NaNoWriMo and the NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program are both run by the Office of Letters and Light, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity. Your donations to the Office of Letters and Light pay for NaNoWriMo's youth and adult novel-writing programs, as well as the Office of Letters and Light's operating expenses. Here's the breakdown of how NaNoWriMo and the Young Writers Program fit into the Office of Letters and Light's annual costs.
To learn more, please peruse our 2009 Office of Letters and Light expense budget:
When you donate to the Office of Letters and Light, you are giving the gift of inspiration and encouragement to people of all ages in all 50 US states and more than 90 countries. Below, you'll find a list highlighting some of the exciting new features, activities, and improvements your donations make possible for NaNoWriMo and the NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program participants in your community and worldwide.
In the NaNoWriMo main program, your donation gives aspiring writers…
- Membership to our community-based website, including an individual writer profile where participants can track their writerly progress (and that of their friends!), post novel excerpts, and exchange NaNoMail messages with other writers.
- Access to the NaNoWriMo forums, where participants can swap advice and guidance about genre, plot, character, technology, rewriting, and reaching the 50K goal-line.
- An open invitation to join one of the more than 600 Municipal Liaison-led NaNoWriMo writing chapters at kick-off events, write-ins, and end-of-month parties. At these events, participants receive free stickers and other motivational novel-writing goodies sent from NaNoWriMo headquarters.
- A place to write! Look for "Come Write In!" stickers at your local library. Libraries across the country (and continent) are opening their doors to NaNoWriMo writers.
- Weekly pep talks and other encouragement from staff, Municipal Liaisons, and published authors.
- Winner certificates and web badges for victors.
- Post-event advice on revision, contests, and other ways to take a manuscript to the next level.
The same donation also gives participants in our Young Writers Program…
- Free profile/membership to our award-winning and community-based websites specifically designed to appeal to and inspire young writers and educators: http://ywp.nanowrimo.org
- Access to site forums and NaNoMail, which enable students to communicate about books, writing, and reading with other young authors worldwide.
- Pep talks from staff and award-winning Young Adult authors that excite and inspire young participants.
- Downloadable flyers to post at schools, libraries, and community centers.
- Writing incentives such as downloadable participant badges for posting on Facebook, Twitter, and blogs, and—at the end of each challenge—downloadable winner badges and certificates for every child and teen who meets their word-count goal.
- Free and exciting writerly tools, including different workbooks designed specifically elementary school, middle school, and high school students. These workbooks teach all elements of novel-writing in a fun but effective manner and have become so popular that many adults are downloading them too!
- Post-event advice for young authors with revision overviews and information about youth writing contests, creative writing centers, and other online creative writing events.
Finally, your donation gives teachers and educators who are leading NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program classrooms…
- Eight weeks of curriculum that has been mapped to California State language arts standards.
- Access to special educator-only forums where teachers can exchange encouragement, advice, and lesson plans before, during, and after each event.
- Helpful "how-to's" on how to host a successful month-long, deadline-driven writing event in a classroom from beginning to end. This advice has been complied from educators who have facilitated our events in their own classrooms and not only lived to tell about it, but keep coming back for more!
- NaNoWriMo kits for their students that include posters, progress charts with buttons, and stickers. More than 1,000 of these kits will be mailed out in 2009.
- An opportunity to participate in our YWP AlphaSmart Loaner Program. For each event, we lend up to 100 AlphaSmart Neos to participating classrooms in need of word processors. This is done completely free of charge, including shipping.
- Teacher-only lesson plans that expand upon concepts taught to students in the Young Writer workbooks.
