It’s that time, folks. Who’s ready to make the world a better place while winning fabulous prizes? Heifer International is my favorite charity. It helps people raise themselves out of poverty and starvation. For more than 60 years, Heifer has worked to improve education, sustainable agriculture, and local industry all over the world.

They don’t just keep kids from starving, they make it so people can take care of themselves. They give families goats, chickens, and sheep so children have milk to drink, eggs to eat, and warm clothes to wear. They provide communities with clean water to drink, building materials to improve homes, and business training to help families become self-sufficient.

(This is my favorite time of the year. Let’s do something awesome, folks.)

We’re always looking for ways to improve the fundraiser. So while much of Worldbuilders is the same as last year, some things are entirely new, and some things have changed a little. So even if you’re a Worldbuilders Veteran, you might want to give this blog a close look so you don’t miss any changes.

As always, you’ve got three different options for donating:

Option 1: The Lottery.

This is the option most of you will want. It’s quick, easy, and tax deductible. You just hop directly over to the fundraiser page we’ve set up, and donate.

When you donate on that page, two things happen.

1. You’ll move us closer to our stretch goals (shown below).

2. You’ll be entered into our lottery, which contains over $100,000 worth of games and books.

For every $10 you donate on our fundraiser page, your name will be entered into our random drawing for all the swag that’s been donated. Thousands of books, comics, and games.

So if you donate $30, (enough for a flock of chickens) your name goes in three times. Donate enough for a goat ($120) and your name goes in 12 times.

What’s in the lottery? A lot. So much that if I showed it to you all at once, the raw intensity of the aggregate awesome would cook your brain like a toad thrown into the sun. So for everyone’s safety, we’ll be posting up a new blog every weekday until the end of the fundraiser on December 14th. Occasionally we might take a Wednesday off, during which I will graciously allow the Worldbuilders team time to eat and sleep.

You can see *all* the books currently in the mix on our snazzy Lottery Library page, which will be updated throughout the fundraiser.

Or you can check out the individual blogs here:

Thanks to our sponsors, we have even more games in this year’s fundraiser. A lot more. We know some of you aren’t big gamers, so you’ll be able to select whether you want to win books, games, or books AND games.

That way everyone gets what they like best.

Another thing we’re doing is that every day for the next two weeks, you can vote with your charity dollars what I’m going to do for the evening: play Fallout 4 or work on Book 3.

Here’s the current progress. Check back often to see what’s in the lead…

Stretch goals.

To help spread the word about the fundraiser (and encourage donations) we’ve brought members of the geek community together to do whimsical things as our donation total grows. There will be fan fiction, tongue twisters, alcohol, cooking, and so, so much more….

Upcoming stretch goals include:

Note: Worldbuilders ends December 14, 2015 at 11:59 pm UTC-11. To be eligible for the lottery, you must have made your donation on the Fundraiser Page before then.

Option 2: The Sure Thing

For those of you who might be interested in getting some holiday shopping done early, we have a well-stocked store, lovingly named The Tinker’s Packs. All proceeds from the store go to Worldbuilders, as well as helping nudge our donation total up to hit our stretch goals.

We’ve got t-shirts, posters, and other coolness available for purchase. We also have foreign editions of many titles, donated and signed by the authors.

Additionally, this year we’ve published another calendar featuring the art of the wonderful Karen Hallion.

(Click to embiggen)

You can see many more pictures of the calendar in The Tinker’s Packs.

We’ll be adding new items to the store throughout the fundraiser, so keep an eye on the blog. If you’re worried you might miss some of the coolness, you can sign up for the newsletter, or follow the Tinker’s Packs on Twitter and Facebook. We’ll post updates there whenever something new happens.

Option 3: Auctions.

Sometimes we get donations that are really cool… but only to a select group of people. Some people would squee with delight at winning a portal gun, but some people (sad, unhappy people) have never played Portal, and as a result they just don’t care.

The same thing is true with action figures, musical instruments, manuscripts, or other collectibles.

So we put those items up for auction.

This year we have professionals willing to read and critique unpublished manuscripts. We have signed art and rare books. We’re auctioning off cameo appearances in comics and the chance to have your name in upcoming books.

All our current auctions are over on the Worldbuilders eBay page. Keep an eye on it. We’ll be adding stuff all the time.

Important Links and Contact Information



Our website has all of the information you’ll need, including a nifty bar that shows off how much money we’ve raised from all of our various avenues. Worldbuilders also has a Facebook page and a Twitter account for those of you who like to have the internet injected directly into your veins.

If you have a question that isn’t answered here, you could check out our handy FAQ.

Want to donate something to Worldbuilders? Help us spread the word? Do a stretch goal? Write a story for your local paper? Drop us a line here: donations [at] worldbuilders.org.

All right folks. Are you ready? I’m so ready.

Let’s do this thing.

pat

P.S. Just in case you missed it, here’s one more link to our Fundraiser donation page.