This is a good question, and the answer is: you *can* donate money. The Paypal link and address for donations by check are right in the middle of http://www.childsplaycharity.org/.
In this case there is no benefit to cutting out the middle man (Child's Play), because we don't take out any money from the donation pool. Donate a dollar to CP, and we'll give that dollar to a hospital.
So why not just send the dollar directly to the hospital? Because we use the cash donations to balance out the toy donations. Say the hospital in New Orleans has gotten plenty of toy donations, but the hospital in Liverpool has gotten few. We'll use the cash pool to even things out.
The other benefit is that donating through Child's Play enables us to track total donations. This is important because one of the reasons Child's Play works is because donors, hospitals, and the media see evidence that it works: the yearly donation totals. A $10 check sent to Child's Play is counted; a $10 check to a hospital is not. Both result in a hospital getting $10. So might as well help out the drive, and send the check to CP.
All that said, if you'd rather mail a check directly to the hospital of your choice PLEASE DO SO. The whole point is helping out sick kids.
Er... PAX 2007 hasn't happened yet. PAX 2007 PAX is a festival about the gamer community (not a "conference" about press releases), yet will see the world public playable premiers of dozens of games as well as a bunch of new content/announcements. And by the way, PAX specifically forbids booth babes, which might be the reason why so many (gamer) women come to the show.
If all you're interested in is getting a glimpse of a scantily clad, non-gamer booth babe, and if you're embarrassed about being a nerd, then please--please--don't come to PAX. We don't want you.
Hi, I help run Child's Play for PA. Granted that the "anonymous coward" OP is retarded, but sadly his affliction isn't rare. That's why we've set up Child's Play as a seperate entity, a charitable nonprofit 501c3 corporation registered in the state of Washington. Aside from email addresses, image copyright notices, and the historical info in the "about" section you won't find any mention of Penny Arcade. The cartoon characters are on there because we want to reassure those familiar with the comic that, yes, this is the "real" Child's Play site. But we don't call them out, or introduce the site as "Gabe and Tycho bring you... Child's Play". Unless you're ALREADY familiar with the characters, they could just be random cartoons of gamers.
I realize the OP is a troll but the fact is, CP is it's own thing. We could all die in a meteor strike tomorrow and CP would continue. Advocating CP on Penny Arcade, or on Slashdot, or on a personal blog, or on any site isn't self-back-patting. It's giving kids a bit of comfort while they're stuck in hospital. No more, no less.
Hi, I help run Child's Play for PA. The hospitals don't want us to send them used items--too many germ issues. We do have a solution: sell your stuff on eBay. We're all set up with eBay's "Missionfish" program, which lets any user selling anything to donate a portion of the proceeds to Child's Play. When listing your item just select that you want to donate. You'll be taken to a popup with a list of charities and a search box. Just search for "Childs Play" and click on the result. Done.
The process sounds a little weird, since eBay/Missionfish is set it up in such a way that the charity doesn't get screwed: when the item sells, eBay charges the LISTER'S credit card for the designated percentage. Then the lister collects the full amount from the buyer. So once you're set up, you can list a million items and never have to worry about calculating the % and mailing checks--eBay handles each % donation automatically. Like I said, a little weird but it makes sense.
Bottom line is that people have expressed a wish to donate used systems, and this is the easiest and cleanest solution.
Thanks for all the support, by the way. You all should be proud of the success of this charity. Being completely fueled by the gamer/geek community, Child's Play just wouldn't exist without you.
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This is a good question, and the answer is: you *can* donate money. The Paypal link and address for donations by check are right in the middle of http://www.childsplaycharity.org/. In this case there is no benefit to cutting out the middle man (Child's Play), because we don't take out any money from the donation pool. Donate a dollar to CP, and we'll give that dollar to a hospital. So why not just send the dollar directly to the hospital? Because we use the cash donations to balance out the toy donations. Say the hospital in New Orleans has gotten plenty of toy donations, but the hospital in Liverpool has gotten few. We'll use the cash pool to even things out. The other benefit is that donating through Child's Play enables us to track total donations. This is important because one of the reasons Child's Play works is because donors, hospitals, and the media see evidence that it works: the yearly donation totals. A $10 check sent to Child's Play is counted; a $10 check to a hospital is not. Both result in a hospital getting $10. So might as well help out the drive, and send the check to CP. All that said, if you'd rather mail a check directly to the hospital of your choice PLEASE DO SO. The whole point is helping out sick kids.
Er... PAX 2007 hasn't happened yet. PAX 2007 PAX is a festival about the gamer community (not a "conference" about press releases), yet will see the world public playable premiers of dozens of games as well as a bunch of new content/announcements. And by the way, PAX specifically forbids booth babes, which might be the reason why so many (gamer) women come to the show.
If all you're interested in is getting a glimpse of a scantily clad, non-gamer booth babe, and if you're embarrassed about being a nerd, then please--please--don't come to PAX. We don't want you.
Hi, I help run Child's Play for PA. Granted that the "anonymous coward" OP is retarded, but sadly his affliction isn't rare. That's why we've set up Child's Play as a seperate entity, a charitable nonprofit 501c3 corporation registered in the state of Washington. Aside from email addresses, image copyright notices, and the historical info in the "about" section you won't find any mention of Penny Arcade. The cartoon characters are on there because we want to reassure those familiar with the comic that, yes, this is the "real" Child's Play site. But we don't call them out, or introduce the site as "Gabe and Tycho bring you... Child's Play". Unless you're ALREADY familiar with the characters, they could just be random cartoons of gamers.
I realize the OP is a troll but the fact is, CP is it's own thing. We could all die in a meteor strike tomorrow and CP would continue. Advocating CP on Penny Arcade, or on Slashdot, or on a personal blog, or on any site isn't self-back-patting. It's giving kids a bit of comfort while they're stuck in hospital. No more, no less.
Hi, I help run Child's Play for PA. The hospitals don't want us to send them used items--too many germ issues. We do have a solution: sell your stuff on eBay. We're all set up with eBay's "Missionfish" program, which lets any user selling anything to donate a portion of the proceeds to Child's Play. When listing your item just select that you want to donate. You'll be taken to a popup with a list of charities and a search box. Just search for "Childs Play" and click on the result. Done. The process sounds a little weird, since eBay/Missionfish is set it up in such a way that the charity doesn't get screwed: when the item sells, eBay charges the LISTER'S credit card for the designated percentage. Then the lister collects the full amount from the buyer. So once you're set up, you can list a million items and never have to worry about calculating the % and mailing checks--eBay handles each % donation automatically. Like I said, a little weird but it makes sense. Bottom line is that people have expressed a wish to donate used systems, and this is the easiest and cleanest solution. Thanks for all the support, by the way. You all should be proud of the success of this charity. Being completely fueled by the gamer/geek community, Child's Play just wouldn't exist without you.