Did you know we do a fundraiser?

Fundraiser season is upon us once again! As we continue to process incoming donations of books and games…

…like these, and all the boxes behind Amanda and Maria…

…the annual fundraiser is up, on, and generally all up ons. We’re trying out a few new things this year, and we’re totally going to share what they are, but in case you’re too stoked to read any further without donating, feel free to check out our fundraising page and we’ll wait for you.

If you’d rather watch us talk about stuff, you can do that too:

Maria is extra adorable in this video.

So what’s the new stuff? Well, we mentioned in the video that folks can start team pages. A few people did this last year, and it was pretty sweet! A girl named Charlotte started one with the hope of raising enough money for a heifer–she ended up far exceeding her goal, because y’all are really cool like that. There was a bit of a friendly war on between the Nerdfightersteam and the Wayward Backers to see which team could raise more money, and some teams even had their own stretch goals!

If you’d like to join the fun, check out our fundraising page and click “Become a Fundraiser” to get your team started. (Note: This will create an “individual page,” which is actually more visible than a techinical team page and still lets you raise funds with friends and family!)

Pat also announced something cool last night: when you donate, you’ll have the option to tell him what to do. There’s a dropdown box on the donation page where you can tell Pat to either work on his next novel or play Fallout 4. We have a cool needle thing to keep track of votes, and Pat will be livestreaming the result every evening at 4pm CST. We decided to give him Sundays and Thanksgiving off, though.

We use this handy dial to keep track of what he’s doing. There’s a big one, too.

This year we’ll have even more cool stuff in the Lottery, and you can keep track of all of it on Pat’s blog as it’s announced, or see everything as we add it in the Lottery Library.

If you’d rather get your hands on something specific, we have auctionsposting every Thursday evening that run until the following Sunday. This is where we put some of the cool stuff we have that might not be interesting to everyone, but that a true fan will love.

And finally, we’re helping pull folks out of poverty. This isn’t something new, but it’s something we value over everything else. It’s a lot of fun having the chance to win cool stuff in the Lottery, seeing what we have on auction, and bossing Pat around (we reeeeally like that one), but it’s easy to lose track of the reason we’re doing this: Heifer International. Their programs have helped literally millions of peole pull themselves out of poverty, get a good education, and pass the fruits of their labor on to other families in need.

When you donate through our fundraising page, your money goes to Heifer for their programs at home and abroad (yes, they have programs in the Unites States!). And with Heifer’s philosophy of Passing On the Gift, your donation helps more than just a single person or family. It helps create a movement that brings lasting change to entire communities.

And also, cool geeky stuff. But that’s a little beside the point.