As some of you may recall…back in August, WizardRock.Org initiated a temporary double fundraiser, which was supposed to end January 1st, 2008. There has been a change of plans, however…

   Instead, this is going to become a permanent fundraiser. Here’s the game plan:

•    50% of the shop’s proceeds will permanently be set aside for The Harry Potter Alliance.
     This amount will remain in our CafePress shop’s account, until we raise over $100. Each month that we have $100 or more in the HPA’s half of our account, the money will be withdrawn, and they will be sent a check (this is to avoid wasting the postage to send, say, $5, in the case that we’re having a slow month). Every month that we reach at least our target donation amount, the money will be withdrawn from the account and donated.
     This ratio of proceeds will continue to be donated to the HPA, for the remainding existance of both: this site, and the organization.
•    Currently, the remainding 50% of proceeds are being set aside for The Remus Lupins, in an attempt to replace the $2,000 and two iPods stolen in August, when their tour van was burglarized.
     Once we reach our target donation amount ($2,200: which should just about cover the damages), this promotion will end. When this happens, the 50% ratio of proceeds will then start going towards a different cause.

   We have a way to go before reaching our target amount for The Remus Lupins. However, I’d like to prepare early for the switchover…and have found three potential organizations, for when we make the crossover.

1. The Michael Cuccione Foundation - A Canadian organization dedicated to raising money for cancer research. Michael James Cuccione (1985-2001), alternatively known as “Q.T.” from MTV’s 2Ge+her, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease at age nine; after surviving the battle with cancer, he began the organization, Making A Difference, to help raise money for cancer research. A week after his sixteenth birthday, Michael died from respiratory failure, unable to fight pneumonia (his lungs had been left weak from earlier chemotherapy). To this day, his family continues to run his organization, and has raised $2.6 million for cancer research, since 1997.
2. The National Wildlife Foundation - An organization that aims to “inspire Americans to protect wildlife for our children’s future”. Hundreds of wildlife species have become extinct since as recently as the late 19th and early 20th century–not because of natural selection or disaster, but because of over-hunting, poaching, pollution, and other atrocities caused by human beings. Everybody makes a big deal about helping other people who seemingly can’t help themselves…but how about stepping up for those non-human creatures, whose populations are rapidly diminishing, but lack the voices, knowledge, and opposable thumbs to help themselves?
3. Rock For A Remedy - An organization that partners with local food relief organizations and popular artists, to gather food donations and encourage teens and adults to help better thier communities. This one is, in all likelihood, of the most interest to wizard rock fans, as it directly has to do with putting on rock shows for greater causes…which is basically the jist of the entire underlying concept in which the wizard rock genre was built upon.

   Please evaluate these three organizations (and feel free to discuss the pros and cons of each, either via comments to this news post, or via WizardRock.Org’s forum). The organization the majority of YOU pick will be chosen as our next donation recipient.
   A poll will be posted in the sidebar SOON, allowing you to cast an official vote as to which organization we will sponsor next. Stay tuned!

   In slightly related news… I understand that the designs in our CafePress shop are a bit outdated. I will be creating some brand-new (and much better) designs sometime this winter, so keep checking back.

   ALSO… our CafePress shop makes no profit whatsover (100% of the proceeds will, without exception, be donated). However, art supplies are insanely expensive, and I wind up spending a ton of money out of my own pocket every time I go to the store to restock.
   I’m going to be using up a lot of these supplies this winter, because I have quite a number of Rocky-centric designs in mind. (Plus, I’d like to upgrade the shop, to give everybody more diverse product options.)

   That being said, I’m open to (and immensely grateful for) any donations of any size ($2.50, a buck, or 50 cents or something…anything, really).

   I figure if everybody who visited this site donated a quarter, that would be a hell of a lot of quarters, and I could buy months’ worth of ink pens, pencils, paper, quills, ink, and manga textures with that.

   OH! And donations will also go towards feeding Rocky. He eats my body weight in donuts every day.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 28th, 2007 at 5:19 pm and is filed under Announcements, WR.org. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.