WaccoBB.net Community Fundraiser!

[Barry]

Hi Everybody!

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas Holiday!

I've been inspired by the current What would you do if givin $500 to Give away thread. I thought that we could give $500+ as a community to a local cause. As pointed out, $500 is not a lot of money, but it's a lot more that $20, and I think it would be noticed, appreciated and can make a difference, especially if it used locally.

While $500 is our initial goal, let's see if we can go beyond that and go for a nice round $1,000!

Then the question becomes, to whom shall we give it? As an experiment, I am I launching a poll to help us decide. This could be a bit tricky, since everybody has their favorite pet project/charity. So this will be an adventure in (near) consensus building.

Here's the initial set of rules:

1) The beneficiary organization/project must be based in Sonoma County and serve/operate in Sonoma County (and potentially other Redwood Empire counties) exclusively. Local chapters of national organizations are not accepted. The beneficiary need not be a registered 501(c)3 organization. Nominations will be done via a write-in vote to the poll attached to this thread.

2) To nominate or vote for an organization you must make a contribution to this fund. Minimum contribution is $10. You are most welcome to post a reply to this thread to introduce your nomination and/or explain your vote.

3) Nominations will end on Dec 31. Donations and votes will be accepted thru noon January 9th.

4) Donations can be sent via check or PayPal. Checks with a blank payable line will be passed along to the selected organization and may qualify for a tax deductible receipt, which would be the responsibility of the beneficiary, if applicable. Checks payable to WaccoBB.net and PayPal donations will be delivered by a check from WaccoBB.net and may not be eligible for a tax deductible receipt.

4) The winner will be announced here and all funds will be delivered to the organization by January 16th, along with a list of the real names of the people who contributed. (You may request to have your name omitted).

5) You may vote for up to 3 beneficiaries. You may change your votes until the poll closes. The beneficiary with the most votes will be selected. Your donation will be given to the chosen beneficiary, whether or not you voted for it.

Please send your checks to:

WaccoBB.net
P.O. Box 1112
Sebastopol, CA 95473

Use this button for PayPal Contributions:



I'll work on getting some press coverage for our donation which would be an additionally benefit to the organization/project.

So please open your hearts and wallets as we join together to make a big difference!

Barry

[Barry]

I'll go first:

I nominated The Redwood Empire Food Bank and The Sonoma County Land Trust.

I nominated the Food Bank because its truly giving to the neediest within our local area. I experienced a period of food insecurity at one point (even though it was more imagined than real) and I know how frightening it can be. With more people out of work now, and additional programs to help yet to be started, I'm sure they could use some help.

I also nominated the Sonoma County Land Trust, partly because I needed a second option to launch the poll, but also because they do real good work in protecting natural areas of Sonoma County in perpetuity.

I think either of these causes would be worthy of our community's support, among many others.

I'll kick in $20 to get the ball rolling.

Will you join us in the adventure in democratic fund raising?

[Zeno Swijtink]

I'm nominating the Ceres Community Project, a Sebastopol program that provides "organic, nutrient-dense meals to families dealing with serious illnesses" while instilling in young people a sense of community by giving them an opportunity to cook these meals together and deliver them to these people and families in need.

I am also committing $20 to whatever good cause wins this process.

I think this is a great action to start on Boxing Day. Thanks Barry!

[Sara S]

Great idea, Barry! I'm sending you a check for $20!

[typewriter]

So if a person commits $10 (or more) worth of their time to volunteer a service or make an in-kind contribution to the "winning" organization does this count?

Everyone has the same amount of time, not everyone has the same amount of money. Just throwing it out there...

Also FYI since there's a lot of donation talk: The law allowing Qualified Charitable Distributions from an IRA has been extended through 2009. Donors over 70-1/2 can make tax-free gifts to charities of up to $100,000 from their IRAs. These gifts are excluded from both federal and California taxable income.

[Barry]

So if a person commits $10 (or more) worth of their time to volunteer a service or make an in-kind contribution to the "winning" organization does this count?

Everyone has the same amount of time, not everyone has the same amount of money. Just throwing it out there...

I'll give it a try. If you want to pledge at least 2 hours of your time to the winning organization that qualifies for you to participate in the poll. Please either post or email me your commitment and I'll pass it on to the winning organization. In the event the don't need volunteers, I'll pass it along to the next org in the poll who can use volunteers.

Progress update: We're up to $110 so far, which is a pretty good start! Please help us reach our goal of raising $500 for a local organization of our choice!

[Suzanna]

Barry,
This is tremendous - I think there are so many of us who are thinking along the same lines, some kind of alignment going on -- my business partner and I have begun using the phrase "social media for social good," and looking for more examples of this in our communities. I'm happy to donate $20, and I will also talk about your project on the Examiner this week.
love, cheers, blessings and chocolate,
Suzanna

[Tars]

I'm nominating the Ceres Community Project, a Sebastopol program that provides "organic, nutrient-dense meals to families dealing with serious illnesses"

This sounds like a great choice Zeno. Any organization that works directly for the health and well-being of local residents in need sounds great to me too!

[Barry]

Hi Everybody!

So far we have raised $180, which is pretty good, but I'd sure like to see us meet our $500 goal to really make a difference! This WaccoBB.net Community Fundraiser will end by noon this Friday. I'd love to see several more donations come in, including some larger ones ($50?, $100?) to help us meet our goal. Will you help us???


At this point the leading charity is the Ceres Community Project, which is "a Sebastopol program that provides "organic, nutrient-dense meals to families dealing with serious illnesses" while instilling in young people a sense of community by giving them an opportunity to cook these meals together and deliver them to these people and families in need."

This is an excellent choice! While it is based in Sebastopol, it serves all of Sonoma County, and provide benefits to both people with serious illnesses and our youth who do the volunteering and get to experience the benefits of community service.

On the other hand, the poll is not closed yet (all though write-in nominations are). So if there is influx of people making donations for another project, it could change, but I doubt it.

I hope more of you will join us in this experiment in community fundraising online and help us meet our goal of $500! You can use the button below to make a donation via PayPal:

Or send a check to:

WaccoBB.net
P.O. Box 1112
Sebastopol, CA 95473

Please email me if you are sending a check so I can count it in our finally tally. And thanks for helping make a difference in our local community!

[Mrs. Wacco]

I'm in for $100

Hi Everybody!

So far we have raised $180, which is pretty good, but I'd sure like to see us meet our $500 goal to really make a difference! This WaccoBB.net Community Fundraiser will end by noon this Friday. I'd love to see several more donations come in, including some larger ones ($50?, $100?) to help us meet our goal. Will you help us???
...

[MsTerry]

Since the Redwood Empire Foodbank doesn't discriminate against food or people based on their abilities or background, nor does it rely on underage workers, I'll vote for this food pantry to stretch my dollar and serve more people.

[Barry]

We've hit the planned end of our community fundraiser, but we haven't hit the target of $500. Thanks to a nice last minute rush, our current total is $296.11.

I'm going to extend the deadline another week so we can reach our goal, plus the French Garden Restaurant, which already supports the Ceres Project, has offered a raffle prize of a $50 gift certificate to their Bistro where their chef is creating wonderful $5, $10 and $15 dishes. It can be used Mondays, Wednesdays or Thursday evenings from 5-9pm and excludes alcohol.

This is a great chance too both help the community and have an EXCELLENT CHANCE of winning the $50 gift certificate with a minimum donation of just $10! There only 9 contributors so far (aside from me and Mrs. Wacco, who I reluctantly disqualify from the raffle ), so the odds are good!

The voting for selected beneficiary is still open to, though I've closed the write-in option. At this point the Ceres Community Project as 5 votes and the Redwood Empire Food Bank has 3. So your vote would carry a lot of weight as well.

The minimum donation is still just $10 (though, nicely enough, most contributors have kicked in $20 or more) and for that you can vote in our poll and get a good chance at the $50 gift certificate! So please kick in whatever you can! We need another $204.

You can see my original post with donation instructions plus other information about The Ceres Project on the Redwood Empire Food Bank on other posts in this thread.

And a big thanks to our friends at the

[wildflower]

The paypal donation link doesn't work.
wf

[Barry]

The paypal donation link doesn't work.
wf

Works for me. Anybody else having trouble with it? Here's it is again:



And while you are testing it, be sure to donate at least $10 and join the raffle!

[enigmaha]

A most wonderful thing to do!

Thank you for organizing this Barry!

It makes my heart glad.

[Barry]

Hey Everybody,

We're now at $371.61 pledged for our Community Fundraiser, still shy of our goal but it's getting to be real money! At this point the Ceres project is firmly in the lead as our beneficiary. I am going to close the fundraiser tomorrow afternoon and pick a winner for the raffle.

There are only 13 people participating in the raffle at this point, so your chances of winning the $50 Gift Certificate for the French Garden are still quite good! So please take this opportunity to contribute to a good cause while having a good chance of coming out ahead on the deal! Please join our fundraiser with a minimum contribution of just $10! Sure would be nice to at least break $400. With your help we can...

We've hit the planned end of our community fundraiser, but we haven't hit the target of $500. Thanks to a nice last minute rush, our current total is $296.11.

I'm going to extend the deadline another week so we can reach our goal, plus the French Garden Restaurant, which already supports the Ceres Project, has offered a raffle prize of a $50 gift certificate to their Bistro where their chef is creating wonderful $5, $10 and $15 dishes. It can be used Mondays, Wednesdays or Thursday evenings from 5-9pm and excludes alcohol.

This is a great chance too both help the community and have an EXCELLENT CHANCE of winning the $50 gift certificate with a minimum donation of just $10! There only 9 contributors so far (aside from me and Mrs. Wacco, who I reluctantly disqualify from the raffle ), so the odds are good!

The voting for selected beneficiary is still open to, though I've closed the write-in option. At this point the Ceres Community Project as 5 votes and the Redwood Empire Food Bank has 3. So your vote would carry a lot of weight as well.

The minimum donation is still just $10 (though, nicely enough, most contributors have kicked in $20 or more) and for that you can vote in our poll and get a good chance at the $50 gift certificate! So please kick in whatever you can! We need another $204.

You can see my original post with donation instructions plus other information about The Ceres Project on the Redwood Empire Food Bank on other posts in this thread.

And a big thanks to our friends at the

[Barry]

Hi Everybody,

I'm happy announce that have met our adjusted goal of $400 (precisely!) and that the beneficiary is:

I think this is an excellent choice and I'm thrilled to be able to forward the $400 to them.

I want to thank the following users who made a contribution:

Sara S
Tars
Braggi
Zeno Swijtink
cotatikid
babaruss
Suzanna
Gary Abreim
MsTerry
Kirsten Barquist
Mark Wiley
Barry
Mrs. Wacco
Joan Marler
Laughing Linda
enigmaha
Praksys

Thank you!

Raffle Prize

I will now pull a random number from Random.org and

Gary Abreim! Congratulations! I'll send you the $50 Gifit Certificate for The French Garden that was generously donated by Joan Marler.


Thanks to all of you for your generosity in supporting those in need in our community.

Barry

[babaruss]

Imagine how well we would have done if the economy had not tanked !!
Russ

[Ceres]

Dear WaccoBB Community,

Many thanks for selecting The Ceres Community Project to be the recipient of the recent fundraiser. We deeply appreciate the support. This past year we had 71 teens work in our kitchen. Together they donated more than 2,250 hours of community service resulting in 17,300 meals for individuals dealing with cancer and other serious illnesses. It's thanks to the enormous generosity of folks like you that we are able to do this work. Deepest gratitude on behalf of our many clients, teens chefs and adult volunteers.

With gratitude and blessings,
Cathryn Couch
Executive Director
The Ceres Community Project