[MOD] Fundraising for Japan-- Fandom-style: The end.
This fundraiser first started in the evening of March 11st, 2011, where I am. To put things into perspective, that means we've only held it for one day short of three full weeks.
To further put things into perspective, the Haiti fundraiser from the beginning of last year lasted just a tiny bit longer, at exactly three weeks. Its total was $1,275 USD (if you want to be specific, $75 of that money came later and were instead donated to Chile's earthquake relief). It consisted only of a post where fans offered to take commissions in exchange for donations to be made, and a single auction for a celebrity autograph. There were absolutely no problems with collecting or donating the money. It ultimately made for an uneventful, simple fundraiser, and the only experience I have ever had with holding fundraisers, period.
The Japan fundraiser, on the other hand, came up to a grand total of $29,167.50 USD. Not only did we have a similar post for services, we also started a garage sale post for material goods; fansubbing teams proactively offered to come together and release subs in support of the cause; somewhere along the way, even fans of other Johnny's groups started taking part. In a little over two days, we had already collected $6000+, almost five times the amount raised for Haiti. Over the course of this fundraiser, we came across a myriad of unforeseen issues that, looking back, I really should have been more cognisant of. Well-meaning fans wanting to inform their local press about the amazing efforts in the fandom. PayPal's extended saga of issues regarding the legitimization of the fundraiser, and more recently their string of inconsistent concerns regarding sales being made in the fundraiser and risks to their own brand that forced this fundraiser to be cut short.
There are so many factors to which we can attribute the runaway success of the Japan fundraiser compared to Haiti, such as the fact that the group(s) we are fans of are Japanese in origin, or the fact that numerous new features have been added to the fundraiser that wasn't in the previous one, but it's still an amazing, jaw-dropping number any way you look at it. And it was all made possible by an admittedly big group of people scattered all around the world who had only gathered here on Livejournal for a common interest.
As happy as they've made me, I haven't been able to reply to all the comments thanking me over the course of this whole experience, so I'm going to take the opportunity to do it here in one go, and hopefully not leave out anyone:
I would sincerely like to thank every single person remotely involved in the entire fundraiser for your contribution to the cause, however small you think your contribution may have been.
All the people who offered up services, pledging their time and energy in exchange for donations.
All the people who sold off things they have made, or old items they either no longer want or can bear to part with.
All the people from fansubbing teams and independent subbers who took initiative and formed AQR to provide subbed releases as an added incentive.
All the people who aren't even Arashi fans, but exemplified the intention of this fundraiser and looked past our different interests to come together and help out as a group.
All the people who were willing to take that leap of faith and place their trust in me, sending in monetary donations that ranged anywhere from less than a dollar to hundreds.
Even those who donated through other means outside of the fundraiser, but nevertheless left kind comments of encouragement.
And then, of course, there are some who I need to extend personal, special thanks to:
- lullabyeforyou, who maintained the lists for the two main posts and helped field some of the questions I received, especially when I wasn't around to answer.
- zomboid, who was instrumental in helping me handle the technical/legal side of things, in particular with the researching that went into different charities, tax laws and things of a similar nature.
- bokuwashinigami, who really stepped in and helped out with looking up copyright laws while lullabyeforyou was sick and zomboid was away.
- Other friends and several people from AQR, who readily offered the support and encouragement I desperately needed at multiple points throughout the fundraiser.
You all kept thanking me for holding this fundraiser, for going beyond my duties as a mod and for helping it all grow as big as it did, but as you can see yourself from the long list of thank-you's above, I didn't do this alone. Not only were there other people helping me hold the fundraiser together (and kept me from falling apart at the seams), the hundreds upon hundreds of fans who participated - regardless of the method they chose - are actually the ones whose contributions made up the bulk of the overall success. It's honestly been one heck of a roller coaster ride, complete with the crazy rushes of adrenaline and all the loops and turns that you can possibly imagine, and I couldn't have made it through without everyone rising to the occasion. I hope you're all as proud of this fundraiser as I am, and proud of the fact that because of you, over $29,000 of aid will go to Japan.
Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
And now, the most important part of this post: the product of all your hard work and generosity for the past three weeks, split into three receipts because Paypal only allows an individual transaction limit of $10,000.00 USD.
I also made a terrible mistake and sent the first batch of the payment under my own name, but I've already sent Heather (the DRI correspondent I've been speaking with) an email explaining the situation, and asked for another receipt with the name changed. I'll be posting that up as well after she sends me a new one. I'm so sorry guys, I know how sketchy it might seem and quite honestly I'm thisclose to banging my head against the wall myself. On the upside, the name I listed isn't my full, official name, so I can't claim tax benefits for it either way (those who have donated will probably have seen my official name in their transaction receipt).
Without further ado, here are the three official email receipts from DRI in full (as you can see, I've crossed out my address and last name, but you can see where I made my blunder and listed my own name by accident in the first receipt):
And the official receipts from PayPal:
With this, Fundraising for Japan-- Fandom-style has officially come to an end. As I'd said before, I will be refunding all donations received after this date; please make arrangements to donate directly to other charities instead, and thank you very much for your good intentions. :)
And for those wondering, AQR will still continue to post releases until they've fulfilled their promise of releasing something per every $500 donated! However, if you wish to donate again, please do feel free to donate to any charity of your choice, because it doesn't mean Japan no longer needs the aid just because this fundraiser is over now.
To further put things into perspective, the Haiti fundraiser from the beginning of last year lasted just a tiny bit longer, at exactly three weeks. Its total was $1,275 USD (if you want to be specific, $75 of that money came later and were instead donated to Chile's earthquake relief). It consisted only of a post where fans offered to take commissions in exchange for donations to be made, and a single auction for a celebrity autograph. There were absolutely no problems with collecting or donating the money. It ultimately made for an uneventful, simple fundraiser, and the only experience I have ever had with holding fundraisers, period.
The Japan fundraiser, on the other hand, came up to a grand total of $29,167.50 USD. Not only did we have a similar post for services, we also started a garage sale post for material goods; fansubbing teams proactively offered to come together and release subs in support of the cause; somewhere along the way, even fans of other Johnny's groups started taking part. In a little over two days, we had already collected $6000+, almost five times the amount raised for Haiti. Over the course of this fundraiser, we came across a myriad of unforeseen issues that, looking back, I really should have been more cognisant of. Well-meaning fans wanting to inform their local press about the amazing efforts in the fandom. PayPal's extended saga of issues regarding the legitimization of the fundraiser, and more recently their string of inconsistent concerns regarding sales being made in the fundraiser and risks to their own brand that forced this fundraiser to be cut short.
There are so many factors to which we can attribute the runaway success of the Japan fundraiser compared to Haiti, such as the fact that the group(s) we are fans of are Japanese in origin, or the fact that numerous new features have been added to the fundraiser that wasn't in the previous one, but it's still an amazing, jaw-dropping number any way you look at it. And it was all made possible by an admittedly big group of people scattered all around the world who had only gathered here on Livejournal for a common interest.
As happy as they've made me, I haven't been able to reply to all the comments thanking me over the course of this whole experience, so I'm going to take the opportunity to do it here in one go, and hopefully not leave out anyone:
I would sincerely like to thank every single person remotely involved in the entire fundraiser for your contribution to the cause, however small you think your contribution may have been.
All the people who offered up services, pledging their time and energy in exchange for donations.
All the people who sold off things they have made, or old items they either no longer want or can bear to part with.
All the people from fansubbing teams and independent subbers who took initiative and formed AQR to provide subbed releases as an added incentive.
All the people who aren't even Arashi fans, but exemplified the intention of this fundraiser and looked past our different interests to come together and help out as a group.
All the people who were willing to take that leap of faith and place their trust in me, sending in monetary donations that ranged anywhere from less than a dollar to hundreds.
Even those who donated through other means outside of the fundraiser, but nevertheless left kind comments of encouragement.
And then, of course, there are some who I need to extend personal, special thanks to:
- lullabyeforyou, who maintained the lists for the two main posts and helped field some of the questions I received, especially when I wasn't around to answer.
- zomboid, who was instrumental in helping me handle the technical/legal side of things, in particular with the researching that went into different charities, tax laws and things of a similar nature.
- bokuwashinigami, who really stepped in and helped out with looking up copyright laws while lullabyeforyou was sick and zomboid was away.
- Other friends and several people from AQR, who readily offered the support and encouragement I desperately needed at multiple points throughout the fundraiser.
You all kept thanking me for holding this fundraiser, for going beyond my duties as a mod and for helping it all grow as big as it did, but as you can see yourself from the long list of thank-you's above, I didn't do this alone. Not only were there other people helping me hold the fundraiser together (and kept me from falling apart at the seams), the hundreds upon hundreds of fans who participated - regardless of the method they chose - are actually the ones whose contributions made up the bulk of the overall success. It's honestly been one heck of a roller coaster ride, complete with the crazy rushes of adrenaline and all the loops and turns that you can possibly imagine, and I couldn't have made it through without everyone rising to the occasion. I hope you're all as proud of this fundraiser as I am, and proud of the fact that because of you, over $29,000 of aid will go to Japan.
Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
And now, the most important part of this post: the product of all your hard work and generosity for the past three weeks, split into three receipts because Paypal only allows an individual transaction limit of $10,000.00 USD.
I also made a terrible mistake and sent the first batch of the payment under my own name, but I've already sent Heather (the DRI correspondent I've been speaking with) an email explaining the situation, and asked for another receipt with the name changed. I'll be posting that up as well after she sends me a new one. I'm so sorry guys, I know how sketchy it might seem and quite honestly I'm thisclose to banging my head against the wall myself. On the upside, the name I listed isn't my full, official name, so I can't claim tax benefits for it either way (those who have donated will probably have seen my official name in their transaction receipt).
Without further ado, here are the three official email receipts from DRI in full (as you can see, I've crossed out my address and last name, but you can see where I made my blunder and listed my own name by accident in the first receipt):
And the official receipts from PayPal:
With this, Fundraising for Japan-- Fandom-style has officially come to an end. As I'd said before, I will be refunding all donations received after this date; please make arrangements to donate directly to other charities instead, and thank you very much for your good intentions. :)
And for those wondering, AQR will still continue to post releases until they've fulfilled their promise of releasing something per every $500 donated! However, if you wish to donate again, please do feel free to donate to any charity of your choice, because it doesn't mean Japan no longer needs the aid just because this fundraiser is over now.