Charity

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Related terms: Charity Drive Challenge, Charity Zine, Fandom Auction, Whip-Round (a term used during CharityWank)
See also:
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A common Fannish activity are fans raising money for charitable causes. This can come in the form of a Charity Zine or Charity Drive Challenges or special events or campaigns. Most of these actions are fan-run.

Fandoms are typically known for their passionate reactions to anything related to their TV show, film and/or genre of obsession. But they can do more than bring people together to celebrate a common love. They also leverage enthusiastic audiences to impact the world in positive ways. In recent years, through the power of the internet and social media, fans from across the globe have been able to connect and find common ground. Fandom ties have strengthened and evolved into a support network of charities created by groups of fans in order to create a positive impact.

Fandoms give back by channeling passion into charities by Heather Mason On September 5, 2015 GeekandSundry

Fan driven charity actions usually can motivate a lot of people in and outside a Fandom to donate to a certain project or raising awareness. Often TPTB or stars get involved as well which further helps a cause - or fans support charities stars or TPTB are already involved in. Fans consider supporting charities a way of giving back.

Online Charity Fundraisers

Fans often run fandom related charity fundraisers, many sites and charities make it easy to set up secure online fundraising pages, the links for which are promoted and shared among fans, usually with a goal to raise a certain amount by a certain date. The reasons for these fundraisers can vary greatly from annual holiday drives to honoring their favorite performers (example Mark Gatiss Birthday Project) or characters. Fundraisers to thank creators, like fundraising for an actor's favorite charity at the end of a long running TV series, or to support Sports stars[1][2], or musicians is also common.

In Memoriam Fundraisers

In response to the death of beloved characters many fans with organize online fundraisers to honor them and show their appreciation, for an example see Fan Response to Game of Thrones Finale for responses to Daenerys' death. In the mid-2010s, when there was unfortunately a great many LGBT+ characters killed off, many fundraisers were organized with the money being raised usually for the Trevor Project, see examples at LGBT Fans Deserve Better for fans reaction to death of The 100's Lexa, or Destielgate for reactions to Castiel's death.

One fan commented:

I love when fandom upset energy is used for good like this. When Shadowhunters was cancelled, fans raised almost $25,000 for The Trevor Project. Clexa fandom raised a booming $178,000 for it.

 Anon comment on fail_fandomanon, Nov 21, 2020

Charity Auctions

See the Fandom Auction page or Category:Charity Auctions for further examples on Fanlore

Historically in person auctions of physical goods were often held at conventions or other fan events to raise money for charity, see art auctions for example. Online auctions have become increasing popular in the past couple of decades, and opens up the experience to a greater breath of fans. Sometimes these auctions are in response to a specific disaster where people are in need of immediate help, like for example help_haiti, help_pakistan, X-Philes for Japan or, fandomlovespuertorico.

Charity Zines

For a listing of charity zines on Fanlore see the Charity Zine page or Category:Charity Zines

Charity zines are projects organized and contributed to by fans, any proceeds from the sale of would be donated to charity. Historically they were print zines, and that is still popular, however now it is also not uncommon to see the sale of downloadable PDFs or some sort of online versions.

Charity Actions at Conventions

Many conventions run charity auctions and raffles; for example, the Worldcon and Eastercon SF conventions usually have auctions in aid of fan-related funds such as the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund and/or Down Under Fan Fund, sometimes for more general charities; Britain's Novacon SF convention usually raises money for Talking Books for the Blind; and Ireland's Gaelcon and the UK's Dragonmeet games conventions run very successful charity auctions, usually for children's charities.

Charity Actions headed by Celebrity Creators

Some Youtube Gamers like Markiplier are known for hosting various charity streams where over $628,670.14 were raised.[3]. Felix PewDiePie Kjellberg raised $1M for charities like the World Wildlife Fund , St. Jude, Save the Children, and Charity: Water according to Forbes Magazine[4]

Charity and Fundraising for Fans in Need

Fans raising money to help other fans out financially:

Examples:

A list of charity actions by fandoms

Almost every larger Fandom has at least one charity they support or activity:

Barbie

Blake's 7

Doctor Who

Forever Knight

The Legend of Zelda

Lost

Marvel Cinematic Universe

BBC Merlin

Multifandom

Star Trek

The 100

Twilight

Whedonverse

War of the Worlds

Xena

The X-Files

Other Fandom charity actions

Choice of Cause

The charity or cause chosen can be based on a number of reasons that influences the frequencies of certain causes in fandom over others. Factors include personal experiences of both organisers and fandom more generally, and current events. For instance, during the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza beginning in 2023, many various fundraising events occurred to raise money for orgs such as, in particular, the Palestine Children's Relief Fund.

Further Reading

References

  1. ^ Vikings fans donate $221K and counting to Saints punter’s charity
  2. ^ Blackhawks Fans Raise Money For Charity After Racist Chant
  3. ^ http://markiplier.wikia.com/wiki/Charity
  4. ^ YouTube's 'PewDiePie' Made $7.4M Last Year, Raised $1M for Charity by Paul Tassi ,Jul 8th 2015
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