There's a fundraising website called helpthecheerleader.com. If you haven't heard of them, please take a minute to read about their cause. The site is run by Jessica and Theresa, who work their asses off in their free time for a good cause. If you get a chance, tweet them, or drop a comment on the site to let them know what a great job they're doing.
A few days ago, they launched a fundraising campaign offering sketch commissions (by me) in exchange for a $20 donation.
We had a limit of 20 commission slots.
On the first day, we received about 15 requests. I was relieved that people were interested!
On the second day, thanks to re-tweets by many notable geek/comics bloggers and write ups from some well-known websites, we received over 130 requests.
Let me say that again, we received 130 requests in one day.
That puts us at a total of about 145 requests (I think we're actually closer to 150, but we're still sorting through them). So y'know, that's way past our cap of 20. We are truly overwhelmed and grateful for the positive response!
Let's cut to the chase here:
We are going to honor every commission request that was submitted before the website was updated to inform people that requests were closed.
So, here's how it'll work:
- As we planned, the first 20 people who made requests are going to be given information on how to make their donation.
- Everyone else goes on a wait list. Each person will be sent an email letting them know what number they are on the list. The people on the wait list do not pay up front, and they are under no obligation--if anyone wants to be taken off the wait list, just email us. No pressure, and no hard feelings.
- After I finish the first 20 commissions, we will email the next 15 people on the wait list to let them know that they're up, and give them information on how to make their donation, and I will begin on their commissions.
- After I finish those 15 commissions, we will email the next 15 people, and so on.
- I will be posting commissions here on my blog as I finish them, so you can get an idea of how long you might have to wait if you're #142 on the list.
- Please bear with us while we get this thing running smoothly. We just need to sort through all the requests/donations and then I'll be off to the races. I'm chomping at the bit to get started. This really unintentionally turned into a race horse analogy.
Lastly, I just want to say a few words of thanks:
To everyone who requested a sketch (even if you didn't make it before we cut off requests), thank you for your generosity and compassion. This nerdy misanthrope is relieved to know that there are some good people in this world.
If you tweeted about this, re-tweeted it, emailed it to somebody, linked it in IM to a friend, blogged about it, re-blogged it, tumbled it, re-tumbled it, hell, if you opened up your window and hollered about it to someone passing by on the street, then I love you and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. It is so hard to get the word out on a good cause, but you folks made it easy.
Here are some of the notable articles and mentions:
- Laura Hudson, Comics Alliance
- Andy Khouri
- Kevin Church
- Andrea Grimes
- Oh No They Didn't
- Sara Comito
- The Mary Sue
- Nerd Bastards
- Let's Think This Through
- Ms. Magazine
- Girls With Slingshots
- FemPop
- Morning Quickie
- The Bayou Blog
- Houston Press
- Dave Ex Machina
- Retweets by Bonnie Burton, Paul Dini, Chris Sims, and many, many, many more.
15 comments:
is there a paypal address directly connected to the girl that we can donate to her legal fund without purchasing a print? thanks, James
yes, absolutely. just go here: http://www.helpthecheerleader.com/ and click donate! thank you for the support and generosity!
just wanted to say you are super extremely awesome for doing this
There are a lot of fellow illustrators out there who might be willing to join in to take the load off you and help out as well.
Maybe 20 or so people (like me, also on blogger kevinarts.blogspot.com) could contribute 20 of their own pics so you don't lose any fingers doing 150 pics?
What you're doing is awesome :)
Thank you for helping to get the word out and for supporting a young woman and her family against the cruelty of her high school.
Kevin--thank you very much for your offer! I posted a comment on your blog w/ a more in depth response.
Audrey, Laura, and Raciti--thank you all so much! As I'm now starting up the actual drawing process, the encouragement is very energizing! :)
Hey there, I just read what you are doing over at the Ms Blog and wanted to say thank you for being so amazing and proactive. Wish you lots of energy for all the drawing.
thanks, anonymous! much appreciated!
Hi Jason,
We used one of your pics to illustrate the story about you. Hope that's ok (thought it would be good to show people your talent):http://morningquickie.com/2011/06/13/nerd-furious-about-cheerleaders-rape-draws-on-his-talents-to-help-a-stranger/ If not we'll take it down immediately and find another more suitable image. You're awesome! Props to you!
Morning Quickie
PS -- Sorry if this looks like spam, but we couldn't find your email address :(
Morning Quickie, I sent you an email. Thank you so much for the write up, I really appreciate it!
Hi J.Ho
I read about your helping this cause from Morning Quickie and I wanted to say you rock!
I live in Australia and heard about this case some time ago. I am pleased to hear that others are helping, including yourself.
Sounds like you are under-selling yourself and could have charged more given the responses you received. Kudos to you for honouring so many!
Thank you, porcineflight! I really appreciate the encouragement! :)
I guess in retrospect I might have been able to charge more, but it's always a matter of trying to hit that sweet-spot so that the price point encourages interest. But it worked out, luckily!.
THANK YOU.
you're welcome doctressjulia! but really, the thanks all go to the incredibly generous people who have donated to the cause!
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