Raising money - the fun way...

If you have ever been involved in any type of fundraising venture in your life - you most likely know the deep dark secret that is kept quite by everyone who has held any kind of a charitable event.

No one talks about it afterwards because, like childbirth, the endorphins that kick in from producing the thing blank out most of the negative memories. But not all.

The deep dark secret truth about fundraising events is, for the most part for those involved in putting on the show, they are about as much fun as rope burn.

From no-showing volunteers, to weather problems, to last minute money fiascoes, during the events themselves the stress level is at about 11.

So - why do many of us put ourselves through this voluntary hell?

Well - because if we don't no one else will I guess is the easiest answer.

I've had a ton of experience in fundraising for a bunch of different causes, so last year I was pretty excited about being handed off a fundraising project by my boss. I was to build a Trivia Night Kit with everything anyone would need to hold their own fundraising event contained in a nice tight little package.

The purpose was two-fold. First, fundraising is nice. And second, frankly it would be a good marketing vehicle for our family friendly gaming system.

So build it I did - and then – pretty much nothing. We got so tied up with a bunch of other projects, like building actual games for the Game Wave, my little Trivia Night Kit fell by the wayside.

But I haven't given up on my little pet project that could. I've managed to get about half a dozen of these trivia nights held thus far and each has been an unqualified success.

And the thing is, unlike most other events I’ve been involved with, the way the Trivia Night Kit works is actually fun for both the participants and the suckers volunteers.

The content is great. The game itself is simple to operate - it runs in a regular DVD player - and the fundraising tips have been very well received.

It's everything you need to hold a fundraiser, all in one little DVD case.

It's crazy to hold a fundraiser really. You'll never work harder in your life - all for no money, and not enough satisfaction. Give youself a break and drop me a line if you want to at least avoid the rope burn.


Cheers - Gavin

Giving is Good

Ever heard this before? You’re at a party and some guy is whining about his job – a job that sounds completely awesome to you - yet he’s endlessly complaining saying something like, “it’s not all fun and games you know.”

Well – my job is. Literally. Fun and games is just about all I do around here, and recently it’s become even more fun – ‘cause I get to give stuff away.

I’ve discovered that, as in life, giving in business is good - which is not exactly Gordon Gecko of me. The morning ritual of dealing out the hardware to the winners of the Daily Trivia contest has added a wee bit more joy to an already too-much-fun occupation.

And today positively rocked because I was away all last week so, by catching up it was a virtual charity-oh-rama!

We changed the contest while I was away from awarding a Game Wave itself, to one of the Game Wave game titles instead. The reason for this is rather simple – and not one that you would immediately suspect.

It’s not because we don’t want to give any more Game Wave’s away. It’s because at about the same time, we introduced this killer guarantee to new customers.

Let’s say you win the Daily Trivia and you already have a console. It’s nice to get another one to give as a gift I suppose (after all - giving is good) but it’s actually better for you personally if you can get another game gratis to play with at home.

If you don’t have a Game Wave – we’ll ship one out to you for free for a month – and you get two games to play with. If you don’t like it, give us a shout and well have it picked up – all at no charge to you.

That’s how confident we are about the Game Wave. And I can guarantee one other thing:

No other gaming console company would ever do this.

Which either makes us special, or especially weird.