Chart the South Bay's rank in donations on the scoreboard. We're starting off in first place!
If you read the October 9 regional email, you've already seen this information, but I thought it would be handy to put it in the forum and give us a place for discussion and questions about donating and raising money.
You've probably noticed that National Novel Writing Month costs you nothing to participate in. But you may not realize just how much it costs the Office of Letters and Light to run an event of this size. You can see the breakdown of expenses here:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/wheredonationsgo
In order to continue bringing us NaNoWriMo, the OLL needs donations from participants. This year they've set a goal of receiving donations from 10% of us. The Fund-o-Meter on the front page of the site is charting fundraising progress. Here's how you can help meet the target:
1. Donate online (or by check)! For just $10, your username and profile can sport a shiny donor halo. If you pledge more, you can receive some excellent thank you gifts. Donation station:
http://store.lettersandlight.org/home.php?cat=2&sort=price&sort_directio...
Donating by check:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/faq#node-402917
2. Get sponsored! If you don't have any money to spare, or you want to raise more funds than you can afford on your own, you can set up a page with Firstgiving to facilitate collecting sponsorships. Details here:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/sponsorship
3. Get sponsored for the Night of Writing Dangerously Write-a-thon! THIS IS SO COOL I'M PUTTING IT IN ALL CAPS! We are lucky to live close to San Francisco, giving us an easy opportunity to attend the Night of Writing Dangerously on November 15, which was so amazingly fun last year that I spent the first hour just wandering around with my mouth agape. In order to attend, you will need to raise $200 before November 10. Yes, $200 is a pretty large amount of money, but if you think you can get that much from your relatives, friends, coworkers, neighbors, and everyone you've ever sponsored in a walk-a-thon, I really recommend you try. (Donating some or all of the money yourself is fine, but note that donations made through the regular donation channels don't count toward your NoWD $200.) All the details of the event are here:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/writeathon
4. Donate at South Bay events!: This year we're going to try something new. Ian and I will be bringing a donation box (bag, hat, shoe -- we're not sure yet) to write-ins and parties, and we invite you to throw in the change from your latte or whatever other spare cash you find in your pocket. We'll donate this money to the Office of Letters and Light on behalf of the South Bay region. (Really, we promise.) Remember, if you plan to donate $10 or more, you're better off giving directly to the OLL by credit card, PayPal, or check so that you can receive a donor halo and be counted in the number of donating participants, but we thought this would be a good way to raise a little more in a convenient fashion.
Thanks for your efforts to keep NaNo going!
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59,001 / 50,000
Oct 13, 2008 - 09 49
Especially relevant in the current financial crisis: Headquarters has put together a page called Donating when broke.
One of the cool suggestions is to use a search engine called GoodSearch: " This Yahoo-powered search engine donates a penny to the charity of your choice for every search you do. Before you start searching just put "The Office of Letters and Light" in the "Who do you Goodsearch for?" box. That will lock in NaNoWriMo's parent nonprofit as the recipient of all your searches from that point forward."
That might sound like it couldn't raise much, but since last year, use of GoodSearch has raised almost $2000 for NaNo -- not a small amount by any means!
19,449 / 50,000
Oct 16, 2008 - 16 16
Uh-oh, looks like Seattle is pulling ahead of South Bay...