Santa Strike Force. 10th Anniversary!!

DeVore

Its 10 years, can you believe it? 10 years we've been donating money and funding projects to help kids charities. Its been an absolute honour to see the effect your money has up close and personal. You can read about the specific projects here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057085663


Lets make year 10 a great one.

So I'm asking you to do one of several things (or all of them!)

1. Donate. Money talks in this world I'm afraid and I need a little bit of yours. Have one less Jack and Coke this weekend and let us show you what we can do with that cash
[SSF]Here[/SSF]

or you can transfer cash to:
Tom Murphy
Bank Of Ireland, St Stephens Green
Sort Code: 900084
Account Number: 65748028


2. Promote. Not everyone can donate but if you are reading this, you have an internet connection and we need that. Please please promote the SSF through your social media channels. You can direct people here. Or to www.santastrikeforce.com

Also use the [.SSF]whatevs[./SSF] code (without the fullstops) in your sig, or anywhere on Boards to insert the logo&link in a post or sig.


3. Assist If you know of a kids charity with a permanent location who could use some Quality of Life materials or have a project they would love funding for... come talk to me and we can see if we can make it happen.
I need help this year, are you up for it?

4. Purchase The photobook is out and its better than ever. You can preview it here: http://share1.sendtoprint.net/bshare.php?hashid=eeef9887fe9e68df0d81
If you choose to buy it use the code: BOARDS44K3
Its less than €32 (which is a total steal!) and 5 of that goes to SSF.
Its a large sized, hardback, full colour photobook with photos from many of the top photographers in Ireland. And me.



So please, you know what we can do with this money. No one gets paid from your cash. No one takes a wage (let alone any "top ups"!). Every penny goes "up on the walls". Donate today and feel good about yourself all year, trust me on that one

looksee

Done! Edit: Er, how did I get to be here all on my own...and there is a mammoth thread elsewhere?

DesperateDan

looksee wrote: »

Done! Edit: Er, how did I get to be here all on my own...and there is a mammoth thread elsewhere?

just did the same thing myself, main thread is in AH of course!

goldenhoarde

€20 thrown in the pot there (Paypal ending in ....40305P)


ooops wrong thread Now where did that thread go

Irish Lady

naughty golden hoarde

fusion19

After working in charity for a few weeks I can safely say I will never give a penny to one ever again not saying this charity is corrupt but in general

Neeson

Is this the thing where the mods strip off or am I thinking of something else?

felderkirk

Hello! Is the Santa Strike Force running again this year (2014)?

DeVore

Yes, very much so! I'm trying to pull together a big report for the year ... there's just been so much done this year its kinda hard to keep track!!

We're kicking off this weekend with the Comedy Charity Night! http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057330510

Then from now until xmas we will be collecting money and distributing gifts over the coming months!

Round up coming next week (sorry, day job is kinda on top of me at the moment).

DeVore

fusion19 wrote: »

After working in charity for a few weeks I can safely say I will never give a penny to one ever again not saying this charity is corrupt but in general

Just a point on this... I absolutely agree with you (by and large, some of the smaller more focused charities are great, Bumbleance and Barretstown are amazing too). Far far too often the big clearing houses are money making rackets for the organisers.

He's why we are different.

1. No one gets paid. We do cover out of pocket expenses like when a carpenter made super-sized wooden board games for Barretstowns forest, we bought the wood. You cant expect people to pay out of their pocket for that kind of thing. But time and effort, those are pro bono. I have never been paid a penny for a decade of work with SSF and believe me, I've been paid back in spades through the experience.

2. There is a sort of board of reportage which includes the mods here and some of the main contributors who are sent irregular messages outlining expenditure during the year. They don't know me (I met Beasty for the first time ever this year! hes very tall...)

3. We don't donate the money to charities. We find out what they need, buy it (often in bulk) and send them the goods. Unless the organisers of these charities have a forest to house over sized wooden games, trikes, ambulances etc... they aren't much good to them. So, we know our money goes "up on the walls", so to speak.

4. I control the cash. I over see every cheque, every purchase, ever nickel and every dime. Every delivery, every item we buy, every interaction with the charities and every followup to see how our stuff is being used. I am trusted by everyone here and that's an honour I don't forget... if its corrupt, I'm corrupt. (I'm not corrupt ).


I LOVE that about this thing, I have always wanted to see a charity work this way and I'm proud of SSF and the decade of work we have done. We've distributed nearly 150,000 euros of items over the years but to have had that effect a "regular" donation drive would have had to raise an awful lot more.

So yes, be very sceptical about where you donate your money this year. Pick charities with proven track records (Laura Lynn, Debra Ireland, Pieta House, Barretstown, Bumbleance, Maria Goretti Foundation and others).... SSF deals with them all and your money is donated 100%.

Neeson

Where does it happen?

Beasty

DeVore wrote: »

(I met Beasty for the first time ever this year!)

Stumbled across more like. (DeVore is a bit of a midget, although my memory from that time is a bit ropey!!)

Neeson wrote: »

Where does it happen?

What happen? - the comedy night was last night. I'm sure AH will line up something early in December

Neeson

Is there not a public strip or something which you can go watch and donate to?

Beasty

Neeson wrote: »

Is there not a public strip or something which you can go watch and donate to?

Any such "antics" are entirely dependent on volunteers

Are you volunteering?

BTW, the various AH events have certainly never been "spectator" events (although photographic evidence has very kindly been provided by the respective participants!). Do a search of AH if you want to see the sort of things that have gone on in the past

However it's certainly never been a "requirement" of AH mods or anyone else on Boards. Basically posters are encouraged to come up with their own ideas and generate interest which hopefully leads to donations to the SSF funds. If mods take the lead then that's great as it can often generate even more interest, but despite any appearances there is certainly never any obligation on anyone to do anything.

Some of the "regular" fundraising events are the Comedy night as already mentioned above and a photobook as referred to in connection with last year's fundraising