking our left-overs to the Austin Mamas garage sale in mid-November, and bringing back more money for us to donate.
All talk of money aside - I had a great time at the kickoff. It was wonderful to meet so many new people, and catch up with some veterans. It's going to be a great NaNo this year.
----------ML Captain of Capital Ideas & Austin, TX Municipal Liaison
37,133 / 50,000
Oct 27, 2009 - 16 43
A couple of important things:
1) When donating directly to NaNo, either you (or your loved ones) need to put your username in the specially marked box. This gets you a halo on the forums and counts for our region's total.
2) If you want to download the Goodsearch toolbar (to add to your Google/etc toolbar in Firefox) and make it count for NaNo, you need to do it like so:
Start out by going to http://www.goodsearch.com/toolbar/mode and entering the Office of Letters and Light into the little search window on the right hand side of the screen. It'll bring it up as your chosen charity. Then, you download the toolbar.
----------No one told me there would be *work* involved.
50,014 / 50,000
Oct 31, 2009 - 05 37
I was just asked how to make sure that Austin gets credit for your donation if you donate online (through the NaNo donation station/store). Here's how:
If you don't know how to do this, check the top of this thread.
In the Which event owes you its thanks? box, select NaNoWriMo
in the NaNoWriMo/Script Frenzy Username box, make sure to type your user name.
The regional totals for word count and donations are linked to a) your user name and b) where you set your home. NaNoWriMo is grateful for your donations! And we're happy you're homed with us.
----------ML Captain of Capital Ideas & Austin, TX Municipal Liaison
50,014 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 13 32
Hey all!
----------I've been collecting change at the write-ins I've been able to attend, and we are really really close to our first $100 donation from the Austin penguins. We just need a smidge under 12 bucks and our group will appear on the Brought to You By page, and we'll have a lovely red poster to give away at the TGIO. Way to go, y'all!
ML Captain of Capital Ideas & Austin, TX Municipal Liaison
50,014 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2009 - 06 08
We did it! The Coffeepot That Attends Write-ins has filled up with over $100 in donations, and The Mighty Austin Penguins are now listed on the NaNoWriMo brought to you by page. Hooray for us!
The coffeepot will still accompany me to write-ins, and some write-in hosts may be collecting too. Also, don't miss the opportunity to get other peeps to donate for you. Some ideas are listed in ciri's original post in this thread. Every blog should have a coffee pot, don'tcha think? Plus, using GoodSearch as your search engine is an easy way to make money for NaNo that costs you nothing.
----------ML Captain of Capital Ideas & Austin, TX Municipal Liaison
50,014 / 50,000
Nov 16, 2009 - 07 04
Remember our media sale at the kickoff? How we made $40 for the items everyone donated? Well, ciri has been busy selling the remainder at Barnes and Noble and also online at half.com, and has raised another $33 to donate to NaNo on Austin's behalf. Thanks ciri!
Also, remember - if you display the icon (see the original post in this thread), along with the code provided, folks can click through to donate to NaNo. The money counts for Austin's total, but everything we earn will be donated to NaNoWriMo at the end of the month.
And the real life coffee pot has another $30 in it since my last report. Some generous person snuck a twenty in there during the 12-hour lockdown. Thank you!
----------ML Captain of Capital Ideas & Austin, TX Municipal Liaison
50,021 / 50,000
Nov 16, 2009 - 21 05
I swore that if I hit 50k words today (a seemingly impossible feat, as it was going to require 9,000 words worth of writing), I would donate $50 to the OLL out of sheer and total gratitude.
I hit 50k about twenty minutes ago! Go Austin Wrimos!
----------Pots of tea consumed: 4
Hours slept: 112
Hours worked: 109
WW won / total: 14 / 24
Characters killed: 2
Parts completed: 1.25 / 5
Daily count max: 9000
[[as of day 17]]
Overachiever Goal: 75,000 words