Vidders4ACause
| Challenge | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Vidders4ACause |
| Date(s): | 2011-2016 |
| Moderator(s): | Jane (see below) |
| Founder: | ImNaturallySuper & CrystalPumpk1n, aka Jane & Mary Ann |
| Type: | Vidding Charity Auction |
| Fandom: | multifandom |
| Associated Community: | the YouTube vidding community |
| URL: | http://vidders4acause.webs.com/ , archive link https://www.youtube.com/user/Vidders4ACause/about |
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Vidders4ACause is an annual summer event where any vidder who wants to offer their services agrees to make a fanvideo per the highest bidder's request, both participants knowing that all money is "for a cause", aka, for charity. The vidders make it clear on profiles on the website what specific fandoms/ships/types of vids they would be willing to make, and often also advertise on their vidding YouTube channels that they are participating in Vidders4aCause that current year by posting a video. Then other vidders who have some money they can spend, plus also sometimes people who are not vidders but are appreciators of fanvideos, place bids on the vidders who they want to win a video from. Big Name Vidders often get many different fans of their work bidding, hoping to win a video from them. Only one person - the person who bids the highest amount of money - can win each vidder, and auctions always end at midnight EST, so while the auction usually lasts for a period of 10 days and bidding can happen any time within then, for the most fought-over vidders, winning bids must happen on them within the final few minutes. Money is to be bid in USD (United States Dollars ($)), so the Vidders4aCause mods have a currency converter program on their site to help make sure that fanvideo appreciators from all over the world are easily able to figure out how much money they want to bid.
Any new vidder or bidder who wants to participate in either side of the event, or wants to be both a vidder and a bidder, may join the site for free and simply create a profile. You need a profile to vid OR to bid.
Bids on less well known vidders are usually within the single-digit dollar amounts, such as a $3 bid. Bids on Big Name Vidders can be in the teens, twenties, or even higher amounts - it is truly impressive and generally shocking if someone wants to bid $50 or $75 on someone, because generally people stick to roughly $20 budgets for this event. Or if they have a higher budget, they break it up amongst more vidders and bid on many people, never bidding too much on any one person.
At the end of the auction, when you've placed the highest bid on a vidder/multiple vidders, you must then, within a month or so, donate that amount of money to a charity of your choice. If you lose bids, you do not owe the money, but you are encouraged to donate anyway for hopefully obvious reasons. The rules explicitly state that no money is to be paid to vidders, and that is not the point of the auction. The auction is for the sake of supporting charities - any charity of the bidder's choosing. You must prove that you've donated to a charity by forwarding an email receipt to the mods of the Vidders4aCause website, and then you are allowed to start requesting your vid.
Vids made for the winning bidders must be made within roughly one year - the rule is always to finish before the following year's auction starts, otherwise you will be disqualified/not allowed to be a vidder again in the future. (You only get disqualified if your winning bidder reports you as having not completed their request, though. Otherwise the mods won't know.) Winning bidders are responsible for communicating with their vidders on their own time/through their own private messages.
It's a fun annual summer vidding event that grows every year, with more and more money generated to donate to charities each year. During the 2011 Auction, the very first one, Vidders4ACause raised a total of $1,450 USD, the 2012 auction raked in $2,200 USD, the 2013 auction surpassed their goal of matching the previous year's donations and raised $2,950 USD; and finally, 2014's auction was the most successful so far, raking in roughly $4,950 USD!! Every year, this money goes to various different charities around the world! And every year, hundreds of vids are generated for hundreds of winning bidders, specific vids with their interests/requests in mind. There are generally more vidders than bidders, because even young teens/young adults with no money to spare for charity want to participate... but then bidders often bid on and ultimately win more than one vidder, so it works out well, and hopefully the event continues to grow each year.