Hey there space cowboys. I’ve got some exciting stuff to talk about today…
Those of you who have been following the blog for a while, probably know about the work I do with a charity called Worldbuilders.
(It delights me when people don’t know I actually started Worldbuilders on this blog, by accident, back in the day. But that, as they say, is another story.)
Worldbuilders does a lot of things. But most notably we raise money for Heifer International during our big End-Of-Year fundraiser. Over the years, we’ve raised more than $11,000,000 for Heifer, helping parents feed their children, helping little girls go to school, helping communities drink clean water, helping people have the training, tools, and education that they need to take control of their lives.
It’s a big teach-a-person-to-fish thing. Except with goats and chickens and cows and bees and trees. No. Not fishing for goats. And no, you don’t fish *with* a goat. You milk them. The goats, not the fish…
Okay. Let me start again.
It’s like this: If you give a hungry family a goat (and the tools and training to care for it) they’ll milk that goat. Then every day this happens.
(I’m writing this on father’s day. And this picture makes me weepy.)
That. That right there. That’s what Worldbuilders does. We help. We want to make the world a better place.
We’ve raised money for charities other than Heifer too: we’ve helped with Puerto Rico’s hurricane relief, with Syrian refugees, with children’s literacy, and medical supplies to marginalized communities during the pandemic…
(We kinda do a lot, actually. Kinda too much to list here. But if you like, you can go look at the map of our projects over here.)
What not as *many* folks know is that Worldbuilders also runs an online store full of delightful geek treasures: Signed books, comics, cool games, original art prints, T-shirts, Jewelry, and other assorted bits of lovely geekery. We make and sell those things to help creatives make money while giving their communities a chance to show their support (and do the geek equivalent of showing their gang colors.)
(Throws underthing gang sign.)
[Side Note: I support creators making money off their art and merch, as artists need to eat. That said, a lot of the folks who partner with Worldbuilders let them keep the royalties they would otherwise earn, myself included.]The items we sell in the store help generate money for Worldbuilders, too. This is kind of a big deal, as Worldbuilders needs to do things like pay its electricity bill and buy paperclips and stuff. We also like to pay our employees so they can do things like buy food and clothes so they can… y’know… keep being alive.
This is one of the big reasons Worldbuilders is different from a lot of other charities. When we run a fundraiser, say, to support Mercy Corps, we pass along 100% of what we raise to that organization. Most other pass-through charities keep a small percentage of what they raise, then use that money to keep themselves running, which is important because if the business side of things fails, then no charity happens. (Of course, as you know, some charities pass along almost none of what they raise. But Worldbuilders doesn’t work with folks like that. And ultimately, that’s a story for a different day.)
Here’s the thing though. I love that Worldbuilders gets to pass along 100% of what it raises. But it *does* make things kinda tricky on the business side. It means we can raise two million dollars to feed hungry kids… and then have trouble paying our water bill or fixing a computer when it breaks.
That’s why several years ago, we started running the Geeks Doing Good fundraiser.
The purpose of GDG is manifold:
- We need to make that munny, yo. We gotta keep the lights on.
- We experiment with new products and creative partnerships.
- We make weird, fun stuff we might not normally have in our store.
- We offer limited-time deals to reward the folks on our mailing list.
- We raise awareness of the fact that Worldbuilders makes and sells cool stuff.
So. Here we are. Now you know why we’re doing this.
(You can just click and go over there right now, if you want.)
It’s a big week-long fundraiser where we try to raise awareness of the fact that *yes* we’re a charity, but we also run an online store full of cool stuff that you simply can’t find anywhere else.
What kind of stuff, you might ask?
How about cool Kingkiller art prints from Marc Simonetti?
Or for you Dresden Files fans out there:
A bargain on the only comic I’d ever compare to Calvin and Hobbes?
We also have some rarer stuff, too.
We’re also bundling things together to save you money, and bringing out things that haven’t been for sale in ages…
(So. Much. Stuff.)
Many of the Kingkiller-specific items have a “7” in the price, so they’re easier for y’all to spot.
Anyway. There’s SO much stuff over there. Way too much to mention here. You should go look yourself.
Fair Warning: many items are limited quantities, so they might sell out. But the good news is: new stuff is getting added every day. So there are always more reasons to stop back in and take a look around.
Also, and I can’t stress this enough, remember that unlike Kickstarter, you can buy more than one item.
So you can go hog wild in there.
pat
P.S. Oh. Also, I’m doing a 12 hour promotional stream today on Twitch, so if you want to see me play games, answer questions, and explain some of these items in more detail, you can tune in there. (I’m streaming all this week, and we’ll be updating this graphic with new items as they’re added.)
I’m super excited about this one in particular….
Okay. Thanks much for caring. Help us spread the word!