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Charity Refuses Donation Because of D&D Connection
An anonymous reader writes "This year's GenCon Charity Auction
raised over $17,000 which they intended to donate to Gary Gygax's favorite charity,
Christian Children's Fund.
However, the charity refused the donation when they learned of its connection to Dungeons & Dragons." It seems to me all they would need to do is cast remove curse or dispel evil and the money would be fine to use.
It might at first glance seem like a reasonable explanation but it doesn't hold water. They have had no problem in the past accepting money from businesses or events.
You know, they are a private charity and are free to any opinion and action they wish as long as they do not infringe on the rights of others. People have a bad case of "I want to do what I want and I want you to do what I want" these days. Gen Con, LLC should donate the money to some other worthwhile charity and "Get Over Themselves!"
Insert Generic Sig Here:
I'm reminded of reporters slamming Ron Paul for taking money from white supremacists. He defended the action, his rationale being along the lines of "better I use it for my message than them for their white supremacy."
-- I prefer the term "karma escort."
Well, ask yourself why would they be afraid of this particularly appearance of endorsement and not others (especially when they haven't made this claim about other donations). Are they afraid that there would be backlash in the Christian community if they accepted it? If so, we should ask ourselves if that's much better a situation.
The way I read it is that they don't accept donations at all if:
1) it appears to be an endorsement of the organization giving
and
2) if they had no original involvement with the organization or event from which the funds are raised
The issue is that this money was raised at a fundraiser at a certain event which the charity was not involved in. Other donations wouldn't have the same baggage, and thus they'd have no reason to deny them. Unfortunately, charities have to protect their image in order to keep donations coming in.
I'm not saying that they absolutely didn't refuse the funds because of the D&D connection. But they've made a plausible claim that they didn't, and it seems to be sincere. No-one has put forth any other evidence that they'd accept a donation from a similar fund-raising event that wasn't D&D motivated. So, given the lack of information, my view is that the reasonable course of action is to take their word for it and just donate the money elsewhere. Whats the alternative? Attribute ulterior motives without evidence so we can have a good ol' religious bash-fest? Pass.
Right. And they don't want money from GenCon why? GenCon isn't a PAC; there's no legal reason they can't take the money. Which leaves that they don't "wish to be associated with" people giving money in memory of Gary Gygax. Who, we might note, they happily took money from directly when he was alive.