Charity and fundraising details

I said I'd set aside a post specifically for the fundraising section, I guess this is it.

Also, being caught up in the happiness of the moment while setting everything up and pushing everything out I neglected to consider the realities of how things work. As a first-time fundraiser, we'd totally underestimated the amount of work that goes into these things.

Holy crap is there a whole bunch. And we're not even professionals, we're just doing this because hey, it was part of the deal and now that we have to, we might as well make the best out of it.

As a quick reminder, the charities we have chosen are:

The Heart Fund by National University Heart Centre, Singapore. It's clear that Dr Yinghao feels strongly about his doctoring. Full support, here's someone who really walks the talk for a cause.

Arts for the Community by Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay, Singapore. Artsy stuff by our artistic designer Wenwen. Again, someone who's committed to the cause.

If it hasn't yet occurred to you, I didn't pick a charity, because I think both these causes are very worthwhile and I don't want to split the pie any further to dilute our efforts. Also, I'm cool with Cool Earth. Cool. Get it?

Cool Earth is the charity adopted by The Adventurists, the organizer of The Rickshaw Run.

We're aiming to collect $10,000, although there is no actual limit on how much goodwill can be given to each beneficiary. Whether you want to you support our hospitals, arts scene or even rainforests around the world, there's something for everyone.

Currently as it stands between the 3 of us we've pledged 500GBP* to Cool Earth as the adopted charity of the organizer.

*500 Pounds ~ 850SGD (presumably the form that most of our readers identify with).

All other funds will be primarily be directed at our selected beneficiaries. I say "primarily" because unfortunately we don't know what the outcome of our fundraiser is. These are our general guiding principles:

1. Funds that are requested for a specific cause will be allocated to that cause.
2. Funds without specific allocation requests will be split evenly between our two chosen charities.
3. You can specify a donation to Cool Earth through us, it works that way too.
4. No donation funds will be used for any personal purposes. This trip will be entirely self-funded. (Unless some kind soul would like to sponsor us...*insert shameless plug*)

As of now, we can take donations through several means. If you already know us personally (which I suspect, a large chunk of the donors will), we accept bank transfer, cash, cheque. Funds will be mainly handled by myself, although you can pass it to any of us who will eventually get it to me. Even if you don't know us personally but wish to make a direct donation that way, you can contact me at my personal email - arkaine@gmail.com, and I'll be glad to assist.

We've managed to find a Singapore-based fundraiser HERE by GIVEasia, so that eliminates a lot of currency conversation and bank rates. There are still some fees involved (taken from their website):

Singaporean Visa and Mastercard: 2.2% + $0.30c
All Other cards: 3.4% + $0.50c
All transactions below $4: 5% + $0.10c
FX: 2% (if applicable)

As always, thanks for reading, I hope this clears up some of the more common questions people have with regards to the fundraising portion of this!

Cheerios, Jik