Suggestion - Charity Drive For Christmas

[Cat]

With Christmas coming up, and us being a fandom inextricably linked to children's playthings, and the additional fact that we are privileged enough to be able to afford thus hobby to whatever extent, why don't we start a member initiated drive in aid of a charitable foundation for Christmas, for those less fortunate than us?

There's many ways we could accomplish this, including direct donations, raffle, members donating proceeds from sales of unwanted items, just to name a few possibilities. Another option would be to suggest something like for the month of November, ask anyone using the Sales forum to donate 5% of their total to the cause (optional of course for them), and ask the buyer to do the same. Offer board perks for a small fee for a time, like a special member rank to show you helped. Just throwing out ideas here, obviously not all will be viable.

I'm sure we could establish a reasonable target to aim for, and find a charity that we can agree on for receiving the proceeds.

PayPal has a very dim view of allowing charitable causes, so if we did this, we'd probably have to set up a special bank account. That's easy to do. For instance, off the top of my head, I live within ten minutes of Griffin and Deacon (just using you guys as an example). It'd be easy for the three of us to open a special account to hold collected funds, and have it set up so that while there were 3 signatories, at least two signatures are necessary to access the account, to protect everyone from the potential for fraud, and to provide community assurance of the safety of the funds.

I don't know what a reasonable goal would be, or even if there's enough interest to even try it, but surely it's worth examining, for us to come together as a community and help make the holiday season better for people less fortunate than ourselves.

Any and all comments are welcomed.

[janda the red]

I think that's a great idea Cat.... I'd be happy to donate a couple of bucks towards giving underprivileged kids a better Xmas.

I hope this gets off the ground :)

[Starscream77]

Count me in Cat
Great thought and I am overdue to do a good deed

[Trent]

I'm in. I think that most people here would be keen. We just have to decide what would be the best 'bang for our bucks' so to speak.

[Sinnertwin]

Count me in

[Cat]

Another possibility is to make a pledge tied in with your acquisitions.

EG for the month of November, I pledge to give the following for every item I purchase in that month in the following amounts:

For everything Deluxe size or below: $1

Kre-O or Bot Shot: 25cents

Voyager or above: $2.

Masterpiece/G1/Titan Class: $5.

Then at the end of the month, check that month's Acquisitions (ideally tally it up as you go along too), and work out what you owe.

''Let's see. In November I bought two MPs, 1 G1 fig, 4 Deluxes, 1 Voyager, 2 Kre-O sets, and 2 Bot Shots.

That makes my tally $22.''

Just an idea of a way to incorporate our donation with our collecting. It's not difficult to put aside a dollar here and there, if you used something like my above example.

[Kapryiath]

count me in :)

[M-bot]

Sounds good to me. I'd definitely contribute. The only potential issue I could see is disagreement in regards to the charity we pick. Inevitably, every charity will have people that don't like it, which may discourage contribution. I hope I'm wrong though.:) Perhaps 2-3 charities instead of one?

But otherwise, a fantastic idea.

[Jetfire in the sky]

I'm in, a charity to do with kids would be the go, camp quality comes to mind.

[Holdobot]

This thread is one which is close to my heart.

Last Christmas I spent time in the Royal Childrens Hospital in Brisbane with my very sick 9 month old including Christmas Day in the Intensive Care Unit. I am well aware of what it is like for families spending time in hospital through that time of year. One of the things which made a big difference to us was a visit from Santa and and gift that he brought for my little princess.

This year personally I will be taking a wad of Transformers to the RCH in Brisbane. I see this as a way to do my bit for little ones and also share the joy of Transformers to the next generation.

With the local Big W (and I am guessing all of them will) doing RID Prime Commanders for $5.00 this is a cheap way to do a nice thing for some kids and parents who could really do with a ray of sunshine.

To put this in perspective the RCH accepts patients from Brisbane and anyone North of Brisbane whose local Hospital does not have the specific facilities to deal with your childs needs.

Here is a link to the Working wonders charity information for toy donations.

https://www.workingwonders.com.au/donate/goods-and-services

If anyone on the Gold Coast would like to take part, I visit the Hospital on a monthly basis with my little one and can deliver it to the hospital. :)

[Trent]

This thread is one which is close to my heart.

Last Christmas I spent time in the Royal Childrens Hospital in Brisbane with my very sick 9 month old including Christmas Day in the Intensive Care Unit. I am well aware of what it is like for families spending time in hospital through that time of year. One of the things which made a big difference to us was a visit from Santa and and gift that he brought for my little princess.

This year personally I will be taking a wad of Transformers to the RCH in Brisbane. I see this as a way to do my bit for little ones and also share the joy of Transformers to the next generation.

With the local Big W (and I am guessing all of them will) doing RID Prime Commanders for $5.00 this is a cheap way to do a nice thing for some kids and parents who could really do with a ray of sunshine.

To put this in perspective the RCH accepts patients from Brisbane and anyone North of Brisbane whose local Hospital does not have the specific facilities to deal with your childs needs.

Here is a link to the Working wonders charity information for toy donations.

https://www.workingwonders.com.au/donate/goods-and-services

If anyone on the Gold Coast would like to take part, I visit the Hospital on a monthly basis with my little one and can deliver it to the hospital. :)

I like that idea :)

[UltraMarginal]

This is a great idea, similar to threads we have had in the past couple years leading up to Christmas. Last year was simply an effort in leaving Transformers under the Giving Trees at Kmart and other chain stores.
The year before was an effort in collecting transformers from members and donating to a charity that provides for Children living in unfortunate circumstances (Poverty, Orphans mainly I think)

[Cat]

I love that we've got a personal story here, thanks Holdobot.

I love the sound of this. What do others think?

I understand that some may find it more convenient to give cash donations, so what may end up happening, depending on approval from here of course, is a temp bank account opened, that everyone can send funds to.

I'm willing to put my name on it, but the only thing is that I don't want to be the only signatory. This is purely for reasons of good faith. While I have many years of experience of working in banking, and thus am used to handling sums astronomically larger than what we're talking, I would still prefer to have at least one other signatory, so that everyone can feel comfortable with that.

What do you guys think?

As to how to donate cash, well, we've already seen various proposals. I personally like the idea of putting aside an amount or percentage of cost for each item purchased in the lead-up to Xmas. I wonder if we could get a pool going for that, as a way to encourage each other, and others, to take part?

[Holdobot]

I love that we've got a personal story here, thanks Holdobot.

I am happy to share my experience, and there are so many worthwhile causes that are deserving Australia wide. I will personally dropping toys to the Hospital, and happy to to support a group cause also.

A suggestion for the administration is this web site. I have not used it but have heard about from others. It is an easy way to set up a collection.

http://www.mycause.com.au/

[Cat]

And that is an awesome link.

Thanks, mate.

I'll check it out thoroughly over the next few days, and hopefully that'll be an easy way to do it.

For anyone interested in doing a 'bounty' system like the one I proposed (donate $X for every deluxe, $Y for every MP etc), I encourage you to track your purchases and record them in the monthly Acquisitions thread, so you've got an easy record.

[Gofigure]

Brilliant I'm in.

A bit of philanthropy never hurt anyone ;) especially at Christmas

I will work out an amount and post here if that's cool?

Just point me in the right direction after that

[Cat]

What system do people like the sound of more? (although it's of course, that's rather irrelevant as you donate what you want anyway).

Does anyone else like the idea of setting a value on figures/merchandise in certain 'categories' that will cover the next 5 weeks? EG For those participating, getting MP Soundwave would be a $5 donation to your running tally, to be determind at the end. (Note that those numbers aren't firm, and would be the next part of negotiations. I just filled it in there to help illustrate the method).

Or would you rather some other way, such as set donations?

[Gofigure]

I'm easy either way.

I guess though if we went with the purchase system there would be incentive to buy a lot more over the next month :)

[Trent]

It doesn't worry me either. Cash or toys. Just gotta remember that if we buy toys that girls don't necessarily like TFs. Might have to buy a few MLP or Bratz or whatever they're into as well.