Raise Money for Japan

[Dragon Ninja]

I read about what has been happening in Japan and I thought that for Fanime, we could help raise money to donate to Japan. What do you think?

[Tony]

This is why I love our members!

I'm discussing ideas with staff right now.

[Armored-Heart]

Funny, I was totally going to post a thread on this myself. xD;

My suggestion is that during badge pickup, everyone could be encouraged to donate a dollar (or more). 2009 had about 15,000 paid attendees, and there were even more in 2010. If 15,000 con-goers each donated just $1, Fanime could donate $15,000.

Plus, since everyone has to pick up/buy a badge, it's an opportune time to get donations for a couple reasons:
1. It's the easiest way to get donations, since every con-goer will have to stop at registration. It's much more efficient than an announcement or separate place to accept donations (though that would be good as well).
2. Because it's a con-goer's first stop, they'll still have money on them before they enter the Dealer's Hall and whatnot. xD
3. When people are asked personally if they'd like to donate (as opposed to a separate area for donations) it's slightly more difficult for them to say no. xD


Also, if my memory serves correct, there's a charity auction every year, right? Maybe some of the money raised from that could be donated as well.

[Sen]

Thank you for thinking about Japan everyone. I have a lot of friends there. One of who is in Miyagi Prefecture. Thankfully it seems like they're all ok.
We will be discussing what we can do to help.

[PyronIkari]

Thank you for thinking about Japan everyone. I have a lot of friends there. One of who is in Miyagi Prefecture. Thankfully it seems like they're all ok.
We will be discussing what we can do to help.

My friends family has lived in Fukushima for generations had everything of there's wiped out. They made it out just in time apparently but they could see the waves coming as they drove off and their house get completely destroyed. So far everyone I know seems to be safe but almost all of them have huge property damage.

[Sen]

Thank you for thinking about Japan everyone. I have a lot of friends there. One of who is in Miyagi Prefecture. Thankfully it seems like they're all ok.
We will be discussing what we can do to help.

My friends family has lived in Fukushima for generations had everything of there's wiped out. They made it out just in time apparently but they could see the waves coming as they drove off and their house get completely destroyed. So far everyone I know seems to be safe but almost all of them have huge property damage.

Sorry to hear that Mikey. At least they are ok though. Houses can be rebuilt.

[PyronIkari]

Yeah, they're looking at it as a blessing that they made it out in time. My friend himself was in Tokyo but his family were trying to get messages to him as fast as possible. Broken texts about how they could see their house being destroyed, and how they loved him because they weren't sure they'd survive. How they could see the waves coming up from behind them and scared that they would be over taken by the water. 

I tweeted about how my other friend was(is still) trapped underground at a train station with minimal lighting, and food/water is being rationed to them. And everything he mailed me was just hope and happiness about how he lived and how his family is ok and that's all that matters to him. He mailed me sometime later to report how his DS had died and he can't play pokemon.

This years charity auction?

I couldn't this past year, but this year I'll definitely buy more stuff.

[LordKefka]

Think this year's charity auction could go for this EQ disaster relief?

[ewu]

We will keep it in mind for charity auction. We are working with a few other organizations, so we will make informed decisions about the matter.

What other good ideas are out there? Please keep this thread a place for ideas and not an evaluation of ideas.

[LordKefka]

Then how about charity raffle .

[otakuya]

I would also suggest a blood or other medical donation drive for Red Cross or Salvation Army. I'm sure there will be a lot of attendees that would want to give blood, marrow, toys, canned food, supplies, and money.

The American Red Cross should be easy to contact and setup a blood drive.

[Sunara Ishi]

Maybe some sort of Game or Fortune Telling Booth? Something that wouldn't be complicated or expensive to set up but would be fun for those donating? It doesn't even really need to have prizes.

[Kzuna]

I think this is a great idea too, and of course every little bit would help be it money, clothing, food etc..etc. But thinking realistically, i think the best way we can help is to cheer them on, and send them words of hope and encouragement along with our deepest condolences.

My suggestion would be some kind of poster or large banner or something at fanime where everyone can sign and show that we care so much for them here too. Of course seeing that fanime is 3 months away i don't know if it's the best timing but i think it would be great to set up something like that, and send it to them afterwards.

[Armored-Heart]

I think this is a great idea too, and of course every little bit would help be it money, clothing, food etc..etc. But thinking realistically, i think the best way we can help is to cheer them on, and send them words of hope and encouragement along with our deepest condolences.

My suggestion would be some kind of poster or large banner or something at fanime where everyone can sign and show that we care so much for them here too. Of course seeing that fanime is 3 months away i don't know if it's the best timing but i think it would be great to set up something like that, and send it to them afterwards.

Um... you're kidding, right?

"Our condolences" aren't going to help the injured or provide people with food, clothing, and shelter. A banner isn't going to do crap.

I hate to sound like a troll or something, but honestly that's just... ignorant.

[Kzuna]

Im just throwing ideas out there, i mean emotional support is pretty important too. We're all just trying to help, i apologize if i offended anyone's feelings in anyway.

[PyronIkari]

Sorry for the slight high jack, but I'm sure I'll be forgiven as there is reasoning.

This is not a fanimaid event nor is it directly affiliated with Fanime.

http://www.yukiedong.com/prayforjapan.html

A lot of the girls from fanimaid are throwing a charity event, proceeds of course going to efforts to help Japan. Yukie is organinzing an event along with Yoko and Jun  to have a maid event

This will take place in Sunnyvale at Senzela restaurant(It's a Brazillian place and pretty good). 5$ donation is the ticket fee (though you're welcome and encouraged to donate more), food/drinks sold seperately(discounted). Please attend, and please donate.

For further details visit Yukie's website.

[Touya no Miko]

I'm sure no one meant any offense for their suggestions on how to help Japan. However, what everyone else says is correct, they are in dire need of financial support more so than emotional. Let's be honest, a "get well soon" card is not going to help rebuild the houses that were destroyed.The donations they receive from us should be enough to tell the Japanese that we care.

Putting that aside, I think it is a great idea. Who knows how many attendees we'll have this year, but I'm sure it'll be bigger than before. One idea I have in mind involves the swap meet. Con goers selling at the swap meet can have the option of donating some of their earnings to the drive. Maybe we can set up a donation booth over at the Dealer's Hall as well.

[amimixx]

I forwarded this to registration on Saturday, but I'll go ahead and repost here anyway. Similar to what Armored-Heart above me has suggested, I had the idea of adding a voluntary donation option to the Fanime registration site when people are inputting credit card information, getting ready to finalize payment, etc. (kind of like how eBay/PayPal does for various organizations, i.e. St. Jude's Hospital). Having worked registration before, I know how hectic it can get, and a donation jar can easily get misplaced and/or stolen, but if it is sufficiently supervised, it is still a great idea. I realize that a lot of people have preregistered already, so maybe making an announcement in the forums and/or elsewhere to let people know that they can log back into their registration accounts and make a donation if they would like.

[idontknow]

I kind of stole this from the Japanese Club at UC Davis :P

Maybe you can have a "1000 Cranes" station. Everyone can make a donation for an origami paper and Fanime perople will teach them to make a paper crane. Then, we can donate the cranes and money to a relief fund of some sort. There might be some little kids that might want to keep the crane, but as long as we get the donation money we shouldn't really "regulate" who takes the cranes home.

It also doesn't really matter how much people donate, but I'm guessing if someone pays like a penny per paper you're not going to make "profit" for the relief. I would suggest having plain paper that would be a minimum of 5 cents and prettier origami paper can be 50 cents or $1 or whatever you want to do. Of course, 100% of the profit will go to the tsunami relief.

You can also start advertising now and ask people to bring cranes to Fanime ^_^

Sound good? :]

Just to credit them ... I stole the idea from here:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=146992852031211

[TofuHopper]

That sounds great! The crane idea~ time to brush up on my crane making skills :'3