Worldbuilders: The Tenth Year

Welcome to Worldbuilders. Join us, and let’s build a better world!

Prologue: The Story So Far

Worldbuilders began in 2008, after our founder Patrick Rothfuss saw unexpected success from the publication of his debut novel The Name of the Wind. He wanted to give back to the world, and encouraged everyone who would listen to him to donate to his favorite charity, Heifer International.

During that first year, Worldbuilders raised over $58,000, with around 200 supporters.

We’ve come a long way since then – as of 2017, we’ve raised over $8.5 million for Heifer International and other humanitarian efforts, and have a community of over 20,000 supporters. Again and again, we’re blown away by the goodness of our people.

2018 is our 10th anniversary. Our tenth End-of-Year Fundraiser, and our tenth year to show that, together, we really can make a difference.

Chapter One: Making Change

Worldbuilders has our roots in the geek community, with a strong base of sci-fi/fantasy readers and writers, gamers, and geeks of all creeds – but our End-of-Year Fundraiser has become a home for anyone looking to build a better world.

This fundraiser is all about one of our favorite charities, Heifer International. 100% of the money we raise during the fundraiser goes right to Heifer [(minus credit card processing fees)], to help with their sustainable, poverty-fighting programs all around the world. Heifer has nearly 70 years of experience in the life-changing game, and their programs are smart, practical, and they work.

See, Heifer doesn’t just go in and give a family food for a year, because after that year, the family would still be in the same position they were before. Heifer goes in and gives a family training and knowledge and resources, and then provides them the tools to build their own success. Sometimes it’s vegetable seeds, sometimes it’s chickens or a goat, sometimes it’s the means to start a business – but no matter what, Heifer International makes sure the family is empowered to pull themselves out of poverty. Each program continues until it reaches the goals laid out early on, and most times, the participant families go on to achieve even more success after a program has finished, thanks to the skills learned from Heifer.

Chapter Two: Do Good, Get Goods

While doing good is its own reward, getting something back never hurts! With the Worldbuilders Fundraiser, there are two ways to support that give you a chance to get something awesome in return:

• The Lottery. Every $10 donation through our donation page gets you one chance to win fabulous prizes like books, games, and more. If you donate $30, you get three chances to win. $120 gets you 12 chances. These prizes are donated by our sponsors, awesome authors, game-designers, artists, creators, and more – and any of those prizes could be yours!
• The Auctions. Maybe you’d rather know exactly what prize you’re getting. If that sounds like you, we have nearly 100 auctions live right now, full of rare, unique, and one-of-a-kind items! All the money raised from these auctions gets rolled up into the total we send to Heifer International, meaning you get to effectively pick your own prize and still help do good in the world.

So give generously, and know that your gift will not only help improve someone’s life – it may also win you something special!

Chapter Three: The Daily Builder

Our 10th Anniversary fundraiser is going to be a whirlwind of adventure, and we wouldn’t have it any other way!

We have $100,000 of matching money to kick off the fundraiser, so until that’s gone, every dollar you donate will have twice the impact.

Every day, we’ll be sharing The Daily Builder, a collection of stories of families and communities from Heifer programs around the world. We also have some exclusive short stories from authors that we’re so excited to share with you.

We’ll be highlighting some of our auctions and lottery items every day, but as of RIGHT NOW, you can go see everything we have available. That’s right – all prizes are visible from the start, so you can see each and every cool thing a $10 donation could get you, or browse all the auctions of rare, limited, and handmade items. We’re not holding anything back. (Although if someone does send us something extra cool that we just can’t bear not to share with you, we might need to add them in.)

Over on r/Fantasy, there will be a daily AMA featuring authors from across the genre, coming together to talk about support. Everyone needs a little support in their lives, so you’ll be able to hear from authors about a time when they received much-needed support, or provided it to others; about their favorite characters tied to the theme of support; maybe even some original writings about support – it honestly could be anything, and that’s what makes it so wonderful! So check out the full line-up here [LINK], and be sure to check back every day to ask these wonderful authors any questions you might come up with.

Chapter Four: Build a Better World

In our ten years of fundraising, we here at Worldbuilders HQ have continually been amazed by the kindness and generosity of our community. We’re humbled by the people giving up their daily coffee purchase, by the people teaching their children the value of giving, by the people donating in honor of their loved ones, by the people who go without because they know that there are people out there who have it worse than they do.

Even a small amount can have a huge impact. The Heifer model proves this – a single gift ripples out, and reaches farther than we can possibly imagine.

Together, we can make a difference.

So join us. Give what you can. If you can’t give, help spread the word – tell your friends, family, coworkers, pets, bank tellers, postal workers, moviegoers (but not during the film, that would be rude). Start a team page you can direct all your acquaintances to, or give to one of the existing team pages and add your voice.

Together, we can build a better world.