1000 PENGUINS TYPING

We’re so close to NaNo starting that I am having trouble concentrating on anything else! This is not a good thing when carving a pumpkin.

We have already raised $1,550 in Austin! That puts us 9th among all regions, just slightly behind California’s East Bay, but ahead of Minneapolis/St. Paul, Dallas, and Los Angeles! Thank you everyone who has donated so far. We’re really impressed with everyone’s generosity this year. I know I set a high goal for us, but I think we can do it!

Something I want to mention: if you see myself (ciri) or lazym at a write-in but not actively asking people for donations, feel free to come up to us and put some money in the pot. Lazym will have the same coffee pot you have seen in years past (or at the kickoff) and I will have an “Instant Karma!” jar.

Hope to see you at a write in or six!

This year, the Austin Penguins have an ambitious goal: collect $4,000 for National Novel Writing Month. And you can help.

Last year 411 Austin writers donated a total of $2,268.87. That’s only $5.52 per person, less than the price of one takeout lunch. This year we’re aiming for $10 a person, the cost of two venti mochas at Starbucks.

Why donate? Think back to the first time you decided to write a story. Maybe it was just a short time ago. Maybe you’ve been penning tales ever since you could grasp a crayon. But there was something out there that called to you, that made you do it. It’s different for every writer, but that feeling is unmistakeable. That is some of the feeling we get when we participate in the amazing event that is NaNoWriMo. No time else, no place else, are hundreds of thousands of writers coming together to achieve the same goal. And NaNoWriMo is a nonprofit organization, which means that we are the ones that continue to fuel this collective machine.

Ways you can help:

1. Donate directly to NaNoWriMo with credit card, PayPal, or check. A $10 donation gets you a halo on the site. Higher donations have additional thank-you gifts. This is quick and easy.

2. Purchase merchandise from the NaNo store. Most merchandise makes around $6 for the Office of Letters and Light. Also, if you order “No Plot, No Problem” using the Amazon link on the front page, Amazon returns a small percentage to NaNo. This money goes to NaNo, but doesn’t count for our local total.

3. At write-ins, drop your spare change into our coffee pot. Lazym, Ciri, and some write-in hosts will be collecting donations to send in to HQ. A dollar here and there can go a long way. Or even give up one of your fancy coffees or pastries in favor of giving the money to NaNo.

Get others to donate for you:

1. Blog about NaNo and put an icon on your site that links to AuNoWriMo PayPal donation page. Ciri will be collecting the money throughout the month and sending it in to HQ. The icon and PayPal code can be found here. The button numbers will be updated throughout the month as our donation totals go up.

2. Create a GiftTool site. NaNoWriMo makes it easy to make your own page by going here. Notify your family and friends that you’re raising money for NaNoWriMo. If you raise $200 or more by November 18, you’re eligible for the Night of Writing Dangerously on Nov 22nd in San Francisco. Money raised through GiftTool will not count for our region in the total donation numbers tallied on the website, but it helps NaNo all the same!

3. Ask your workplace about donating to NaNo and find out if they have a matching gift program. Some companies will donate to a charity in return for your volunteer hours. This way you can help out lazym at a NaNo event and make money for NaNo at the same time.

4. Offer incentives in return for donations. Let them read your novel as you write it. Create characters based on them. Bake them a cake (in December). Do all their Christmas wrapping. The possibilities are endless.

Broke?

1. GoodSearch donates a penny for every search, once you set up NaNoWriMo as your charity. The pennies add up! In 2008, GoodSearch donated over $1,200.00 to NaNo.

2. Keep an eye out for other opportunities. For example, LJ donated $1 per member who won NaNo last year. We’ll be sure to post about offers like this on the Austin NaNo forum

Button and PayPal Code

Cut and paste the following code into your blog!

<center><form action=”https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr” method=”post”>
<input type=”hidden” name=”cmd” value=”_s-xclick”>
<input type=”hidden” name=”hosted_button_id” value=”8873267″>
<input type=”image” src=”http://megan.stetted.com/nanowrimo/donorpot2.png” border=”0″ name=”submit” alt=”PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!”>
<img alt=”" border=”0″ src=”https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif” width=”1″ height=”1″>
</form>
</center>

It will look like this:

Ciri will be continually updating this blog to keep everyone updated about our donations, and will post about any other donation opportunities we come across. For more information on what happens to your donation, check Where Donations Go on the NaNo website.

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