Wonderful idea. Leo gets his credit card out of his wallet and the moths fly all over the place

G'day from Downunder.

1. I will definately be renewing my subscription. (This was never in doubt.)
2. I congratulate Wincustomize for the great idea of contributing to a charity.
3. I am certain that 'Child's Play' is a terrific charity. I am sure that many children in hospitals really benefit from their work.

However,
4. I'm just a little perplexed as to why a 'Global Company' supported by skinners and fans all around the world would choose a local charity in Michigan as the sole benificiary of the donations. Perhaps it is the old adage that 'charity begins at home'. I would hope it is not the case of an 'American Company' once again believing the world revolves around the USA. (This has never been my experience with Wincustomize before.)

I would have thought that an international charity that helps the poorest children in the world would have been a better option. There are many such charities; 'Samaritan's Purse - Operation Christmas Child' is just one. This is only a suggestion I have no particular barrow to push. I am sure there are other Wincustomize subscribers from around the world who are also wondering why the donations are going to a very flash hospital in the richest country in the world. (I have been been on the hospital website to check it out.)

If you think I am being selfish about this, please think again. I'm not for one minute suggesting that the donations should go to Australia (my country) or indeed to any of the world's rich developed countries. I understand that there is poverty in the USA and indeed in every country. I don't want to get into an argument over which charity is better than another. I believe 99% of charities do a great job.

Finally I would just like to ask why when the article clearly states "it was time to give something back to the real-world community" you chose to give something only to your local community?

Commander Phil

PS. I am not one of the usual suspects who complains all the time about why didn't I get this skin and why isn't everything free etc. Please take this into consideration before you dismiss my questions as simply those of a whinger or malcontent.

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.

  

I think it's a great idea.

Further, while a Global charity would have it's merits, a child is a child, and anything that encourages dialogue between local businesses and Community resources, has got to be good.

Unlike a Global charity, local responses often go on to build on relationships and create benefits that continue beyond the initial event.

I'm in Australia, and I have absolutely NO problem that a portion of the money I would have paid anyway is going to a worthy cause. I mean, once it left your wallet/credit card and went to Stardock, they either would have gotten all of that money - in which case only the company benefits, or they choose not to keep a portion of it, and donate it to the charity they like. That makes any company a winner in my book, and I commend Stardock for taking this route. [Backslap - goodonya, mates]

I don't care where that worthy cause is, as long as SOMEBODY in need benefits directly from the help this community is providing with their donations.

I'll be subscribing again within the timeframe, even though I'm pretty sure I'm well covered in that department

My bad, I forgot to add my appreciation to those Master Skinners, who have generously donated a percentage of their Master Skin revenue.

Phil,
Just looked at the Child's Play Web Site (http://www.childsplaycharity.org/) and they seem rather Global to me, they might have started in the states, but it looks like they are branching out nicely... even downunder.

Chris

Phil,

The decision to donate to a single hospital was made because we wanted to make as big of an impact as possible.  If we had dispersed the money to participating hospitals based on where members lived, most hospitals would have ended up with $50 or less in donations.  Why donate a handful of change to every participating hospital world-wide when we could make a big difference to one?

This was actually a discussion we had internally as well, that we are a global community giving to a localized charity.  We always wanted to give to one charity in one location so we knew where the money was going and so we knew we could have a real impact with the donation.  The choice of the Childrens Hospital of Michigan is in Stardock's backyard, so it personally made sense to me to donate the money there.  In all honesty, the same issue would have been raised by someone no matter what hospital we chose.  Would it have been any better if we were giving all the money to a hospital in England?  Egypt?  It'll always be local to someone and foreign to someone else.

I'm not saying all of this to dismiss your concerns though.  I wanted to take a moment to let you know that the decision was thought-out and reasoned.  $5,000 to a specific hospital has the potential to do a lot of good, buy a lot of toys and games.  $50 here, $30 (or even just $3 considering how spread out we are) there just doesn't accomplish nearly as much.  In total, the numbers may be the same, but at the end of the day you don't necessarily end up doing the same amount of good.  We wanted to be sure we did something meaningful.  And like I said, selecting any hospital would raise questions of "Why this one instead of that one?"  We had to make a decision, and with all options being equal chose the Childrens Hospital of Michigan in Detroit. 

All of that said, this is the first time we've ever done anything like this.  As the drive continues, I'm sure I'll personally learn a lot about organizing and running events like this.  It's possible future drives will be handled differently depending on how this one works out.  If we blow our target number out of the water, next year I may select additional hospitals to split the money between. 

I appreciate both your support of the site and your questions about the drive.  It was a question that was bound to come up and I'm glad it came from someone who actually cared and was reasonable than someone flaming us in an angry comment.

-Mike

 

* Hi Sugaree. Yes I agree that this is a good deed by Wincustomize and I hope it is rewarded.

* Hi Alternate Setting. Firstly, I agree whole heartedly with your appreciation of the generosity of the master Skinners. Another good reason to buy some more Master Skins.
Secondly, "anything that encourages dialogue between local businesses and Community resources, has got to be good." This asumes that Stardock is just a local business.
Thirdly, I am sorry to hear that you feel a Global Charity does not "go on to build on relationships and create benefits that continue beyond the initial event." This has not been my experience with a number of international charities I have dealt with.

* G'day Erk. I pretty much agree with your first paragraph. It is basically a summary of the first three points I made in my initial post. I also agree that the most important thing is that "SOMEBODY in need benefits directly from the help this community is providing with their donations." I just question Stardock's decision not to look beyond their front doorstep.

* Hi Grog. Yes I have checked out the Child's Play website. I also said I believe it is a terrific Charity. No problems there. (Mind you I notice that they haven't spread out into any poor third world countries... yet!)

As I stated earlier, I will be renewing my subscription during this period. (Even though I'm not due for quite a while.) I'm very happy that part of my subscription is going to a worthy cause. I will absolutely NOT be asking for the $2.99 from my subscription to be used differently than anyone elses. This would miss the whole point of my arguement.

I simply ask the decision makers at Stardock/Wincustomize to think a little bit more globally next time.
Commander Phil

If the charity is a good cause ( which it is ) it really doesn't matter where it is, children in Michigan are no more or less important than children anywhere else. If it make a difference in one childs life..anywhere, I'm all for it.

I am glad to subscribe to such a wonderful community and I hope that many others will too.   

A charity is a charity. It's the thought behind giving to the needy which counts.

Hi Mike. Sorry mate, I was typing while your post went up and so I missed it.

Thankyou for your response. It is good to hear that you guys did give the decision more than a quick 'Yeah, that sounds OK. She'll be right'. You make some good points. The best being about wanting to make a sizeable impact in one place. I understand that US $5000 is not a huge amount of money when it comes to charity dollars and you want to make an impact.

It is probably obvious that I have an interest in international charity. Here is not the place to give some long winded lecture on where some of the worst poverty in the world is and how little is being done by the rich developed countries to help. I have had my rant, made my point I hope, and will now withdraw gracefully... if possible.

I really do commend Stardock on this charitable venture and I wish you every success.
Commander Phil

No need to Phil ...all discussion is good discussion, the end result being that we all will hopefully be the wiser at the end of it.

I'd like to think that the great community we have here is beyond baiting and flaming someone for voicing an opinion on such a worthy subject matter.

Phil, I posted as an ex Charity Administration Officer that worked on a local level.

You have to put the words in context. If it helps, then split the hair and call it a locally 'based' business.

Secondly, yes - when any organisation seeks to do something positive like this, it obviously makes a choice, depending on the factors that drove the initial proposal.

Now if that choice had been an Internationally known favourite, the chances that the relationship between Stardock & the chosen agency, would have been a mostly administrative one, are fairly high. There's nothing to suggest that Stardock has chosen to make a long term corporate commitment to the charity of choice.

Given that situation, where the donation is not part of a corporate relationship, with no expectation of further support, then when you're supporting a local resource, where faces are put to names etc, points of commonality, such as other shared local networks, then the likelyhood that the donor will want to continue to support that agency beyond the single event is in my experience increased.

Phil,

I understand your point on giving to less fortunate countries, it's a good one.  And like I said, this is our first attempt at anything like this, so there's no question we'll be learning a lot from this for future such drives.  Your argument has made me add "consider hospitals in poorer countries" to the list I've started for the next drive.

It's a learning process, and I need feedback like yours from the community to figure out how we can do it even better next time.

-Mike

@Phil,

In fairness, looking at how I wrote my first post, I can see that it looked as if I was suggesting that Multi-National agencies are inherently incapable of building on an event. My bad, I was having a rare crack at brevity. I should have taken more care & qualified my initial statement.

My apologies.
Andy

Thanks Mike.

No probs Andy.

Brevity... a term with which I am unfamiliar!

Commander Phil

Woo Woo!
At the start of the first full day of the drive:


How cool is that?
The really is a wonderful community.
Thanks for being part of my family.

'brevity' ....lasting only a short time...

I think the word you were looking for was/is 'levity' ....amusement ...

brevity/levity

A very short joke?   

Zubaz! What did you call me? A very short ... I'll have you know I'm nearly 6 Feet tall!

G'day Jafo. I was wondering how long it would be before your ugly mug showed up.
I'm surprised you hadn't worked it so that the well known charity 'Get Jafo a ride in next years Bathurst' wasn't at the top of the list.

Commander Phil

Now there's a thought...

Nice thought....problem is they will most likely be stolen and sold on the black market or something along those lines.

Sadly true - so many charities take 80% of the money to 'run' their charity, giving themselves big paychecks and ' nice' offices. I never donate to a charity that won't disclose where the money goes and the percentage that actually goes to helping the needy.

At least this way donating to a local charity you can at least be assured your efforts went to the intended recipients - the children.

I have used the American Institute of Philanthropy site to help me pick charities to support. [Link]