A while back, Sars at Tomato Nation did a contest in which she asked her readers to donate to Donors Choose in exchange for a feeling of well being… and goodies, too. I thought it was a great idea. I contacted her a few weeks ago to ask her for tips, and she was very helpful.
So, coming up in the knitting channel in LJ, I’m going to sponsor a charity raffle-type thing. People will donate to a knitting-related proposal on Donors Choose and I will offer up some nice things from my stash for donors to potentially win. I’ve got a good range of things to appeal to folks, from Jaggerspun Zephyr wool/silk laceweight yarn to Lamb’s Pride Burlyspun. Donors will forward to me the e-mail they received confirming their donation, and I will enter the donors into an Excel spreadsheet, later to pick randomly from them to see who all gets the various bits of loot. (Possible glitch – I just donated a small amount to be sure things were working as expected. When I donated for tomatonation’s contest I never got the confirmation e-mail from Donors Choose. Once again, just now, I got no confirmation e-mail. Ugh.)
I’m trying to decide what the best way to do this is. Some possibilities would include
a) donate and you are entered, no minimum required.
b) every donation of $10 or more enters you again, like purchasing raffle tickets. I could be beholden to people’s honesty, as I can’t recall offhand whether the e-mail they receive mentions the amount. However, I am a trusting person.
c) (and Sars recommends against this one because it’s a bookkeeping headache), go with a) and also let people without credit cards PayPal me and I forward the cash to Donors Choose.
I dunno. I want Donors Choose to get the most money, but there’s really something to be said for “keep it simple, stupid.” I’m mulling it over.
Thoughts on the process? If you’re a knitter, thoughts on what you might like to get? I’m assuming most people will do it because it’s a fun thing to do, and a nice way to help people – but let’s face it, swag never hurts.
The next challenge: write the challenge up in a very short way, because nobody wants to wade through a hella long post.