Seeds of Kindness: A Healing Touch

In-Kind Donations for GalaCon 2019 Charity Auction

The past is passé; the present is fleetingly short; but the future, the future we can still improve. GalaCon 2019 is dedicated to the future. Bronies for Good is not. Bronies for Good is dedicated only to the best possible future.

This century may be a turning point. Never before were we so close to creating artificial intelligences that may become our equals or surpass us. Never before were we on the brink of expanding to another planet. But never before did we exploit so many billions of animals in factory farms either. A moral catastrophe of unprecedented scale in human history.

If humanity expands to other planets before we’ve come to eat drastically less meat or without the technology to grow meat without the sentient animal (so called clean meat or cell meat), the scale of this exploitation will only increase.

Animal Charity Evaluators tries to find the most effective charities in the world that work on this problem so that donors can be assured (to the extent that the current research warrants) that their donations would not have achieved much more elsewhere. This year, our recommendation Animal Equality is once again top among them.

GalaCon 2019 (July 27–28 in Ludwigsburg, Germany) will support the valiant investigators and protectors of Animal Equality with the Grand Auction on Sunday.

Wanted: In-Kind Donations for the Auctions

This auction can only succeed if you donate valuable items now that will inspire bidders from Europe and from all around the world to reach for new heights of generosity.

Donation Form

To donate in kind to the auction, please fill in the donation form for every item, even if you plan on bringing it to the convention rather than mailing it.

If we have more time to plan the auction, it’ll help GalaCon handle the items more efficiently and sell more of them. Plus you will know whether your donation meets the requirements before you carry it to the convention. If you have any questions, please email GalaCon at [email protected].

GalaCon 2017

Screenshot from 2017-06-10 13-01-30

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GalaCon 2017 may not have reached the incredible impact of last year’s GalaCon, but it was nonetheless a resounding success for the animals – mostly chickens and fish. Our totally genuine Equestrian bits were very popular at the table, and so was Bound Together even though most comic-reading attendees probably already had a copy.

All in all, we – GalaCon with the auction and Bronies for Good at our booth – raised €15,624 for our charity, Animal Equality.

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Wanted: In-Kind Donations for GalaCon Charity Auction

Screenshot from 2017-06-10 13-01-30

GalaCon is still seeking more in-kind donations to put on another two hours of charity auction extravaganza this summer – all for our carefully chosen beneficiary Animal Equality!

The convention will again dedicate its charity auction to the Seeds of Kindness fundraiser of Bronies for Good – it will be the fifth successive year the convention has supported us. A silent auction and a super speedy Saturday sale will allow potential buyers to bid on their coveted items throughout most of the convention, and the live auction on Sunday will determine who gets the most valuable ones.

If you have an idea for a valuable item you could contribute to the auction, then please make Fluttershy proud and donate it, because scores of animals will likely be spared from suffering thanks to your generosity!

Contributing an Item to the Charity Auction

To submit an item, please head over to GalaCon’s charity auction page and click “Charity Auction 2017 – Item Registration Form.”

Please fill in the form for every item, even if you plan on bringing it to the convention rather than mailing it. Having more time to plan the auction helps us handle the items more efficiently and sell more of them. Plus you will know whether your donation meets the requirements before you carry it to the convention. If you have any questions, please email GalaCon at [email protected].

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GalaCon Seeking In-Kind Donations for Charity Auction

GalaCon 2017

A pony’s compassion wide – the cutie map has shown us that the well-being of every feeling individual matters never mind where he or she lives. And from the first day, Fluttershy has been the symbol of compassion for all animals, ungulate or not.

Many of us have made it our goal to find those individuals that suffer the worst hardships in the world, to find the best ways to help them free themselves, and when we do, to buckle down and get it done.

Goal of the Charity Auction

GalaCon is accepting in kind donations for the charity auction!

GalaCon will again dedicate its charity auction to the Seeds of Kindness fundraiser of Bronies for Good – it will be the fifth successive year the convention has supported us. A silent auction and a super speedy Saturday sale will allow potential buyers to bid on their coveted items throughout most of the convention, and the live auction on Sunday will determine who gets the most valuable ones.

Charity Auction 2017 – Item Registration Form

To donate in kind to the auction, please fill in this form for every item, even if you plan on bringing it to the convention rather than mailing it. Having more time to plan the auction helps us handle the items more efficiently and sell more of them. Plus you will know whether your donation meets the requirements before you carry it to the convention. If you have any questions, please email GalaCon at [email protected].

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GalaCon 2016

GalaCon 2016

Bronies for Good table at GalaCon

In terms of its social impact, GalaCon 2016 has been the best GalaCon ever. Thanks to the impeccable organization of Lukas Sanders and the other organizers, thanks to the powerful collaboration of Perry and Dusty during the auction, and thanks to hundreds of donors, we have raised over €23,000 for our charity, Animal Equality. Weaker returns at the table (compared to last year when hardly anyone had already read Bound Together) were offset by the strongest live auction in the history of GalaCon.

The following figures are based on my own counts (repeated at least twice). The authoritative count by the bank will probably still differ slightly, and I’ll update this post when I know it.

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In-Kind Donations for GalaCon 2016 Charity Auction

GalaCon 2016

A pony’s compassion wide – the cutie map has shown us that the well-being of every feeling individual matters never mind where he or she lives. And from the first day, Fluttershy has been the symbol of compassion for all animals, ungulate or not.

Many of us have made it our goal to find those individuals that suffer the worst hardships in the world, to find the best ways to help them free themselves, and when we do, to buckle down and get it done.
Canni

GalaCon 2016

Today we invite you to become one of us – or to welcome you back if you are a reliable supporter already: GalaCon is accepting in kind donations for the charity auction!

GalaCon (July 30–31, 2016) will again dedicate its charity auction to the Seeds of Kindness fundraiser of Bronies for Good – it will be the fifth successive year the convention has supported us. A silent auction and a super speedy Saturday sale will allow potential buyers to bid on their coveted items throughout most of the convention, and the live auction on Sunday will determine who gets the most valuable ones.

Donation Form

To donate in kind to the auction, please fill in this form for every item, even if you plan on bringing it to the convention rather than mailing it. Having more time to plan the auction helps us handle the items more efficiently and sell more of them. Plus you will know whether your donation meets the requirements before you carry it to the convention. If you have any questions, please email GalaCon at [email protected].

About GalaCon

The weekend of July 30–31, 2016, will mark the fifth anniversary of the GalaCon convention and the fourth consecutive year for it to take place in the Forum am Schlosspark in Ludwigsburg near Stuttgart, Germany. On two levels, GalaCon provides space for over 1,200 attendees, vendors, and panels with guests such as Amy Keating Rogers, Rebecca Shoichet, and Anneli Heed, as well as charity programming for Bronies for Good–recommended charities: a silent auction, the super speedy Saturday sale, and the grand live auction on Sunday. Tickets are available on the website.

About Bronies for Good

The show has taught us that a pony’s compassion is wide – it transcends country borders and races, and Fluttershy’s compassion has room for all species of critters, whether bear, squirrel, or chicken. We of Bronies for Good implement this message in the real world, where we run fundraising campaigns and rely on comparative research – such as that of GiveWell and Animal Charity Evaluators – to always find and support the best charities in the world.

About the Animal Equality

When animals are abused or suffer, Animal Equality is there to defend them. The international organization has offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Venezuela, and India, from which it conducts investigations to bring to light cases of animal abuse and educate the public about them. Animal Charity Evaluators estimates that it saves multiple animals for every dollar donated and recommends it as one of the best animal charities in the world.

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GalaCon 2015

GalaCon 2015

GalaCon 2015 has been an unprecedented success for us, a success that we’ve transferred to the Against Malaria Foundation right away.

“Us” is Bronies for Good, Your Siblings, and the two of us, Nino and Denis, who have run the charity booth. But none of this would’ve been possible without our monetary and in-kind donors, and the tireless work of the staff and volunteers of GalaCon as well as former staff, whose ideas and initiative continues to boost our fundraising. Many thanks also to Stable-Tec Studios for donating their complete profits to the cause.

Considering only the effects on mortality and only the effects on children under five (who are most likely to die from malaria) and not considering costs that the Against Malaria Foundation leverages from other funders, the €20,027 we raised will buy at least 5,500 mosquito nets and will save the lives of over 10 people. (Based on research by GiveWell.)

We sold out of Bound Together at GalaCon, but we’ll have more at Czequestria!

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In-Kind Donations for GalaCon 2015 Charity Auction

GalaCon and Bronies for Good

We’ve become such a huge community, bustling with generosity! But what is even more important is that we know that our generosity cannot be an end in itself. Generosity is only as good as the good it does for those we help.

And we can help tremendously if we do it right. It is big-hearted and bold to treat strangers like friends—it is also necessary. The millions of people in extreme poverty and at risk of malaria are strangers to most of us, but they are the people who need our help most and they are also the people we can help most effectively. Let us prove to them that this world is not too big and never cold!

The Against Malaria Foundation (AMF) has been making distance irrelevant for over a decade. With mere monetary donations, people from around the world can save the lives of those who would otherwise have succumbed to malaria. And because AMF is one of the most effective charities in the world, even small donations—$3 for a mosquito net—have a great impact. That is why we have dedicated Seeds of Kindness to fundraising for AMF.

This year GalaCon will dedicate their charity auction to the Seeds of Kindness fundraiser for the fourth successive year. A silent auction will allow potential buyers to bid on their coveted items throughout most of the convention, and a live auction will determine who gets the most valuable of items. Plus, on the Saturday of the convention they want to surprise you!

To donate in kind to the auction, please email them at [email protected]. They’ll be happy to give you all the instructions you’ll need and their shipping address. If you have any questions about your in-kind donations at the last GalaCon, you can reach ask them at the same address.

GalaCon 2013

Post syndicated from Your Siblings.

GalaCon 2012 already went a long way in funding the Safe Project orphanage. Since then, they have further supported us with our Kallisti fundraiser cooperations, and now GalaCon 2013 has put the capstone on the orphanage: The project “Safe Project: Necessary Augmentations” is fully funded, thanks to the convention!

On top of that, another €5741 went to the closely related guest house project that will bolster the long-term financial security of the orphanage.

The cooperation was bipartite: GalaCon provided us—or me, representing Bronies for Good and Your Siblings—with a table at a central spot in the venue (and also one that was less hot), where we could receive donations from attendees and give out gifts as tokens of our appreciation; moreover, GalaCon also dedicated to our causes the full returns from their charity auction, a several-hours-long event right before the closing ceremonies.

The on-table donations amounted to €2,694.03, and the proceeds from the charity auction to an official total of €11,632. GalaCon then donated 102% of them, €11,860, to Your Siblings.

Before I gradually ran out of supplies, my charity booth was stocked with various Bronies for Good buttons, Ultra Pro playmats, Equestrian bits, and GalaCon posters and postcards. Later, artists spontaneously joined the table to draw and contribute their artwork as extra incentives. Additionally, donors had the chance to preorder the forthcoming charity album A Beautiful Heart, join a blood donation pledge drive, and write letters to our projects.

Some of the items auctioned off were plushies of Friendship is Magic characters, artwork, the GalaCon banners and flags, a “cute-off” between voice actors Andrea Libman and Anneli Heed, and a hug from voice actor Peter New (interestingly dressed for the occasion), all of which were donated by the fans, the guests of honor, and by the convention. Ponyville Live will soon upload the recording of the event, but you can already find clips from it online.

Many thanks to GalaCon, to the GalaCon crew, to the volunteers who supported me and who helped at the auction, and centrally to all our donors for this wonderful start into the Seeds of Kindness 3 season!

The GalaCon 2012 Charity Auction

Photo courtesy 404compliant

Photo courtesy 404compliant

The first German Friendship is Magic convention, GalaCon, held a charity auction on the second day, the proceeds of which, 100% of them, went to our Seeds of Kindness fundraiser. To the shock and utter amazement of probably all involved, the auction generated more funds than the charity auction at BronyCon, despite its one order of magnitude more attendees. Here an excerpt from my report for Derpy Hooves News.

The Sunday was first and foremost the day of our charity auction. As a member of Bronies for Good and board member of Your Siblings, I already expected the auction to become the single most momentous event for me at the Gala. Little did I know. After a hastened meal I hastened downstairs and was promptly greeted by Perry who asked me if I could join her on stage to introduce Bronies for Good, Your Siblings, the Seeds of Kindness fundraiser, and the project that was to receive the donations. Though I was reasonably confident in my knowledge of the topic and of the English language, stages, microphones, and speaking were among the things I habitually shunned.

My intro went well enough and it was time for Perry with her silver tongue to take over.

As activist in the area of charity work you are too often confronted with people who either don’t help at all, or for who their support is only a means to better their public image or that of a group they represent. I can’t find fault with enjoying those perks at times, but centrally your motivation should always be born of your love for those you help. Of that love I have felt plenty that afternoon—so overwhelmingly even that I almost cried several times:

A Flim cosplayer donating his hat, praising its value, and then buying it right back; friends pooling their money and driving the auction into vertiginous heights; someone winning a Canni figurine and donating it back; Perry bowing to public demand and spontaneously donating her beloved hat (signed of course) to vie with Weatherhoof’s; and one person repeatedly winning items for friends who couldn’t keep up with the bidding and directly gifting them to them. In total, the auction generated €8145 (about $10,060) for the expansion of the orphanage in Uganda. On behalf of the project, I extend my warmest thanks to these people, to everyone who participated in the auction, to all those who donated in kind, and of course to the organizers!

Update: One of the bidders at the auction has yet to pay a final installment of €600 as of 2014-07-11. Not counting this outstanding payment, the auction netted €7545. Legends of Equestria graciously donated another €274 at the con.