Fundraising

[Mikkiness]

Ok, just been over at the t-shirt thread, and as much as we hate to say it... we need cash.
So, if you can help fundraise, please post here and help us come up with ideas to get some cash together, and figure out who should be looking after the cash.

[Elle]

So, um, what are we going to about the fact we're all from different countries? With different monetary systems? That could become a problem.

[Mikkiness]

Well, whoever's the treasurer, NOT me, preferably an american since most people seem to be from there and I think that was where we were buying the shirts from, but I'd feel a little guilty about dumping this onto Lance, could set up an online account and we could deposit the money at out own banks and transfer it to the american account (yes I've been watching too many bank robbery movies). But the way I figure it is that every little bit helps right?
Also, we should try get some older people interested in this, people might be a little worried about leaving it to a couple of teens.

[Elle]

I might have someone. Gimme a minute. ^_^

[MrEccentric]

....................

[Mikkiness]

Well, we could do flowers, or chocolate, of even just stand at he train station with a bucket. Can anyone busk?

[MusicalZebra]

I don't know what it's like in America but the single most effective way to raise money over here is sausage sizzles. You can earn heaps, especially if you ask your local hardware store if you can do the sizzle out the front of their store.

[Elle]

I don't know what it's like in America but the single most effective way to raise money over here is sausage sizzles. You can earn heaps, especially if you ask your local hardware store if you can do the sizzle out the front of their store.
I have never heard of those...Sounds like our bake sales...We should have a bake sale! Anyone else in Indiana?

What? Churches and places do it...

EDIT- Group eBay sale?

[Terry Shayar]

Okay...... I know I live all the way on the other side of the globe and I probably can't do much to help in the case of getting money for this... erm. Deviantart prints? Selling posters and stuff? Idk... Maybe if we have a group of people who live near each other in US or Europe and are willing to fork out the money for it, they can really start a larger fundraising effort.

[Mikkiness]

Sausage sizzles are a good idea if the places let us, BUT, the reason I've been gone for so long is I've been talking to my parents, and unless we want to be taxed, we have to regiter as a charitable organization apparently. This can be done at through Inland Revenue and involves heaps of paperwork.
I dont know how accurate this is, but I've found a couple of useful looking links and if everyone can read a couple to help us figure out what we have to do that'd be really great.
http://managementhelp.org/strt_org/strt_np/strt_np.htm#anchor516676
http://non-profit-services.org/
http://www.ehow.com/how_17220_set-web-site.html

http://mncn.org/info/basic_start.htm#Alternatives%20to%20starting%20a%2 0new%20nonprofit
This one is actually quite useful, from the looks of it, we just cant get more than $25,000 pa. But any fundraising/donations will be taxed. I don't know how taxes work over there, but we'll have to figure it out.

[Crazy Like a Fawkes]

My brothers band class sold chocolate bars, and that was crazy successful.

[Wilson]

Selling candy is a great way to raise money. However, many schools, in my area at least, only let registered clubs/organizations specific to that school sell things there.
I'm not sure if you were saying we should sell them in schools specifically, but I just thought I'd point that out. :)

Also, what about going to a local business and asking them if they would support SEE by letting us put a donation jar and a handout explaining what we're trying to do somewhere where customers would see it?

[Mikkiness]

@ wilson. That's a good idea, I don't know how many businesses would go for it, but we could try.

Another slightly different thought, does anyone know how much it would cost to but advertising in like a newswpaper or on the radio or something? cause while it may not get us donations, it would help get the word out.

[Crazy Like a Fawkes]

Wilson and Mikiness, those are both really good ideas.

My local newspaper charges about fifteen dollars for ad space, but it's a pretty small paper. Some of the bigger ones run up in the triple digits.

As for the radio, this website has prices for different stations in America:
http://www.gaebler.com/Radio-Ad-Rates.htm

The local station that I usually listen to has a rate of about $92 for a 30 second slot.

In public libraries and community centers, there are usually bulletin boards on which you can put flyers or posters, and sometimes they have boxes for different charities. I am fairly certain this is free, but don't hold me to that.

[Mikkiness]

k, I'll ask my library if I can do that, its a good idea.
Some one in America should be the one to decide which stations tho. I wouldn't have a clue, also, we need to figure out if we should try for charitable status or whatever, thinking about it, if I raised like a $100 here, then transferred it into american its only about $60, and then if we get taxed we're probably down to around $50-$55, about half what I first raised, and something similar probably applies to most other places to.
If we can figure all this out by the weekend it would be great, then maybe get some flyers/stickers or something done to give out while we fundraise.

[Lance]

I'm digging the ideas of advertising on radio stations and such. This is something where we should be compiling a list of these to contact. First, however, we need to hit the ground running on the internet. We need to focus our major efforts on the viral campaign, and finish setting up the site before we can post flyers and advertise on stations. But I am digging the idea. I'm glad this thread is getting a lot of input.

As far as fundraising is concerned: I am open to anyone anywhere doing any sort of fundraising at a local place of their choosing. As far as a "unified" fundraiser, I think the only thing we will be able to do FOR NOW is ask for donations. I had a thought of adding a Donation page, and setting up a PayPal account to go with this. The merchandising aspect will be able to fall into place once we have a few solid donations. Thoughts?

[Mikkiness]

Yeah, the donations page is a good idea, ok. Glad that's settled, can think about other stuff, like which street corners to fundraise/advertise on.

[Lanaea]

Since the paypal donation thing is up, I started brainstorming on fundraising ideas, since I'm pretty much useless for alot of the more technical work that needs to get done around here. People will donate because they're good and helpful, but I was thinking that offering some kind of reward would be nice, to encourage interest and to say 'thank you'.

As I'm a writer, my mind immediately turned to writing. Especially because most of us came here from FF.Net, so I'm guessing that we've got quite a few other writers waiting in the wings around here. So, my idea was that donations - big or small - could be rewarded by the donator getting e-mailed a PDF file containing a collection of LGBT sci-fi short stories. We could have one Gen (no romance at all) one f/f, one m/m, one bi, and one transgender story in the collection, which means we'd need five authors to volunteer. I was thinking the stories could be between 5,000 and 10,000 words each, and in the spirit of SEE, only have the romantic relationships as an aside to their main plots. They'd probably need to be original so as to avoid any legal issues, so both the authors and the donators would need to be cool with that.

I can volunteer myself for proof-reading (I'm generally better at that when it's not my own work, btw) and authoring one of the stories. It would probably slow down my fanfic update rate very briefly, but I think it would be a worthwhile diversion. Of course, if more than five people would like to write, we could expand the idea.

Or if it's a bad thought I'll retract it. I just don't have much to offer the movement other than story-writing skills, and apart from shout-outs in my author's notes, this was all I could think of.

[Kurry]

Huh. That's an interesting idea. I might be able to come up with something - I don't generally write Sci-fi, but I could try it. And I think it's a good idea anyway, provided we can get the support going for it.

[Pirate College Graduate]

I may be on board. We'd have to work it out in more detail. At the very least I could edit work.

[Elanor Sarralyn]

At the very least, I would be happy to proofread and edit. I don't usually write sci-fi, but I could probably give it a shot.

[Catty-the-spy]

That's an interesting idea. I'd love to help out by writing.

[Terry Shayar]

It does sound like an interesting idea. However, I'd have to wonder about the marketability of that, and whether people would be willing to pay for it. Standards must be extremely high if you really want to make money off it.

[Lanaea]

Well, I think it'd be less like selling the work and more just like offering reward/incentive for choosing to donate. But it does take a lot of consideration, I know. How about, just to get the ball rolling, anyone who wants to volunteer to write should post along with a list of things they're willing to write (like if you'd prefer not to do gen, for example). If you'd like to strictly edit, post yourself as that, so once the preliminaries are done we can have more than one person look things over. That should help the quality. If we get enough interested parties, then we can brainstorm from there.

Also, other fundraising suggestions = more than welcome. This is just the best idea I personally could come up with.

[Andrina]

Great idea! I would love to write something to help out. I would need some help editing though, I suck as an editor especially of my own stuff.

[DAzebras]

I could help... It'd just take a while. My writing speed it sporadic at best, and I'm already working on an essay for here. I could certainly come up with ideas if anyone needs them.

[Andrina]

I could help... It'd just take a while. My writing speed it sporadic at best, and I'm already working on an essay for here. I could certainly come up with ideas if anyone needs them.

Yeah please shoot any ideas my way! I would of course name you as a co author if you would like. :) I guess I should really wait and see If Lanaea would really want me to write something first though lol

[DAzebras]

Yeah please shoot any ideas my way! I would of course name you as a co author if you would like. :) I guess I should really wait and see If Lanaea would really want me to write something first though lol

Sure thing! Let me know if she wants you and then which one you would like to write. I definitely need to know if you'd rather have a male or female protagonist.

[Andrina]

I would write as either male or female, and really I will write what ever kind of story as well. It's up to Lanaea what she thinks we need. I can't wait for a brainstroming session, it should be lots of fun :)

[MrLullabye]

Oh, I wouldn't mind editting. :D

I dont mean to get off-topic, but along with this, I think we can also do some artsy things,
like buttons and tees, and stuff, or even just selling cookies. :D I love baking, and doing art, so yeahhhh. I'm hopefully getting a job soon, so I wouldn't mind spending some of my own dough to buy basic tees or whatnot.. :D How's that soundd?

[DAzebras]

I like T-shirts. Someone make some, and I'll definitely wear one. Plus it'll double as advetising--people will see it and ask questions. It'll kill two birds with one stone. I know we already have a CafePress account, but we need to make some merch to put up there.

Ideas for shirts:

We need team shirts for our writers, artists, mods, etc.

We could put the verticle art that's on the front page down one side of the shirt [w/o the 'sign the petition' part].


A simple SEE It or similar message on the front with our eye logo on the back or sleeve.


We really need a short, concise mission statement we can put on these things. Like a tagline. Anyone good with advertising?