Donation to Charity in the name of Willow and Tara

[emma peel]

Great points, willowlicious. Thanks.
Janice

[BoredNow99]

[b:e783ac285e] Amy[/b:e783ac285e], you took the words right out of my mouth.

A press release is a must, as well as a photocall when we hand over our substantially-sized cheque

I can help with that, as well as money.

[feena191]

I found this on the Affirmation website

www.affirmation.org/youthnews15.htm

Youth Newsflash!
Trevor Hotline Offers Hope 24 hours a Day

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
August, 1997

On August 11, The Trevor Project launched The Trevor Helpline, the first ound-the-clock national toll-free suicide hotline for gay and questioning youth. It's open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Teens with nowhere to turn can call 800-850-8078, where they can talk to trained counselors, find local resources and take important steps on their way to becoming healthy adults. All calls are free and confidential.

About The Trevor Helpline

The Trevor Helpline, which can be reached by calling 800-850-8078, is a national 24-hour toll-free suicide prevention hotline aimed at gay or questioning youth. The Trevor Helpline is geared toward helping those in crisis, or anyone wanting information on how to help someone in crisis. All calls are handled by trained counselors, and are free and confidential.

The Trevor Helpline was established by the The Trevor Project in August 1998 to coincide with the HBO airing of TREVOR, hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. TREVOR is the award-winning short film about a 13-year old boy named Trevor who, when rejected by friends and peers as he begins to come to terms with his sexuality, makes an unsuccessful attempt at suicide.

When TREVOR was scheduled to air on HBO, the film's creators began to realize that some of the program's teen viewers might be facing the same kind of crisis as Trevor, and they began to search for a support line to help them. When they discovered that no national 24-hour toll-free suicide hotline existed that was geared toward gay youth, they decided to establish one and began the search for funding.

Thanks to a generous startup grant from The Colin Higgins Foundation, The Trevor Helpline was born, and the search for funding continues to maintain the site on a permanent basis.

The film's creators were also lucky enough to secure the services of Dr. Jay Nagdimon, an expert in the area of suicide prevention, to manage the hotline. Dr. Nagdimon is director of the Suicide Prevention Center (SPC) in Los Angeles. Prior to his tenure at the SPC, Dr. Nagdimon founded the Lambda Youth Network, a nonprofit organization providing outreach and HIV education to gay, lesbian and bisexual youth. In addition, he supervised the Adolescent Suicide Prevention Project for the Family Service of Los Angeles, and he authored Adolescent Suicide Prevention Project, a teacher's guide for presenting suicide prevention material to youth. Dr. Nagdimon is also a past contributor to Oasis Magazine, an online publication for sexual minority youth.

The Trevor Helpline was designed to help those in crisis and, like the film, give hope where it's needed.

[hush30]

The Trevor Project sounds excellent. I don't think Joss and ME realise that what they did is a matter of life and death. There are a huge number of GLBT who commit suicide each year because of the message they get sent from society. It would be fantastic to send them the message that it is NOT okay what Joss and ME did to W/T and what a better way then to support a charity like the Trevor Project.

I am definately in no matter what charity you choose. It sucks though that the Aus$ is only .55cents to a US$. I don't actually like to use my credit card online so what will be the next best way to get money to the kitten account? International money order I suppose?

[KJchicago]

XIta - thanks for getting this out there.

I vote for the Trevor Project. I definitely will donate and I have PayPal or can send a check.

Kittens are the BEST!

[chelehel74]

Relativegirl - Have people been receptive to your offer to ask questions to Mr. Stone if you are able to find him?

Other than the Kitten Board is there any where else we could get the word out too regarding this idea?

[relativegirl]

Well, no Randy Stone at the Fox studio party or if he was there, nobody could find him for me or recalled seeing him (I even rented Home for the Holidays to remind myself what he looks like -- homework!). We were on the New York streets set at the studios (think NYPD Blue scenes) so it was pretty spread out, but I feel like I talked to everyone there.

The event that I was at was a fundraiser for an organization that focuses on teenagers who are the victims of domestic violence (from parents, bf/gf, etc) so the place was full of non-profit types with a focus on teenagers. I made one of the organizers introduce me to as many people as possible and I quized the poor folks about the Trevor Project. The majority of the people outside the "Industry" had not heard of it, but many of those inside the "Industry" had heard about, especially in connection with the HBO film and it is exhibition. They all associate the film with Ellen DeGeneres as they remember her talking about it publicly and perhaps privately as well. Everyone that had heard of the Project had positive things to say about it, though to be honest no one was sufficiently familiar with it to answer my more detailed questions about it.

I read through the Trevor Project's federal tax returns for 1998, 1999 & 2000. On the returns, they are required to state the primary purpose of their organization: [quote:74918a31fb][b:74918a31fb][i:74918a31fb]Quote:[/i:74918a31fb][/b:74918a31fb]

---

To promote greater acceptance of gay, lesbian and questioning youth, particularly those most vulnerable -- the ones in their highly tumultuous and emotional teen years, and to provide these vulnerable teens with an alternative vision of their future and thus prevent terrible tragedies, such as suicide, which can result from discrimination, isolation and rejection.

---

[/quote:74918a31fb]
They are also required to give a statement of program service accomplishments: [quote:74918a31fb][b:74918a31fb][i:74918a31fb]Quote:[/i:74918a31fb][/b:74918a31fb]

---

[1] The production and showing of a short film called "Trevor" carrying a message of tolerance, which is used as the cornerstone of an educational package for school and institutional use, also shown at film festivals and receiving national exposure through a theatrical release.
[2] The establishment of a 24 hour toll-free crisis hotline aimed at gay and lesbian youth, overseen by a renown suicide expert through the Didi Hirsch Community Health Center.
[3] The establishment of a web page, providing resource information on gay-friendly local and national organizations, publications, reading materials, etc., aimed at gay youth.

---

[/quote:74918a31fb]
They make some money off of the exhibition of the Trevor movie and the rest of their money comes from contributions. In 1999 they had one contribution of $20,000 and in 2000 one of $10,000 but all other contributions given in 1998, 1999 or 2000 were less than $6,000 per contribution. Their annual contributions have been rather modest: $115,000; $66,000; $130,000 so even a little money from us would be helpful.

As far as where the money actually goes, they have only one paid officer or employee and she gets $15,000/year. After deducting her salary and the accountant's fees, 68% of the money they spend goes into the programs they run with the crisis hotline getting the most $$$, 20% of their money goes to fundraising and 10% goes for general overhead expenses. This ain't Enron.

I also learned that if you spend the entire evening asking people about a gay charity, eventually another lesbian is going to clue in that you just might be "family" and ask you out.

[emma peel]

relativegirl,thanks for the info on the party and for all your effort in researching the Trevor Project.
I hope you had some fun at the party.
So, ummm...did you get asked out or what?

Janice

[Coma123]

Nice work Relativegirl

. This ain't Enron

Hmm I would have assumed this was a good thing

So yeh spill did you pick up

[xita]

RG, great stuff (including a date?), this is great researching you did. I think certainly this is the kind of group that I would like to be involved with for so many reasons already stated.

Please do not be afraid to nominate someone else. I realized in this Tara tragedy that I had a great track record in college for gay charity and activism and now I don't know anything. So suggestions are great.

That being said, we need to make a move. So I will give till Wednesday to hear any counter arguments against this and then we can begin preparation for the actual fundraising. This will go in another thread with details on how to pay etc.

Hmm, I would like some suggestions in here though for how long you guys think we should run it for or whether setting a money goal would be better and not stopping till we meet our money goal. Thanks a lot for all your support and help with this everybody.

[relativegirl]

What if we timed our fundraising so that we cutoff donations maybe 2 weeks before the season 7 premiere of BtVS and gave the money to the charity the same week of the premiere. The idea being we're going to send out a press release about this, so once we know how much we've raised, we send out the press release far enough in advance that media who may be running a story on the season 7 premiere will also get our press release and we have a ready-made tie-in.

Then if we do a second press release when/after we actually give them the money, we have a ready-made tie-in with the media stories re: how well/poorly the season 7 premiere did in the ratings (which we are assuming will be lower than expected and discussion about how season 6 angered fans would be expected).

Oh and Janice and Coma, as to your questions . . . the fact that I'm online at the moment rather than, um, otherwise occupied, should tell you something about whether I got picked up. Not that I have anything against shagging for charity, mind you. Any further details (and, this being me and my life, there is a sad and pathetic story to tell) is probably not board-appropriate and best saved for chat.

[BoredNow99]

Great work, RG. Thanks for putting so much time and effort in.

You're a star!

I agree with a cut-off point rather than a figure goal for exactly the reasons you describe.

Obviously the main aim is to raise cash for a worthy cause, but we also need to make this work for us.

I like the sound of coinciding things with the season seven premiere.

If after that people feel there are still untapped resources out there, maybe we could pick up the fundraising again.

Oh, and I'm sorry to hear you have a sad and pathetic story to tell. Hope things aren't too bad

[Epicurus]

This is a great idea.
I'm interested in donating if I can find a method of payment that is feasible to me.
I remember reading posts suggesting the idea of cheques and PayPal, anything else?

[WebWarlock]

Cut off date works well with me.

I am ready to get behind the Trevor Project 100%. I think what they do is great.

I have been helping Xita do the leg work here so I got a call back from Jorge Valencia the Excutive Director of the The Trevor Project. He was very cool. He confirmed everything RG has already posted. So yes he is very happy with $1,500 (I'd like to do more!)

He is going to send me a packet of information including the testimonials of people that have been helped. These testimonials include quotes from those helped as well as the friends and families. Mr. Valencia stated that they recieve calls from teens as youngs as 11.

They are planning to re-launch their website and debut their new 800 number in Sept with a big press conference. He said he would love for us to be a part of that. They are going to have a lot of PR about this and start a new poster campaign with their new number right after that. So our funds would be put right to work!

This is the one to go with in my mind.

Warlock

[Dave V]

Excellent work, relativegirl - you're amazing! I agree, a cutoff date would be the best idea. Your propopsed timing of the cutoff date and press release to coincide with the S7 premiere is a very good one.

[Dumbsaint]

I really adore the idea of the cooinciding with the beginning of season seven timeline for this project. It's perfect.

Trevor Project sounds great, too.

[emma peel]

This is great! Everything seems to be falling into place!

Is there any way we could invite Amber and Aly to the actual check giving thingie, and maybe they could be the ones that could turn over the check? I realize that's quite a stretch and they probably wouldn't/couldn't attend. I'm just thinking that it would be even more uplifting for everyone involved if Amber and Aly could at least be invited.

Janice

[Wiccagrrl313]

Well, parrotting what everyone else has been saying, but I think the Trevor Project sounds truly wonderful. It truly seems to mesh with our goals here, and a small enough organization that our contributions could truly make a difference. I'm all for this.

[WebWarlock]

We have discussed a few ways to get money for this project here in the thread already. Since we seem close to picking a charity then I thought we could review the popular ideas and maybe generate some new ones.

[b:b335366734] First we have the donations.[/b:b335366734]
We have a Pay Pal account set up now for you to donate. Be assured that ANY donations will be kept private.

We (or I should say Xita) has a P.O. Box for people that wish to donate by check. Xita will post that address later this week I am sure. She or I will post the Pay Pal one the same time.

[i:b335366734] Question: Does anyone want to pay via credit card?[/i:b335366734] In other words, we set up a form and you type in your credit card info and then it is handled via Pay Pal?
If so, email me, web.warlock@attbi.com and I will upgrade the Pay Pal account to handle it.

If you are overseas see if you can draw on US funds for this. The best bet is to mail your check or money order to the P.O. Box since it costs so dang much to do an overseas transfer.

[b:b335366734] Auctions[/b:b335366734]
Here is an idea that has been passed around, we have a big Kitten auction on Ebay with the proceeds going to the charity fund.

I think we should have that for the middle of August. I have some Buffy stuff that I am going to get rid of as well as some RPG stuff. We still have time to think about that, but I guess start thinking about what you want to sell. If you dont have a lot stuff, maybe we can even arrange it that a couple of Kittens close by can pair up.

What do all think of these ideas?

Do you have some others?

Warlock

[feena191]

How does Pay Pal work then? I thought it was via credit card. I don't mind how to donate, but which will be the most cost-effective, with the least admin hassle for you?

Oh I forgot, I was sitting here typing & drinking out of my Kittie mug, & that made me think about the merchandise you can buy here.

For the last few years I've had either a Buffy or Angel calendar - well not any more. And it really makes me mad that a certain vampire who shall remain nameless gets his own one.

Is there any possibility of having a Kitten Willow/Tara calendar? I know publicity shots/screen caps are obviously owned by Fox/UPN, but what about all the photos taken by Kittens at Conventions & Autograph sessions. They must be copyrighted to the photographer? And if the photo was taken at a public session there wouldn't be any privacy problems.

Would it be viable to produce from a cost point of view? If it was, then maybe the profit could go towards the charity collection.

[WebWarlock]

Feena that is a good point.

There are some very talented Kittens here, both in terms of artistic ability and photography. We could make Kitten merchandise to sell.

But this is a very gray area of copyright law.
I am on a few copyright lists so I ask around. I'll check with some lawyers I know as well.

Pay Pal: Well normal Pay Pal is an acct you have that you can transfer money to. You can under a normal Pay Pal account pay for something and then set it up to take the money from your credit card. I was going to set it up so that even if you did not have a Pay Pal account you pay via credit card.

I have had a few people interested in this idea.

Warlock

[feena191]

The credit card sounds the easiest way for me personally donate.

I know we've got to be careful from a copyright point of view, otherwise that could cause real problems. But if it was possible we must have [b:8c842bc173] LOTS & LOTS[/b:8c842bc173] of Willow/Tara goodness on every page - 12 pics just isn't enough

Feena
-x-

[relativegirl]

Doing a calendar of candid photos of Amber and Alyson isn't a problem from a copyright perspective b/c the photographer owns the copyright. The problem is that, as public figures, AB and AH own their images and nobody (other than the press) can use their images for profit (even the $$$ is ultimately donated to charity) without their consent.

Even if AB and AH would want to give their consent, performers contracts with studios usually include a clause that gives the studio control over the use of the performer's images for the term of the contract, so unless AB, AH, ME and Fox all consented, I don't see how we could do this without being sued.

Sorry.

[friskylez]

May i just say that Xita, the moderators and the wonderful, compassionate, caring kittens who post on this board are awesome..Reading this thread i was overwhelmed at the generosity of those who post here, whether it is giving of their time, their support, their money or their talent..

The world would truly be a better place if everyone had the kittens heart, sensitivity and compassion..Thank you for this board, it is truly a special community and those who post here are very special people...Count the frisky one in....

[feena191]

That's a shame, but I guess it's logical...maybe we just need to wait til we hear Amber [b:f7ac4bbebe] hasn't[/b:f7ac4bbebe] signed a contract for next year with ME, then have a Amber calender instead!

[EffieBlue]

I really want to send a donation, but as I said before, I'll need to save to do that. so if the deadline is soon I wont be in a position to send any money. I'm totally lacking in the spare cash area of things. I'm a single parent living on state disability benefit, which isn't a lot..(equivalent of $145 a week)and don't have a credit card so i'd have to send it via international money order so I'll need time to save and I really [b:cf1df0b1b9] really[/b:cf1df0b1b9] feel this is something I have to contribute to.

[WebWarlock]

EffieBlue,

Don't worry about it. There are plenty of things that can be done without sending in money. If you have the money, great, send it. But don't do without something, like food, for this.

A lot of us are on tight budgets. But we are going to need people to help get this thing noticed and recognized. There is no reason why someone outside of the Kitten couldn't also donate.

Can't send in money yourself? Ok, talk five friends into doing it for you!

Warlock

[feena191]

We'd have to wait & see how things go anyway, but I'm sure we'll have a lot of donations by August. And I know, if we do go with the Trevor Project, the deadline makes sense as it coincides with the new Season starting, & their new website - which means maximum publicity.

But it may be that people decide they'd like to give again in the future, or need more time to save. So how about a second donation, on the anniversary of Tara's death. That could have a press release too, or it could be kept as a private thing between the Kittens & the Trevor Project.

[WebWarlock]

Again, another good idea feena!

Well the Trevor Project has a press conference scheduled in mid Sept. I do not have the exact date, I should get that when the Director, Jorge Valencia, returns on the 27th.

I am psyched and ready to go on the Trevor Project!

I say we send out one more call for any other charity, but we make our descions soon. Like in the next 24-48 hours soon.

Xita will be around with donation information for Phase One.

There are plans for Phase Two, the Kitten Charity Auction, and those will be added too. Nothing fancy, just find some items to sell on Ebay!

Warlock

[PandoraSpocks]

I remember Xita or someone in this thread say, a dollar a kitten. It doesn't have to be much, just what you can spare. Every little bit helps. I know I don't have much money, but when a charity is up, I want to send what I can. It would be great if we could get every Kitten to donate