Farmapalooza! A Guild Fundraiser
A couple of months ago Saintflorian, one of my guildies, was deployed to Iraq. Great guy, Saint, and greatly missed by those of us who know him. Luckily, he has internet where he’s stationed, and is able to get onto our forums and is even able to play a bit from time to time. About a month or so after he left he logged on while I was playing and we started chatting. He was pretty bummed and I wanted to do something for him to show him our support and to bring him a little happiness in a far away place. He rides motorcycles IRL, so I got the idea that maybe the guild could build him a Mekingeer Chopper and surprise him. I got really excited about everything but the 20,000 gold price tag. That was going to be tough. Although lots of guildies ended up chipping in donations for Saint’s bike, we needed another way to raise some dough to hook him up with some chopper love. That’s when I got the idea for Farmapalooza.
Farmapalooza was a 90 minute long event that everyone was welcome to participate/compete in. The event was very successful and lots of fun, so I thought I might post it on the chance that someone else might want to try it out to raise funds in their own guild.
The Rules
- Everyone had to start and finish at the same mailbox in Dalaran.
- At the start of the event, everyone had exactly 90 minutes before they had to return to the Dalaran mailbox.
- During the event, participants could “farm” whatever they wanted, wherever they wanted in Azeroth.
- Participants were not allowed to use crafting skills to manipulate the items they farmed in order to keep the playing field level.
- While the participants farmed, I scanned the auction house on my Auctioneer. I was then able to provide them price checks during the event, and my auctioneer became the official standard for pricing what was farmed.
- At the end of the event, everyone met up with me at the Dalaran mailbox. They then traded to me everything that they had farmed, during that 90 minutes. We had an “honor system” where no one was allowed to give me anything that they had in their possession prior to the event.
- If participants had “greens” or “blues” turn up as a result of their farming, they were given credit for either the price of the item itself, or the price of the mats if the item was disenchanted, whichever was higher.
- Participants were allowed to turn over everything of value, including “grey items” which were assessed at vendor price.
- The participant who generated the highest value of items in 90 minutes was the winner of the event.
- Participants were given the option to donate the proceeds of their farming to the guild bank if they did not want to contribute to Saint’s bike fund (no one did this, by the way).
The prize
The officers donated prizes out of their own banks and the guild bank until we had a nice, juicy prize package including:
abyss crystal
stack of raid food of winner’s choice
stack of critter bites
spell thread or armor kit of winner’s choice
stack of magic eaters
stack of infinite dust
several other just for fun items, such as a chocolate cake and toys from the Dalaran store.
The logistics
I advertised the event heavily in advance on the guild forum, on the guild message of the day, and in guild chat for about a week before the event. I worked with the officers to come up with a donated prize package, which I updated on our forum as new donations came in. The biggest trouble I had with this was that Saint reads our forum, so I wasn’t able to advertise on the forum what the cause was. I think I said on the forum that the event was to raise money for guild events and raiding mats.
During the event I had everyone turn their items over to me at the mailbox so that I could turn around and mail them immediately to my bank alt. On my bank alt, I vendored items, mailed blues and greens to an enchanter to disenchant, and put everything up for auction. I gave people credit for each item based upon what auctioneer told me was its market value, not for the amount at which it eventually sold. The hardest part of the event was the math of all of this. Lucky for me there was a very clear separation between the top player and the second place player, and between the second place player and the remaining players. That way I didn’t have to do all the meticulous math and was able to announce a winner fairly quickly.
The Outcome
We had 7 guild mates participate in the event, and the seven of them raised 3700 gold in an hour and 15 minutes. It was incredible! My GM actually won the event, but deferred the prize package to the second place participant. This guildie then said that everyone had participated and the whole guild should benefit, and donated the entire prize package to the guild bank! Plus the event was just a lot of fun, with friendly competition and banter on guild chat and vent the whole time. I was overwhelmed, truly, by the generosity of my guildmates and their altruism. It was a very successful event which we plan to repeat in the near future to raise money for another guild need, and I would absolutely recommend it to anyone out there looking to bring up the guild coffers for a good cause.
We got Saint his bike about a week later and he was THRILLED with it. =) Here he is riding it. We miss you, Saint. Come home soon, amigo!
There are 5 Comments to "Farmapalooza! A Guild Fundraiser"
Just wanted to say, that i thought this was really cool of ya’ll. It is nice to hear of guilds and friends in wow doing this.
Thanks Adru. I didn’t talk about this in the post because I was just trying to get out the rules of the game, but honestly, the way that this went down made me feel just so good. It was so affirming that everyone was so amazingly generous and supportive of our brother who was in a dark place. Saint thanked me profusely but I had to tell him that in all honesty I got just as much out of the experience as he did. It was wonderful. Thanks so much for coming by the blog! I hope to see you again.
I just have to say, for all you guys and gals who visit Syll’s site and read this post, this is one frickin awesome lady
I have much respect for her. After chatting with her in game for the better part of a year, I was so thrilled when I heard she wanted to come to Legio Vici! She fits right in with all us loonies and has been such a wonderful addition to our family. <3
She has headed up many events for our guild and comes up with such great ideas and is so passionate about the events and the peeps in our guild that guildies just love attending.
When she told me about her idea about the chopper, I was completely overwhelmed. I knew what a tough time Saint was having over there (as all of our service men an women can incur during deployments). And I just KNEW the bike idea would thrill him to death since he owns his own RL motorcycle and loves riding immensely. When she told the guild about her idea, everyone began giving her the mats needed to make it. Not a single person hesitated. Those who had mats, gave mats, those who had gold, sent gold. I love my guild for this very spirit of selflessness.
When she gave him his bike, I was actually on the phone with him. He was overwhelmed to say the least. I am not sure how I was able to keep this quiet for over a month, but I bit my tongue until the bike was made….and i was busting at the seams when he was actually able to log on right after our GM got the achievement for making Saint's choppa! It was much needed and lifted his spirits.
For those of you who have guildmates, in-game friends, and RL friends/family out there serving your country…I implore you to do something for them, even if its small. Not all guilds can pull off a chopper mount, but A simple "thank you for your service" goes a long way
~Semper Fidelis
<3 Sempie! =)
Oh wow! I missed this post somehow..but just caught up! And after reading it and the comments, I must admit I am in tears. Most of my RL friends and family don’t “get” WoW and dont’ understand the friendships that are forged on this game. I’m a lull in raiding and such, I haven’t raided for months and I’m thinking of transferring but I love my guild mates so much I can’t decide if I really want to leave them. We’ve all become such close friends. This post just reinforces that this really is more than “just a game” These people become your friends and family, when they hurt you hurt, when they are overwhelmed with joy, so are you. One of our guildmates is about to have his first baby with his wife and though he wont’ talk about it I know he is worried about money, maybe I will put something together like this to get him an in game baby gift and also we can work together to help out in RL for the newest little guildie!
Love your blog Syll!