Has It Been 30 Days Already?

At 3AM Eastern time this morning, the first phase of the ad project came to a close, as our IndieGoGo campaign ended.  Over the last 30 days, we raised $16,516 directly on the campaign site (the counter is $60 high), and another $600 from direct donations, putting us just over $17K in gross revenue.  After IndieGoGo and PayPal got their just pound of flesh, we ended up with a net income of around $15,850 (the dust is still settling on our bank account...)  We've already sent $1,000 on to Toys for Tots, and will probably be making another donation in the next week, either to Toys for Tots or another children's charity, depending on how the board feels.  We'll also be sending in our IRS Form 1023 and an $850 check, to start the process towards becoming tax exempt, thanks to the excellent work of our Pro Brony lawyer.

Of course, what you really want to know is, who won the plushie? We had 48 eligible donations made, totalling $845 dollars, after 5PM on May 30th.  A quick visit to random.org got us our winning donation, trogdor61590, who made a $10 donation on the IndieGoGo site on the afternoon of the 31st.  I'll be getting he/she/it in touch with the good folks over at Brony Express to arrange for their plushie.  If you missed out, we should be auctioning off another one of their plushies at BronyCon.

Now, the real work begins.  We're deep in the process of putting together the rough-cut of the ad (remember, the deadline for submissions is today!)  We also have to print and mail out 233 posters...  We'll be doing more fundraising for our charities over the summer, and want to start working with other brony fundraisers to offer them a way to protect themselves from tax complications, and to eventually make donations tax deductible. 

A few quick thank-yous.  This couldn't have happened without the support of the Brony Press, who publicized the project and got us going.  I'd like to especially thank Phoe over at EQD, who wrote a wonderful article that got the funds pouring in, and has continued to support and defend the project.  I'd also like to thank the countless numbers who have responded to criticism of the project with reasoned commentary.  I'd also like to give a shout-out to all the folks who provided constructive criticism over on our form (bronies.lefora.com), the ad will be much better for the advice you gave.  I couldn't say enough to thank Pixelkitties, who has both been an active board member and produced some amazing logos for us on practically zero notice, I can't wait to see the finished art for the poster! And finally, to the other board members of the Fund, who agreed to work with me on short notice to put together something I think is going to be wonderful.

I'm looking forward to meeting some of you at BronyCon, you can definitely find me Sunday afternoon at 4PM on the Studying the Herd panel, one of the other things I've spent my time on over the last year.  We'll continue to provide updates here and via our twitter feed (@bronythankyou).