Results 211 to 240 of 360
-
2008-11-02, 11:09 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2005
- Location
-
2008-11-02, 12:57 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2006
- Location
- The Town
Re: Charity Rejects D&D Money - Let's Write Letters!
no linkeys, and i know that the validity of my statement is questionable. i just dont think that rich burlew would have reacted the way he did if it was as simple as an endorsement issue.
using inference, not info. thats why i started the statement with 'as i understand it'.
we will all look very silly if it turns out that rich was wrong, though. so what if we get linkeys from him?
-
2008-11-02, 01:07 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2007
Re: Charity Rejects D&D Money - Let's Write Letters!
my view is, a petition, to the charity, asking them if similar donation thing comes up, to accept it, might help.
Maybe two.
First should be solely Christian and strong christian- ministers etc, saying how they feel "Immoral D&D" arguments are wrong.
Second should be everyone else, saving they have a lot of goodwill for starving children and it would be a pity to reject it merely because of ideological differences.
Both should be phrased as politely as possible.
It won't fix money issue- already sent elsewhere, but it might shame them into rethinking.
If its a misunderstanding and it really is endorsement issue, ok, but if they know just how many ministers and parishioners approve of D&D, they might come down in favour of donations, next time.Last edited by hamishspence; 2008-11-02 at 01:08 PM.
-
2008-11-02, 01:32 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2006
- Location
- Jump Ring Heaven
Re: Charity Rejects D&D Money - Let's Write Letters!
Made it onto the Fark.com list
(Some half-elf paladin) Christian Children's Fund charity refuses $17,000 in donations. Why? They were from Dungeons and Dragons players
-
2008-11-02, 01:56 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2005
- Location
- By a Park
- Gender
Re: Charity Rejects D&D Money - Let's Write Letters!
Well, the news page does link to a report from GenCon, which gives the impression that its more than an endorsement issue. Of course, the folks that wrote the report likely have the same wariness as most of the people on this thread regarding the motives organizations with the word "Christian" in their name with respect to role-playing games. So I'm not going to write that source off as impartial.
The Future just ain’t what it used to be.
-
2008-11-02, 02:02 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2007
Re: Charity Rejects D&D Money - Let's Write Letters!
Okay, having read through most of the posts and the various sources -- including the form letter replies -- here is what I think is the most likely scenario for what happened:
GenCon approached CCF and mentioned that they were going to do the fundraising for them, and implied that doing so would include certain "publication" or a standing with respect to the convention. As others have said here, that seems to have included an "official charity of" designation.
CCF read that, took that as a sponsorship request, and replied that they have strict rules as to that sort of thing and so could not accept that standing, at least. There was likely NO hint that they would not accept the money, just that they could not accept being published as an sort of sponsor of the convention (for various reasons that they likely didn't state, but probably didn't have much to do with D&D at all).
The GenCon people got the message and thought "Why can't they be associated in that manner with us?" and jumped to a conclusion -- not unreasonable -- that this had to do with some rather well-known Christian views about D&D. And then decided that if they were going to refuse to be associated with them because of D&D that they'd find another sponsor that they could make the "official charity". Which they did.
CCF was likely unaware of the change and possibly even expecting the donation until they got E-mails asking why they refused the donation, which they had never done.
See, one point that hasn't really been teased out is that you DON'T need the permission of the charity to hold a fundraiser for them (technically). You can take up a collection at any event and say "Proceeds will go to X charity" (it's done a lot at funerals in lieu of sending flowers). But publishing this in direct association with an event needs to be approved, and all charities have rules about this. So running an auction and giving the proceeds to the CCF wouldn't have been a problem unless GenCon wanted to advertise the CCF connection quite prominently, which they seemed to want to do. And the CCF said "No.".
So can we all drop the over-reaction and accept that there's likely a misunderstanding here, and let the people work it out without insisting that it was done for religious reasons and that the CCF hates D&D and the people who play it?
-
2008-11-02, 02:09 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2007
- Location
- Minneapolis
- Gender
Re: Charity Rejects D&D Money - Let's Write Letters!
It's not an overreaction. We are all acting on the info given to us which was that they denied the donation because of the DnD products involved. Our reactions are based on the information given, not what the real information may be since we don't know for sure what happened.
-
2008-11-02, 02:38 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2007
Re: Charity Rejects D&D Money - Let's Write Letters!
-
2008-11-02, 03:02 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2007
- Location
- Minneapolis
- Gender
Re: Charity Rejects D&D Money - Let's Write Letters!
I sent my email back on the first page of this thread. A lot of people haven't read the entirety of this thread and are going off of the news post. I've read both responses and the last one does shed a lot of light on the situation, though it still seems to leave some holes.
True, many people are overacting. I concede that point.
-
2008-11-02, 03:07 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2007
Re: Charity Rejects D&D Money - Let's Write Letters!
Last edited by Daimbert; 2008-11-02 at 03:25 PM. Reason: Type on disagree versus agree
-
2008-11-02, 03:12 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2008
- Location
- The Blessed Geometry
- Gender
Re: Charity Rejects D&D Money - Let's Write Letters!
I'm thinking that CCF may have turned down the sponsorship because they found out part of the money would be from sales of D&D products, and, theoretically, every vendor and manufacturer involved in the sale of those products could claim tax exempt status on the grounds that "We gave a portion of our profits to charity. Just ask our official sponsor, CCF!"
This would have been true if they found out the money was being raised by the sale of candy bars, magazine subscriptions, or anything else and is probably the reason behind other such regulations that many other charities have.
CCF has come under fire for NOT overtly promoting religion, so that's more evidence that this was not because of religious bias.
It seems that they just want to help children without encouraging tax fraud and are having their reputation ground up by the rumor mill.
-
2008-11-02, 03:16 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2007
- Location
- Minneapolis
- Gender
Re: Charity Rejects D&D Money - Let's Write Letters!
I Agree with that statement Daimbert.
Last edited by powerdemon; 2008-11-02 at 03:20 PM.
-
2008-11-02, 04:29 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2005
- Location
Re: Charity Rejects D&D Money - Let's Write Letters!
Check out Auction_God's Comment on the Gen Con forums: http://community.gencon.com/forums/t/18751.aspx
CCF refused to be the official charity of GenCon *BEFORE* the convention. Sorry if this wasn't clear.
GenCon's official charity was Fisher House so it's not like they turned down the money after we had raised it.
-
2008-11-02, 04:32 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2008
Re: Charity Rejects D&D Money - Let's Write Letters!
Given that the whole thing happened a while ago, I'm guessing they were surprised to have such a sudden blow-up about it. If the form letter that says that the charity's leader wasn't available is true, (and it should also be noted this is the weekend, where there would probably be fewer people around anyway), it's possible that they just tried to put a good form e-mail together as a band-aid until they could prepare a public statement.
This is why I don't donate to charities that have an additional ideology beyond the charity itself. An organisation that helps starving children is excellent; whereas a Christian organisation that helps starving children, no matter how well-intended, tends to eventually get into a situation where the two goals end up in conflict. And then you get such organisations refusing to hire people who aren't devout enough, or refusing to work in countries where a "use condoms" message is being spread, and it gets messy.
-
2008-11-02, 04:57 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2005
- Location
- By a Park
- Gender
Re: Charity Rejects D&D Money - Let's Write Letters!
Uh, no. You cannot claim tax exempt status in any way by making a donation. You have to be entirely non-profit yourself. No ifs about that.
However, you may be able to make certain deductions.
I don't know about specific charities, but it has been a political issue regarding certain foreign aid programs. I'm not going to say any more on account of the "no politics" rules.The Future just ain’t what it used to be.
-
2008-11-02, 05:25 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2007
Re: Charity Rejects D&D Money - Let's Write Letters!
I'm a troll for disagreeing with you, and being upset that people are bashing my religion. That's a very unique definition of troll you have there. I already provided about six or seven very innapropriate quotations from people in this thread in order to back my point, but by all means continue to call me a troll. Anyone who disagrees with you or gets upset by what you say is obviously a troll.
The Giant directly asked people to not involve religion in this. As a result, I would expect them to not involve religion in this. When they ignore this request, I would expect the moderators to step in.
I post here quite often and enjoy it here. You'll note that by far the largest number of my posts are not argumentative, and you have no right to call me a troll. Personally, I would like to be able to continue posting here without seeing my religion insulted every few posts.Last edited by Anteros; 2008-11-02 at 05:28 PM.
-
2008-11-02, 05:36 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2008
Re: Charity Rejects D&D Money - Let's Write Letters!
I didn't have the time to read through all those posts, so I beg your apologize if somebody already pointed to this:
http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=128170
"Dear (i removed my name),
Thank you for writing to Anne Goddard and sharing your concerns. Anne was traveling when she received your email. We discussed your concern and she asked that I respond on her behalf. Please know that we take your email very seriously.
There appears to be a misunderstanding which I would like to correct. When Gen Con contacted CCF about its auction, we were pleased to accept donations. However, we couldn’t lend our name for publication because our policies have specific criteria for endorsements. We were unaware that this had caused any problem or concern for Gen Con until we began receiving emails. This decision was in no way intended to be a reflection on Mr. Gygax, gaming enthusiasts or the game Dungeon and Dragons. We have the utmost respect for the gaming community and were touched by the generosity expressed through your auction. We were disappointed that we were not the recipients of the donation but we were pleased that another worthy organization benefited.
We realize this has become a topic of discussion in the gaming community and we hope you will help us by sharing this response.
The needs of children are great and we welcome your support. Should you wish to learn more we invite you to visit our website at http://www.christianchildrensfund.org.
Again, I thank you for taking the time to voice your concern. Your passion for gaming and your support for children are admirable.
Sincerely,
Cheri Dahl
Vice President, International Communications and Fundraising
Christian Children's Fund
2821 Emerywood Parkway
Richmond, Virginia 23294
(804) 756-2702
[email protected]
http://www.christianchildrensfund.org"
Nothing to get wild about, realy. So please calm down, call some of your friends and dive into some decent dnd...
Regards,
pepebeLast edited by pepebe; 2008-11-02 at 05:39 PM.
-
2008-11-02, 05:42 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2006
- Location
- Loving the questions
- Gender
Re: Charity Rejects D&D Money - Let's Write Letters!
Forgive me, for this will sound rude. However, when people post things like this, I get confused.
If you feel this way, then why are you even still here? If you don't like the forum, leave. Simple as that.
Although you do raise a good point, and I can understand why you're feeling attacked.
Guys, please, leave religon out of this, as much as possible. Or at least try not to sound baised - not all Christians are right-wing. And there are several here. Remember what your mother told you - "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all". It's good advice, you should take it. (Bolded for eye-catchy-ness)
Edit: Pepebe, I don't think you should trust that one - it's a form letter. They made it longer, true, but it's nothing less then a laugh.
Thank you for writing to Anne Goddard and sharing your concerns. Anne was traveling when she received your email. We discussed your concern and she asked that I respond on her behalf. Please know that we take your email very seriously.Last edited by Mr. Moon; 2008-11-02 at 05:46 PM.
"You tied your wings on tightly but they always come undone"
~ ClumsyMonkey, Montreal
Beautiful red panda avatar by Eldar Tsufo!
-
2008-11-02, 05:50 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2007
Re: Charity Rejects D&D Money - Let's Write Letters!
-
2008-11-02, 06:39 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2006
- Location
- The Town
Re: Charity Rejects D&D Money - Let's Write Letters!
i think that makes it more specific, yes. so, it was not a last minuet thing. we still dont know their exact motives, but i doubt we ever will.
personally, if you havent sent a letter yet i am all for sending one now just to get the point across (see my post on page six to know what the 'point' is) and call it a day.
and anteros, i suppose i used slang that not everyone would understand and for that i apologize. a troll is someone who says things only to try and get a rise out of other people. a common way to do that is to jump on a thread and disagree strongly with the mainstream argument. so, since you are sincere, no you are not a troll. i still find you brash and abrasive.Last edited by CabbageTheif; 2008-11-02 at 06:42 PM.
-
2008-11-02, 07:07 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2008
- Location
- Outer space.
- Gender
Re: Charity Rejects D&D Money - Let's Write Letters!
I'm kinda surprised that people still bash D&D for this sort of thing.
I honestly thought violent videogames were our new cultural scapegoat these days.Sorry, forumites, but the clever message is in another signature!
-
2008-11-02, 07:21 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2007
-
2008-11-02, 09:58 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2008
- Location
- The Cathedral of Flames
- Gender
Re: Charity Rejects D&D Money - Let's Write Letters!
SpoilerAvatar, and many thanks, to Nevitan!
Thanks to Lubirio for the calligraphy signature!
Quotes and Links:
A little song about the internet.
To the Dancing Fox Inn!
PM me about Linux!
-
2008-11-02, 10:11 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2008
Re: Charity Rejects D&D Money - Let's Write Letters!
"I'm glad to know that your charity is doing so well that you can now pick and choose who you accept money from. I guess the children that our money would have benefited can survive on your moral superiority."
-
2008-11-02, 11:16 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2007
Re: Charity Rejects D&D Money - Let's Write Letters!
Because there are no other charities in the world and now we're just going to have to throw all that money away. Yup. No other possible way to get that money to the children. Oh well.
I should note that I agree with everyone that this charity should not turn this money down (although we don't even know their reasons.) But people are blowing this way out of proportion.
-
2008-11-03, 01:12 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2008
- Location
- New Jersey
- Gender
Re: Charity Rejects D&D Money - Let's Write Letters!
Great avatar by the magnificent Mauve Shirt.
My TVTropes Troper Page. Send me a message if you want to talk about one of them.
-
2008-11-03, 02:56 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2007
- Location
- Canberra, Australia!
- Gender
Re: Charity Rejects D&D Money - Let's Write Letters!
I find it sad that what started as something that the forums were all in agreement on has turned into something that has made people consider leaving them
i think that there were probably formalities that stopped the money from being accepted by CCF, I think that it may have been a bad idea for them to not except it because of the bad image that it seems to be giving them, but i really doubt that it was because it had any thing to do with the fact that the money came partly from sales of D&D. I hope that most people will have accepted that we are not a bunch of Satanists and that there is no need to fear any money we give to charity, i hope......
-
2008-11-03, 05:00 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2006
- Location
- Old Europe
Re: Charity Rejects D&D Money - Let's Write Letters!
-
2008-11-03, 07:43 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2007
Re: Charity Rejects D&D Money - Let's Write Letters!
Could we please start responding based on the clarifications that we now KNOW are the case?
1) There is no evidence that the CCF rejected the donations. As was pointed out in the cited post the CCF simply rejected being the official charity of GenCon. GenCon then went with another charity and gave the money to them instead. From the form letter, CCF weren't even aware that they weren't going to get the donation until people E-mailed them asking why they rejected them.
2) CCF is totally within its rights to decide what events they feel they can officially sponsor. This incurs no moral or logical sanction. It would be nice if the CCF would state what the reason was, but that they haven't yet done that is not reason to assume what it was.
I think that Rich should update the news post with the new information. Leaving it as is just encourages more people to react strongly to the issue when the reality is not as stated.
-
2008-11-03, 08:53 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2008
- Location
- Midwest, USA
- Gender
Re: Charity Rejects D&D Money - Let's Write Letters!