RPGs bundles as fund-raisers

Brian_Minter

Seeing this link in the Stuff to Watch thread, and having seen previous RPG bundles used as charity fundraisers, got me thinking.

I work for a national nonprofit, and it would be awesome to bring a game-centered fund-raising idea to my development team. But I'm not sure what's involved, or how much these things raise.

Does anyone have any experiences with this sort of thing they'd be willing to share? How difficult is it to get RPG authors on board? How much do these efforts raise? What crucial points am I totally unaware of?

Thanks!

UserClone

Brian, that's an awesome charity! I really love anything that gets kids and literacy closer together.

ndp

From my perspective, its much easier for me, as a publisher, to provide a PDF for a charity bundle than a physical book. Also, doing PDF bundles involves no shipping or other overhead, really, which is why I think most folks opt for the PDF bundle angle.

Fulfillment of the PDFs is the biggest hurdle for this model - in the past, I've been provided a list of people by the charity organizer (easy for them, risk that individual publishers forget to hold up their end), and also asked to provide the donated file to the organizer (more up front time investment, one point of contact for the contributors), and they deal with all the fulfillment. Depends on the scale of the thing and how you are set up to provide fulfillment, I guess.

I've never organized such a thing, so I don't really know what issues are on the organizers end, other than wrangling donations and advertising the bundle.

urbwar

I actually contributed my first release for the Wayne Foundation Charity Bundle that is going to be released on May 4th via Drivethru/RPGNow. The organizer of this event asked all of us to provide a pdf copy of our contributions, to be made into a special rar/zip file for this bundle. IIRC, he told me that the regular way it's handled involves the publishers getting the money when a bundle sells, and having to forward that on, etc.
I liked how this one was being set up, and the cause it represents, so I was glad to finally have something to contribute to such a release. I'd suggest contacting the organizer of that bundle, as he's done it before, and would likely give you some advice.

Another cool thing about drivethru, etc, is they have more than just rpg's; with their affiliate sites, you can also attract fiction submissions, and there's always card games they sell as well (I think they also sell board games too).

I know that drivethru/RPGNow are real good at advertising these bundles. There's one on sale now, and I know their past efforts for both Haiti and Japan raised decent sums of money to aid people in those countries. The past Wayne Foundation Bundle raised $1800.00

Mcdaldno

Posted By: urbwarI actually contributed my first release for theWayne Foundation Charity Bundlethat is going to be released on May 4th via Drivethru/RPGNow. The organizer of this event asked all of us to provide a pdf copy of our contributions, to be made into a special rar/zip file for this bundle.

I contributed to this bundle as well, and it's the best possible model from a publisher's perspective. Organizer says, "Hey, just send me the PDF, and I'll handle everything from there on out." That was the same thing when I contributed to the Sight for Sore Eyes bundle. Elizabeth asked for a contribution, I sent her the PDF, and then my job was done. Preferred!

Brian_Minter

Thanks, all! That is helpful information to have.

urbwar

Yes, it definitely makes things easier for both the organizer and the consumer. I remember when I bought the Haiti bundle, and there were so many links to download!