[Thorn]

Yeah, I think I agree with TimpZ. There's absolutely nothing wrong with Child's Play, but it's kind of the default gaming charity, and I can't imagine most of our participants or viewers have any sort of personal connection to it. I think it'd be good to take a look at some other charities and see whether there are any causes that have any meaning personally to anyone here. Here's a link with a list:

http://www.charitywatch.org/toprated.html

And the list of causes supported by the charities on the page:

• Abortion & Family Planning
• African-American
• AIDS
• American Indian
• Animal & Animal Protection
• Asia & Asian-American
• Blind & Visually-Impaired
• Cancer
• Child Protection
• Child Sponsorship
• Civil Rights & Advocacy
• Consumer Protection & Legal Aid
• Crime & Fire Prevention
• Disabled
• Drug & Alcohol Abuse
• Environment
• Gun Control
• Health
• Hispanic
• Homelessness & Housing
• Human Rights
• Human Services
• Hunger
• International Relief & Development
• Jewish & Israel
• Literacy
• Mental Health & Disabilities
• Peace & International Relations
• Population Planning
• Public Policy
• Senior Citizens
• Terminally or Chronically Ill
• Veterans & Military
• Women's Rights
• Youth Development
• Youth - Residential Care

We're not limited to the ones on the list, of course, if anyone's got anything else in mind. But thoughts?

Personally I can see an animal protection or environmental charity working well as it sorta reflects the Sonic franchise.

Current Votes
DarkAura - Women's Rights, Cancer, Gay Rights, Anti-Bullying
Zorkiy - Animal & Animal Protection
SonicBoom737 - Animal & Animal Protection
Umbreon - Animal & Animal Protection
TimpZ - Animal & Animal Protection
SonicBoom737 - Animal & Animal Protection
CosmicFalcon - Animal & Animal Protection
Strong Bad - AIDS, Cancer
flying fox- Cancer, Health, Mental Health & Disabilities
GerbilSoft - British Hedgehog Preservation Society
Combo - British Hedgehog Preservation Society
danieldude - British Hedgehog Preservation Society, Anti-Bullying
Etch - Child's Play, Cancer, Mental Health & Disabilities, Terminally or Chronically Ill
Chao_Fan - Cancer, Peace & International Relations
Werey - Cancer
Luxray: Cancer, Mental Health & Disabilities

[Parax]

I guess I'll throw my vote into Animal & Animal Protection, simply because of the parallels with the franchise...

Anti-bullying or gay rights would be something more personal to me, but they don't seem like good fits for our marathon.

Also, good idea starting a marathon planning board.

[flying fox]

Also, good idea starting a marathon planning board.

I second this.

I will vote for er well there are a few charities that are personal to me. Cancer, health and mental health and disabilities.

[DarkAura]

Add me for cancer and gay rights. Keep my women's rights. There still is discrimination in being paid, and I want that to stop.

[GerbilSoft]

How about the British Hedgehog Preservation Society? It seems reasonably appropriate.

[Combo]

How about the British Hedgehog Preservation Society? It seems reasonably appropriate.

thisthisthisthisthis

[Etch]

Child's Play is fine again but I'm also for Cancer, Mental Health & Disabilities, and Terminally or Chronically Ill.

[Antronach]

I'm all for Cancer, but Peace & International Relations sounds pretty good too.

[Werey]

Cancer

[SpanielWare]

How about the British Hedgehog Preservation Society? It seems reasonably appropriate.

I initially suggested this; thanks for taking it on board GerbilSoft! :D

Although I won't be participating in the upcoming marathon, or (most likely) donating for that matter, I too vote for the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (that is, if my vote counts). Hedgehogs are endangered and it is mankind's duty to help protect them! :)

[Antronach]

I understand that it might be a good cause, but it does undermine the seriousness of the charity drive by going with a charity with more novelty than some of the more heavy hitters.

[Thorn]

^ This is exactly how I feel. It doesn't really compel people to donate when the charity choice looks like it was picked as a joke. People may be serious about it, but the appearance of a joke is all it takes.

[Zorkiy]

The choice was very hard. My vote goes to Animal & Animal Protection.

I understand that it might be a good cause, but it does undermine the seriousness of the charity drive by going with a charity with more novelty than some of the more heavy hitters.

I third this.

[Parax]

I understand that it might be a good cause, but it does undermine the seriousness of the charity drive by going with a charity with more novelty than some of the more heavy hitters.

Exactly what I was thinking and couldn't figure out how to phrase properly. 100% agreed.

[SpanielWare]

^ This is exactly how I feel. It doesn't really compel people to donate when the charity choice looks like it was picked as a joke. People may be serious about it, but the appearance of a joke is all it takes.

I can totally see where you're coming from, and I can appreciate how most individuals don't really have personal connections with a charity of this nature and may see it as more of a laugh on our part than a serious, sincere decision. However, *back story time* I used to live right next to a large woodland up in the North of England when I was younger, and I used to adore exploring the woods and playing with the hedgehogs there; looking back now, those were the good days. A couple of times I called my parents into the woods when I came across a wounded hedgehog which we brought back home and helped recover. According to the BHPS, "A recent report (The State of Britain’s Hedgehogs) shows that hedgehog numbers have dropped by 25% in just 10 years!" It would break my heart to see such a fascinating species die out. :'(

As I'm unable to participate in the forthcoming marathon anyway feel free to cut my vote, but I just figured I'd chip in my two cents. I feel quite strongly about animal protection and, if we chose the BHPS as our marathon charity, I would make an effort to persuade my parents to let me donate. :) (However from the looks of it Cancer’s winning the charity battle.)

[Luxray]

Cancer and Mental Health & Disabilities as my pick.

[DarkAura]

Gosh, I'm so sorry I'm adding all these charity choices, but I would like to add one last one (I PROMISE). I would like to have us donate to Love is Louder. It raises awareness (and I'm pretty sure it helps) for those who are bullied.

EDIT: If we decide on Love is Louder, we can all tweet to Brittany Snow (famous actress who founded Love is Louder) and she (might) come watch/encourage other people to come and watch. It means more people watching and more money!
EDIT2: On request of danieldude, I'd just like to state my personal connection to this charity. I've been bullied all my life. I've been attacked multiple times, some requiring medical attention. I had thoughts, some really bad ones. When I saw on the news a year and a half ago, that my favorite actress, Brittany Snow, was launching a campaign for the victims of bullying, I felt better. I got a DM (twitter) from Brittany Snow saying love is louder than everything.  This really impacts people, and saves lives.

[SpanielWare]

I'd be grateful if you also put me down for "Love is Louder", as I think this is definitely a charity option worth looking into.

DarkAura's already voiced her opinions on the charity and her personal experiences, and whilst I don’t want to go into the morbid details, I've also had some tough experiences myself in the past, both at school and at home, some of which have led me to commit self-harm. I also know of many others who have suffered dreadfully from bullying and mistreatment.

I feel that DarkAura’s already said enough about the charity itself, but I sincerely believe that picking it as our marathon charity would be a wise choice for us to make. Bullying is incredibly prevalent in the world around us and I very much support Love is Louder’s cause.

[TimpZ]

I really like the animal protection idea. I think it's something that is completely related to the Sonic franchise and also something that I can understand might be harder to get donations for. Just the other day I read about African Lions declining rapidly with only a handful of strong populations. Primates, other mammals and all kinds of fish and sharks are all on the decline. Therefore some form of wildlife protection fund would be a good choice imo. A non-profit charity aiming towards protecting wildlife and/or rainforests.

[SB737]

I think something to do with animal protection would be a good idea

[Parax]

Yeah, I already voted but just to emphasize, I really think an animal protection charity is a good idea.

[CosmicFalcon]

I am in favour of animal related charities. It strikes the right balance between being related to the game content - Sonic freeing woodland critters being the aim of the original games - but not coming across as a novelty like the BHPS might.

[TimpZ]

So not a lot has been going on in this topic but it seems like animal protection has the lead. Perhaps we should start on deciding which charity to support. I was looking around for animal protection that do global work.

Here's two links I checked out:
http://www.charitywatch.org/toprated.html#animal
http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?keyword_list=&bay=search.results&EIN=&cgid=1&cuid=&location=2&stid=&city=&Submit=Submit


Here's some that seem like viable options after a quick glance:


African Wildlife Foundation
Site: http://www.awf.org/
Other details: http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3219

Orangutan Foundation International
Site: http://www.orangutan.org/
Other details: http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=6474

Wildlife Conservation Network
Site: http://www.wildnet.org/
Other details: http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=11563

The WILD Foundation
Site: http://www.wild.org/
Other details: http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=5160

Morris Animal Foundation
Site: http://www.morrisanimalfoundation.org/
Other details: http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=4127

EcoHealth Alliance
Site: http://www.ecohealthalliance.org/
Other details: http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=5090

World Wildlife Fund
Site: http://worldwildlife.org/
Other details: http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=4770

[Thorn]

^ My instinct until today has been to choose the World Wildlife Fund, but if people want to be more specific than general animal protection, feel free to continue discussion. However, as we spoke about when the British Hedgehog Preservation Society was suggested, know when "specific" stops and "niche" starts; we won't attract donators if we cross that line.

What I really want to hear is if anybody has experience with fundraising on the web outside of ChipIn (used for the last marathon), as ChipIn has been bought out and is not allowing any more fundraisers to be started. I'll do some research myself, but it makes life much simpler if people have already done it and can offer advice. Note that whatever we choose to do, it must be done in a way that does NOT connect the donations with any particular TSCer: this could lead to tax problems. The money must flow from each donator directly to the charity with us being able to oversee the process but not touch the funds.

[Thorn]

Bad news: the WWF did not respond to my e-mail asking for the PayPal address for use in donation widgets (and we can't wait any longer), an internet search turned up nothing, and donating myself to see the receipt returned a hidden address. Poking around on the sites of multiple wildlife charities and sending a few e-mails, I've been unable to get a direct PayPal link for any of them (many of them use donation management sites such as Network For Good). I was often reminded by representatives for these charities that physical prizes in charity drives would be against PayPal policy due to tax laws (we are using stream conditions and bonus streams as incentives instead, of course), so I suspect that many of them are unfamiliar with this method of fundraising. Thus, we may need to change charity types at the last minute.

The runner-up choice was for cancer research, and I'm going to research that as well, since my foray into attempting to get a donation widget set up for animal protection failed miserably. I'm sorry if this disappoints anybody, and I encourage anybody with information on an animal protection charity with a known PayPal address to tell us about it.

There are things we do have solidified, though. We have decided on ImRaising as our donation tool of choice, and Gerbil has offered to assist by setting up a page on TSC in which the widget, stream, chat, and schedule will be displayed.

[Parax]

If you can get in touch with any cancer charities then cancer research is good with me.

[Antronach]

Which charities did you e-mail? It would help to know so I'd know who not to bother with something you brought up.

[Thorn]

I checked with most of the charities above with the exception of Orangutan Foundation International, since it would be hypocritical to donate there while also denying those who wanted to donate to the British Hedgehog Preservation Society. I'm currently doing research on three different childhood cancer charities and will shoot trusted ones an e-mail later today.