Games 26 Mar 2013 06:52 pm by David !

Announcing our partnership with 826LA!

This video, and this post, is PART 2 of today’s Kickstarter update! I’m pleased to announce that, thanks to the success of the card game campaign, we will be entering into a partnership with 826LA, the nonprofit writing and tutoring center for kids (mentioned in our last post — save the date for our June 2nd event at 826LA Mar Vista!).

826LA is my local chapter of 826 National, which operates tutoring centers and jokey storefronts in many cities nationwide. Perhaps you’ve seen the Pirate Store in San Francisco, or the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co.? That’s 826 Valencia and 826NYC, respectively. Similarly, 826LA operates two Time Travel Marts in Los Angeles, where you can come to buy dodo chow, robot emotions, and famous last words. You can also buy books and normal things too! Proceeds from the stores support the tutoring centers, which are absolutely free of charge to local schools and individual students.

From their official mission statement (or watch the video for more info on their programs):

826LA is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.

Our services are structured around our understanding that great leaps in learning can happen with one-on-one attention, and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success.

With this in mind, we provide after-school tutoring, evening and weekend workshops, in-school tutoring, help for English language learners, and assistance with student publications.

All of our programs are challenging and enjoyable, and ultimately strengthen each student’s power to express ideas effectively, creatively, confidently, and in his or her individual voice.

I’m a huge fan of the work that 826 does, and when it became clear that we had an opportunity to help support them, I leapt at the chance. I wanted to announce this partnership earlier, but after we shot the second half of the video above (the part in the Time Travel Mart), I double-checked Kickstarter’s guidelines on charitable donations, and an inquiry to their staff verified that even touching the subject is completely prohibited in every way. I understand this — you don’t want someone on Kickstarter claiming that some percent of their earnings will go to a nonprofit, and soliciting donations that way, when there is no way to hold them accountable that the donation will actually be made, or that the nonprofit even exists.

But in a practical sense, it meant that we couldn’t announce this partnership mid-campaign — even now, still, we can’t mention it on Kickstarter itself. Here was my hilarious attempt to figure out a way to still share the info:

As you can see, the effort wasn’t entirely wasted — it did inspire the GOAT STARE backer tier, which five brave individuals gladly took advantage of! AND THE WORLD IS BETTER FOR IT.

The bottom line, though, is that now that the pledge money has left Kickstarter and made its way to us, we can do what we want with it. And one thing we want to do is the following!

OUR MYSTERY STRETCH GOALS

Mid-campaign, I announced two MYSTERY STRETCH GOALS, at $382,600 raised and at 8260 backers. THEY ARE THE FOLLOWING:

$382,600 RAISED : We will donate a dollar for every game sold during the Kickstarter to 826LA. That turned out to be 10,938 games (across physical and digital copies both). We’ll round that up — so thanks to your kind support of our project, 826LA will be receiving a cash donation of $11,000!

8260 BACKERS : We will donate Machine of Death product (books + games) to 826 stores nationally at no cost, for them to sell and raise money for their tutoring programs!

In addition, starting in June, we’ll be creating special 826LA-themed Black Market Gift Cards, and those will be included free with all orders made from the Time Travel Mart online store (perhaps for a limited time or while supplies last, we’re not sure on the details yet).

We’re so pleased to have the opportunity to support the great programs offered by this fantastic nonprofit. Machine of Death as an entity owes its entire existence to writers, so to be able to encourage kids in their creative writing and help them in school is in the best interest of not just them and the culture at large, but also us — we want more writers to write for Machine of Death Volumes 10-100! SO THIS IS FUNDAMENTALLY A SELFISH ACT.

For more information (the centers are always in need of volunteers, interns, and of course attendees at their cool events and workshops):

826LA : Donations | Events | Wish List | Online Store
826 National : Locations nationwide | Storefronts

28 Responses to “Announcing our partnership with 826LA!”

  1. on 26 Mar 2013 at 7:05 pm 1.Nathan Essary said …

    This is amazing. You are a great person and as great mind!!

  2. on 26 Mar 2013 at 7:12 pm 2.Dan Burrington said …

    I dig it, much better than Mitt Romney machine of death cards. Holy shit! Are there Mitt Romney machine of death cards?

  3. on 26 Mar 2013 at 7:23 pm 3.Anonymous said …

    This is real awesome thing to do.

  4. on 26 Mar 2013 at 7:27 pm 4.Elaine Wilson said …

    When I first saw the numbers for the mystery goals, I was HOPING it was a connection to 826 Valencia. So glad I was right. Give them my dollar with bells on.

  5. on 26 Mar 2013 at 7:28 pm 5.Rob Jennings said …

    Nicely done, guys.

  6. on 26 Mar 2013 at 7:43 pm 6.Terence Chandler said …

    Must…browse…TIME TRAVEL MART online store!! (no…no, gotta wait until June….eerrgghhh)
    And another comments section to check…garrrrhhhhh.;-) *F5F5F5F5F5F5F5*

  7. on 26 Mar 2013 at 8:06 pm 7.Snow Dogs said …

    Sounds great, if my level of backing means I get a deluxe and standard version of the game, can I choose to donate one of them to 826 if it’s not too complicated.

  8. on 26 Mar 2013 at 8:06 pm 8.Koes said …

    Check out the Dead Authors Podcast, a cool show where H.G. Wells uses his time machine to interview dead authors from history, in support of 826LA. http://thedeadauthorspodcast.libsyn.com/

  9. on 26 Mar 2013 at 8:55 pm 9.Victoria said …

    Hey, if I happen to volunteer at 826la.. Would it be possible to get the cards with a physical purchase?

  10. on 27 Mar 2013 at 12:09 am 10.malki ! said …

    I’m sure you could! Once we have them printed, that is.

  11. on 26 Mar 2013 at 10:39 pm 11.DevilsAdvocate said …

    Not that I disagree with the whole donating to charity thing, but I’m pretty sure that the reason Kickstarter forbids that kind of thing is because Kickstarter is a project-driven website. People giving money for a project are more investors than customers or donators. While the rewards are often the final product, there’s a certain expectation of what the money is being spent on and what the results are supposed to be. If I’m paying you $100 to back your game, I -expect- all $100 of my payment to go into something related to the game. I have a specific outcome in mind, just as if I were to have -invested- my money into anything else, not donated it somewhere to be used as needed. The tier rewards, particularly with projects that meet stretch goals, is basically the return on the investment.

    On another level, too, as an individual, I would rather have the power to donate to a charity on my own terms, as opposed to being told my money that was meant for one thing was being given away to another thing. I personally would like to see the special themed Black Market Gift Cards included with some rewards tiers as well. I shouldn’t have to spend more money in order to get the complete result of the project, particularly if it’s being funded by me.

    I can’t imagine Kickstarter being successful for very long on a model of “Hey I need $1000 to do this cool thing! Sweet, I got $5000! I’ll do my $1000 thing and give the rest of the money to something completely unrelated!”

    That’s my take on the whole thing, anyway. I suppose it is a better solution than simply pocketing the extra cash as profit, though that’s technically fully reasonable to do as well, since supporting the project = supporting the company/group/person behind it.

  12. on 26 Mar 2013 at 11:49 pm 12.malki ! said …

    When I ran our plan by Kickstarter staff, they mentioned sort of the same thing: “Don’t be ashamed to keep your profits. Don’t give away the store without thinking through what you’re doing.” It’s possible that there are people who consider their Kickstarter earnings to be a windfall and are thus driven into irresponsible paroxysms of generosity. Those people should be absolutely brought down to earth a little.

    But I disagree with your characterization of Kickstarter projects as investments. Of course, “investment” is a bit of a loaded term because it often implies equity in or ownership of the result, which is not the case. And Kickstarter goes to pains to claim that it is not a store, because of the fact that there is no guarantee a product will complete, and there is no return policy — they want to shed the baggage of a default expectation of satisfaction. But in many ways I still think it’s closer to the store model than the investment model.

    That’s because the only agreement, implicit or explicit, between you and me, as project creator and backer, is: you pay $X for the promise that you will receive Y. I promise to deliver Y. If I do so, our mutual obligations are satisfied. That’s it! That’s really it.

    To put a perhaps too fine a point on it: beyond a minimum expectation that I will make the thing I promised to make, you have no say in the way I spend your $X. Whether I spend my profits on charitable giving or on a yacht, if we presuppose my basic business competency, you’ll still receive the exact same Y. You do not own a part of “the project” and you are not entitled to every possible manifestation of “the project.” Individual Kickstarters may differ in what exactly they promise backers, but so far as I’m concerned, you are not a blanket funder of “the project” in a way that implies a blanket set of entitlements. You are simply paying $X for Y, and that’s the only agreement we have.

    Of course, you are entitled to disagree with the causes I support. In this way I think it’s actually bad that I wasn’t able to talk about this plan earlier in the Kickstarter. If you would have preferred not to financially support someone who would turn around and use those profits to support causes that you disagree with — the way many people turned against, say, Chick-Fil-A — that would absolutely be your right. And if you want a refund because you have decided that you don’t want to support me, I’ll give you one, no questions asked. But if I decide that I want, for example, to make certain game cards exclusive in certain ways, that is my prerogative. The absence of those cards does not hinder the gameplay in any way; you’re not getting a hobbled product that now requires an extra purchase to be brought up to speed. The game works exactly as promised even without the bonus card.

    I know that because Kickstarter encourages a sort of intimacy between creator and backer, and because backers benefit from stretch goals in a really clear and precise way, it can feel like backers are invested in a project in a way that is really not accurate. Of course I want backers to care, and to feel like their contributions matter, because they do. But the bottom line is that my total obligation to you is to give you the thing you pledged for, and that’s it.

  13. on 27 Mar 2013 at 12:07 am 13.romall smith said …

    i understand his point that the money is believed to be going toward the project its self, and that stretch goals are things you intend to do for your backers that you need to reach a certain profit margin to do. In some ways i agree. Had you told me the charity was (insert religious organization here) i would have been upset to say the least. However donating money and games to help kids become better writers , is a noble goal and makes some since considering the roots of this kickstarter. guess instead of a mystery goal that people get other people to pitch in to achieve, it would have been better to just announce as a company you plan to use a portion of your profits for xyz.

  14. on 27 Mar 2013 at 12:12 am 14.malki ! said …

    I do agree that framing it as a stretch goal, if it was something that we were planning to do anyway, is a bit of a cheat. But we only considered doing this because we came to a point where we were going to realize a profit margin that made this scale of donation possible. In that sense we absolutely did need to achieve a certain over-and-above level of success to enable the donation.

    Did we need EXACTLY $382,600 to do that? No, but we didn’t need exactly $450,000 to cancel the project either.

  15. on 27 Mar 2013 at 12:23 am 15.romall smith said …

    don’t get me wrong , i love the idea of an ultimate stretch goal being to give back in some way. If every kickstarter that was this successful donated to small charities like raincatcher or something, i can only imagine how much better the world would be for it.

  16. on 27 Mar 2013 at 1:10 am 16.Ian Wellock said …

    I think the controversy is more that this was not a stretch goal that improved what we backers received per se, but rather a stretch goal *for you* – if the goal had been “I’m going to buy myself a yacht” it would have caused the same feelings.
    Personally I’m perfectly ok with 826 receiving a donation, but making it a stretch goal for us and not giving us the courtesy of choosing for ourselves is a lot like co-opting a donation for the NSPCC and giving some of it to Mitt Romneys campaign fund – no matter how you might feel its a great worthy cause, it’s bordering on underhanded,
    Just a couple of days ago I commented on the great stretch goals and the clarity of this project – this feels a little weird.

  17. on 27 Mar 2013 at 1:44 am 17.malki ! said …

    OK, I missed that implication in the original post. Yeah, I hate that I had to keep this a secret, as I think the email excerpt above shows. I would much, much, much rather have been transparent with it from the start. That said, I object to the Mitt Romney comparison. You’re only a backer because you believe in something I’m doing and fundamentally trust my judgment. I believe that this donation is completely in line with the values and philosophies expressed elsewhere throughout the campaign. So if nobody actually objects to the donation itself, but only to the way the presentation of it has been handled, that’s fine. I will own that.

  18. on 27 Mar 2013 at 3:19 am 18.Ian Wellock said …

    Oh please don’t misunderstand the Mitt Romney thing – I was using an absurd example to illustrate that one persons’ worthy cause is not everyone’s – as I said, for me I do trust your judgement and I have no problem with the donation; but as you said earlier trusting your judgement is not actually part of the Kickstarter agreement. I was hoping to explain what I see as the reason for the OP’s issue, not to complain about it myself.

  19. on 27 Mar 2013 at 4:02 pm 19.DevilsAdvocate said …

    Thank you for your well-worded responses. After reading them, I better understand your point of view and you certainly make a fair point about it behaving more like a store model even though Kickstarter discourages it.
    I never really objected to the charity thing from the beginning, hence the name I chose to post with. I absolutely agree with you too, that Kickstarter encourages the creator/backer relationship to be very close knit and I think, to that end, that you’re right – Kickstarter should allow creators to be transparent about things like this from the get go.
    Thank you again for taking the time to respond to these comments. I appreciate the dialogue!

  20. on 27 Mar 2013 at 5:53 am 20.Matt Comer said …

    For those that object to the donation you are heartless bastards.

    Provided the backers get the products they pledged for what difference does it make?? The purpose of this campaign is to bring an awesome idea to a final product for the masses and turn a profit doing so.
    Tick.
    Tick.
    If David chooses to give away some of the profit who are we to say otherwise it is HIS money!

    Hell if it was an option to donate a dollar as a backer I’m sure most people would have chosen to opt in! What a brilliant cause!

    And seriously guys.. there are far worse ways to spend a buck!
    How many crap apps have you wasted a $1 on?

    David how can people donate if they would like to?

  21. on 27 Mar 2013 at 6:28 am 21.Kristen Durbin said …

    Will you post an update when the 826LA-themed Black Market Guft Cards are available?

  22. on 27 Mar 2013 at 2:34 pm 22.malki ! said …

    I will indeed!!

  23. on 27 Mar 2013 at 7:24 am 23.CortJstr said …

    Would I have to order another copy of the game from the Time Travel Mart store to get the exclusive cards or just make any purchase? Is there any chance you’ll have these cards at cons (SPX) and we can get them for a suggested donation (though I realize this might be an unreasonable hassle for the TopatoCo people that check people out)?

  24. on 27 Mar 2013 at 2:34 pm 24.malki ! said …

    You could get anything you want from the TTM! We’ll have a different exclusive card for conventions. But the idea of doing it for a donation is an interesting idea too!

  25. on 27 Mar 2013 at 12:13 pm 25.Danny at 826 said …

    Awesome to an unprecedented level of awesomenes.

  26. on 27 Mar 2013 at 2:38 pm 26.William S. said …

    Will “This Is How You Die” be donated to 826 stores as well?

  27. on 27 Mar 2013 at 2:40 pm 27.malki ! said …

    We don’t control the rights to that book in the same way, but we can ask the stores if they will carry it from their regular distributor.

  28. on 01 Apr 2013 at 6:19 pm 28.David Margowsky said …

    Whew! I was worried that you were doing something for the good of others. That second to last paragraph cleared things up.