Slashdot Mirror
The Bronies Get Their Own Charity
blackbearnh writes "There's a long history of media fandoms organizing fundraising campaigns, donating blood, and doing other charitable activities. However, even large and well-established groups such as Trekkies/ers and Star Wars fans usually work with established non-fannish charities like the Red Cross or Toys for Tots. Some may see them as a plague on the Internet, the Brony community has taken their charitable endeavors to the next level by going to the trouble of creating a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charity. The Brony Thank You Fund received word from the IRS last week that, after nearly a year of work, they had been granted tax-exempt status. The Fund is currently raising donations to endow a permanent animation scholarship at CalArts, and is the same group that made news last year when they became the first fan group to purchase commercial time on national TV, for a 30 second spot praising My Little Pony and encouraging donations to Toys for Tots."
Brohoof to fellow bronies.
This is the sort of thing that makes our fandom so great.
I guess it's good they're doing charity, but it's just so creepy.
People trying to make the world a better place- it's awful!
is it a prank? rebranded furries? an ironic hipster meme collapsed under its own weight and is now self aware? inquiring minds want to know!
1) Unless you think that pretty much every piece of quality animation produced in the last 30 years (Iron Giant, Dexter's Laboratory, everything from Pixar, etc.) is "soul-crushingly-commercial toy-selling animation", you might want to do a little research on CalArts and their animation program.
2) In addition to the scholarship, the Brony Thank You Fund also donated nearly $20,000 to Toys for Tots, over $10,000 to the College View School, and over $1,600 each to GLSEN and Engineers without Borders in the last 12 months. Bronies for Good (a brony fundraising group) raised over $100,000 to aid an orphanage.
The only sarcasm I can detect around here is yours...
How many episodes of the show have you watched? I was surprised by the *lack* of soul-crushingly-commercial toy-selling actually in the episodes. And I'm generally an extremely cynical, anti-corporate, anti-capitalist type. There may be plenty of slimy child brainwashing manipulation going on in separate toy ads, but the show material itself seems a lot less marketing-driven than the majority of kid's TV shows.
The Fund is currently raising donations to endow a permanent animation scholarship at CalArts
The Klingon Language Institute also has a scholarship so fandom born scholarships are not unheard off.
"modify your life such that it now revolves around that show, and you feel compelled to convert others to your obcesson"
So, what were you saying about Chicago Cubs fans here in central Illinois?
Pablo Escobar was known to provide to charities and give aid to the poor. Perhaps he was also trying to make the world (or at least his part of it) a better place. Does mean he was particularly nice though.
Not trying to say the Bronies are as bad as Colombian drug lords, just shooting down your argument.
Watched the show at the behest of a friend. Liked it, it was very enjoyable. Told a different friend about it.
She got about ten times more into it than I did. She started a meetup group in New York, then created a brony *convention*. She invited me to come up and help.
So I did. And I met a bunch of new, fun people in the process.
I always liked the show, but never took it as far as some of the other fans. The whole thing ended up causing me to meet a large group of fun, quirky people, so overall it was very positive.
I haven't been too involved in the past year, since a ton of drama started up and I got tired of hearing about it. I'll probably still watch the show, but my days of flying up to NYC for cons is over.
Though I'll likely be up there to visit friends in the summer. Oh, and Rarity is best pony. Sorry folks. :)
You just made zombie Baby Hitler cry.
I know the original comment was a troll, but I'll state for the record that the Fund will have no say in the administration of the scholarship, CalArts will run it just as they do all their other scholarships. In fact, the IRS was pretty adamant about that point.
Daughter (who just graduated high school) watches My Little Pony (the current incarnation, not that horrible 1980's crap), and I've seen a couple episodes, and ... you know ... kids could be watching worse things. The writers don't talk down to the viewer, the dialog is fast and witty and sometimes genuinely funny, and they don't beat you senseless with the moral.
She was part of a brony group in high school, but about half of them quit when the other half got.... wayyyyy too into it. But that's not necessarily a reflection on the show. Geeks can take anything and make too much of it. (Ahem...)
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
You miss the point. "Bronies" making headlines at slashdot is awful.
(Well, we kinda still are in many ways, but we shouldn't and we're working on that, so your point stands.)