Charity Auction 2010 Planning

[dsheinem]

Last year's charity auction was a great success, and I am ready to start thinking about the one for 2010. I'd like it to be bigger and better, and have a lot of ideas for how to make it so. I'll be asking for input from all of you from time to time, and want to use this thread to do our planning.

Of course, not everyone's ideas will get used, not everything you may want to include will be feasible, and some ideas might be kept in reserve for future years. Nonetheless, this is the place to float your thoughts.

For now, there are two important questions I'd like you to answer.

1. Should we donate to the same charities this year? If not, what charity would you recommend?
POLL TO VOTE FOR A BENEFICIARY NOW OPEN: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=25276

2. When should the auction start/end?
- Last year the auction started on December 12th and ended on December 26th, with payments due on January 2nd. Do you like these dates? Do you think two weeks is a good length of time?

I'll have more questions for you later, but these first two are most important right now. Let me know what you think either in this thread or via PM!

[Flake]

I'd like us to consider the ASPCA.

With the economy gone to shit the way it has, a LOT of dogs, cats, and other animals have been straight up abandoned. There are all kinds of horror stories about people losing their homes and ditching their pets, sometimes going so far as to just lock the door and walk away with their dog or cat trapped inside. Needless to say, it's been an expensive year for the organization.

It's definitely a cause I can get behind.

http://www.aspca.org

And I'm definitely fine with the dates. I bought a bunch of stuff last year and the auction/payment dates worked great for me.

[noiseredux]

I'd like us to consider the ASPCA.

I second this, even if DSH hates cats.

No, but seriously -- I liked the idea of doing different charities for each auction. The ASPCA is definitely something I can get behind. For real.

[jp1]

I have a hard time taking the ASPCA seriously when there are people suffering out there. It isn't that I don't care about animals it's just that I care about people more. I would have a hard time being motivated for something like the ASPCA.

I'm down for anything that benefits humans directly though. My wife lost her mother to cancer at an early age so I am particularly interested in that cause.

[Luke]

As long as 100% of the proceeds go to the cause, I'm down.

I'm all up for donating to research for Alzheimer's disease. alz.org is a great site, you may want to look into it.

Speaking of, a friend of mine lost her Father this weekend, as has set up this memorial fund:

http://act.alz.org/goto/chuckmontoya

Please donate!

I'm going to start a thread for this fund too, maybe I can help her reach her goal of $1,000.

[noiseredux]

As long as 100% of the proceeds go to the cause, I'm down.

I'm all up for donating to research for Alzheimer's disease. alz.org is a great site, you may want to look into it.

I'd agree with this one. Big-time.

[Limewater]

I would suggest a cause that does not directly or indirectly involve anyone on the board, like feeding starving children in another country, or giving malaria vaccinations to children in Africa (so they can totally catch Autism).

[MrPopo]

I think two weeks is a good timeline, but we should definitely do our best to get the donations going no later than the first of December. If we can get a good turnout of items we're more likely to get a good turnout of people bidding.

[weasels]

As long as 100% of the proceeds go to the cause, I'm down.

I'm all up for donating to research for Alzheimer's disease. alz.org is a great site, you may want to look into it.

im down for this one as well. personally i can't think of any charity but i may get looking.

I would suggest a cause that does not directly or indirectly involve anyone on the board, like feeding starving children in another country, or giving malaria vaccinations to children in Africa (so they can totally catch Autism).

you know, the main reasoning for doing the charity last year was because of a person that was involved to a certain degree to the charity we were giving too. but im down for some of those idea's too.

[Flake]

I have a hard time taking the ASPCA seriously when there are people suffering out there. It isn't that I don't care about animals it's just that I care about people more. I would have a hard time being motivated for something like the ASPCA.

Ironically I have the opposite problem. Charities dealing with people typically don't motivate me because societies problems are usually a result of society itself -and I've never been one to treat a symptom and call it a day. At least with animals you can say that animal suffering isn't the result of the animals themselves.

Do we have to choose only one charity? Perhaps we could split proceeds evenly between two? Or would that just present more problems than it would solve?