Abq Charities/Non-Profit Group

Okay I wanted to start a thread for finding a charity or non-profit group for us to work with. At the moment I am all for Toys for Tots but that really only happens at the Christmas time....

So I guess if you have a charity please post it here and we can all discuss it I guess...

If you have links and info please post those as well..

 

we have to become a non-profit group.... that would pave the way for a couple of things, and also create a lot of thing like Mos Alba taxes

-lor

 

we get taxes? Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

 

no we will get taxed if we make money as a non-profit group...

as for getting involved with a charity group to raise money that will be paid directly to that group-such as a fund raiser-we don't need a non-profit number unless we are raising money that will be paid to us in our name.

 

Non-profit is REALLY a sticky issue and we've chosen to ignore anything to do with money other than voluntary donations from within the group. Something I may suggest is like for toys for tots....seeing if you can get a matching deal with a place. They toss in 1 figure for every 3 you bring in, or even 1 for 1.

We're also working on a weekend appearance at the Phoenix Children's Hospital for a few hours to let the kids have fun.

We coordinated a blood drive last year for Copper-Con

We had a habitat for humanity building session (not for the accident prone, gotta remind those people next time)

Just some suggestions.

 

I would love to woirk with Habitat for HUmanity...

 

Some others we might think about is canned food, dry packaged food drives(like rice, beans, soup mixes, etc) to help out the local food banks. Also Women's shelters sometimes need things like toiletries etc for the women, toys for the shelter for the kids, diapers, baby wipes that sort of stuff.
We could have a collection drive to get stuff for the Battered Women shelter, have Gecko and Lady Anakin if they are able to wear their stormtrooper armor, so kids could get their pictures taken with them. Maybe we could coordinate with a Hastings, or bookstore in town that might offer discounted prices on Star Wars/Sci-Fi books to help draw customers to the store if they bring in one item for the women's shelter.
We could put up a poll with different charities etc and see what everyone else thinks would be good. I think the women's shelter drive would be a good one, but that's coming from a woman's perspective. If we did the Toys for Tots, do we need to coordinate with their sponsors, as I always thought the US Marines did that drive?

Just some thoughts.

 

toys for tots is done thru the marines but i think you can coordinate something with a local store. I was thinking of talking to toys r us about it cause i think they get a drop every year... about maybe doing a special weekend day...

Do you know the names of any shelters?

I would like to have a discussion on this at the next meeting so we can figure something out. I think a shelter would be good.

a childrens hosptial would be good well...

 

Varza,

I have had the very same idea...do something with Toys R Us and distribute toys at the Childrens hospital...with a local garrison of Stormtroopers, Sith and Jedi....

 

I will be speaking to the toys-r-us near where we have our meeting and find out what they do as well as toys for tots if need be...

we will probably need a few more costumes though...

 

bumping up

 

Varza,
Any word on the Toys for Tots charity? I would like to be a part of this event if we can get something set up. If you like IM me this weekend if you see me online.....lets talk about this!

I believe this would be a great event to be part of and show our support by showing up!


Jess

 

awesome! I will go by there again tomorrow and talk to the manager.

If anyone else would like to be involved please let me know. If I can go to them and let them know what kind of costumes I think it would help some.

So storm or clone trooper?

 

okay, i spoke with the managers today and talked to them for a bit. They said they do not know for sure what will be going on but i left them my informaion and asked them to contact me as soon as they know anything.

thing is they didn't sound overly interested. but we will see.

i will keep my eye out for other things.

 

Lets contact the Marines and mayby we could set up a recieving station in front of one of the recruiting offices. We could contact the local news stations and perhaps get some free press too!

Jess

 

I will work on that today and tomorrow then.

Yeah, I think no matter where we are we will call the press-like Lor told me yesturday they love that stuff...

 

We could tell Steve Stucker and see what that tight-*** thinks of Star Wars fans now...

 

Who is he Brother?

 

Steve Stucker is one of the newscasters at Channel 4 (I think). He has publicly mocked Star Wars fans in the past (several times). The only one I witnessed (on tv) was when people were lining up for Episode I tickets. He said something to the effect of "what the heck are they doing? They need to get a life." type of thing. Pissed me off.

 

well that makes me want to call channel 7 instead... I give nothing to people who mock star wars.

 

I'll kick his butt(edited for the younger viewers!)...if he said something to us!
Who is going to bail me out though?

 

i would but I don't think i have that kinda cash...

I'm all up for a protest though if he were to say something...

 

I'll bail you out gecko, I know a couple of bail bonds people

-lor