1) I’ve never seen any statement from CCF that it was the bankruptcy. Is there an official statement from CCF citing the bankruptcy? I suspect that Gen Con’s bankruptcy had something to do with their decision, but that is common with any deal where one of the parties is involved in Chapter 11 proceedings.

2) They did not make any evasive statement. They said that they don’t just lend their logo out to anyone for a donation. That is a pretty standard practice amongst charities.

3) The deal fell through for some reason. Happens all of the time in business and when dealing with non-profits.

As for an organization giving confusing and contradictory reasons, and I have only seen one official statement from CCF, well I’ve had the same experience with Gen Con. That happens often in business, and I’ve had it happen to myself. Sometimes when you make a statement to the legitimate press they fail to get the quote right.

I wrote an email to the Gen Con staff regarding this matter. The word used to describe what was going on was “haters” and they weren’t referring to CCF. They were referring to the gamers bashing CCF.

That is what makes me so upset about this. Gen Con has made it clear that this was just a misunderstanding and that was it. Yet no one seems to be listening to that. They just want to talk about how there must be something fishy going on here.

So we have a small conspiracy theory going on that CCF must have some reason not to deal with Gen Con and/or D&D. Yet there is no evidence, and both parties have released statements saying that this was just a misunderstanding.

There is a lot of research done on why people create and support conspiracy theories. From what I have read on the matter it comes down to this – we can’t accept that as advance as we are with our technology and our society in general that bad things still happen due to randomness and simple errors. Despite all the effort we put into controlling our world bad things still happen.

This was a misunderstanding. It was a simple error. Nothing more. Let’s stop flinging mud at a charity just because we can’t accept that which even Gen Con (the supposed victim) is telling us is true.

1. It’s the Gen Con bankruptcy (this came out kinda late in the explanations)

2. We don’t do endorsements. Well, they didn’t say they don’t do them, just that they have “standards” this didn’t fit. With that kind of evasive statement, is it a wonder people are concerned? What standards exactly?

3. “Before we could reach consensus.” So… Did they say no, or did they say they were thinking about it?

When the same organization gives a bunch of confusing, contradictory reasons, I think it’s natural for people to suspect there’s something shady going on.

I also heard that they’re planning to serve free crow at the events…

That’s one person. I’m contacting CCF now for their guidelines on contributions and fundraisers.

Who else will help with this? We’ll need to plan, promote, and run the event. This will take a great deal of effort on all of our parts. My biggest concern is the collection of funds. We’ll need to verify that all donations are received, and that people who make a donation can rest assured that their donation made it to CCF. The best method is to see if we can get a donation code of some sort, so that there is no middle man.

I’ll be creating a forum for this at http://www.youmeetinatavern.com so that we can organize our efforts better once I hear back from CCF.

PS CCF has packages for bringing games and educational materials to poor children. That seems like a good match to me, so perhaps some of the money raised can go to that as well.

I do think that the gaming community at large probably perceived this as a Christians vs. Gamers. I don’t think it’s necessary to “prove” anything since the truth behind any matter on the Internet is always bound to be different than what’s presented at first.

Do people make mistakes. Of course. I am not saying to boycott them or that they aren’t a good charity. In any case, pressing this here isn’t yielding anything new.

So, let’s talk about your idea. I like it. It’s a good way to put all this nonsense behind us. I don’t have the time to manage such an effort, but I am willing to 100% participate and promote it. I’ll shoot you an email tomorrow.

Now as for different stories coming out of CCF, well that happens at large organizations when out of nowhere they suddenly find themselves bombarded by a bunch of angry gamers demanding answers to a problem that they didn’t even know existed. Hell, I’ve seen small organizations get confused when suddenly attacked/pushed into the public spotlight for negative reasons. That is why so many companies have a “all press communications go through X” type policies. Was Cheri Dahl authorized to make a statement? Usually VPs aren’t unless they are part of the Marketing or PR departments. I know of organizations where the board has the CEO restricted from making comments about particular matter.

My point is cut them some slack. That VP may not have had the right story either. Large international organizations run into that all of the time.

Now as for the starving children, well I think gamers are trying to justify their unfounded attacks by claiming to be concerned with starving children not getting the $17K.

Bullshit.

I don’t see many gamers making their number one priority here to be the feeding of starving children. I see them Christian bashing because they want to take a shot at a group, actually a small minority within that group, that has bashed them in the past. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

If we as gamers are so concerned about CCF not being able to help starving children I have the answer for that one – let’s contact CCF and put our money where our mouths are. Let us approach them and ask that they give us their requirements to endorse a charitable event where all of the proceeds will go to them. Unlike Gen Con we won’t have a deadline to keep, and so we can plan everything out clearly from the beginning. Then we can all know for sure if CCF accepts donations from the gaming community, and we can all feel better knowing that children received our money.

We can have as a requirement of our own that all of the money will be raised by having individual gaming groups pledge to give $1 per person for every hour of D&D that they play on a designated weekend. We’ll let CCF know all of the details as to how we plan to raise the funds. If the gaming community is serious about starving children being helped by the CCF, then I am more than happy to lead the charge on this and contact them to get the ball rolling. I’ll host a forum on my own site dedicated to the event in hopes of raising money for those starving children.

Email me at vv_gm@comcast.net if you are interested.

CCF gave some sort of indication to Gen Con that they could not or would not participate when originally requested. This meant that Gen Con sought another charity.

I completely understand that there may be reasons for this… perhaps even laws. However, something happened that caused this particular charity to lose out on money that could have helped a lot of children. Red tape? Human Error? A simple misunderstanding? Maybe yes to all three.

I haven’t heard yet what the original confusion was about. Why not say “we’ll get back to you” instead of “no” (or whatever they actually said that made Gen Con think they weren’t interested at first).

CCF has said:

“When Gen Con contacted CCF about its auction, we were pleased to accept donations. However, we couldn’t lend our name for publication because our policies have specific criteria for endorsements.”

and

“Christian Children’s Fund made the decision to decline the gift from Gen Con, LLC as the request presented to us gave the appearance that CCF (the organization) was an endorser or supporter of a gaming convention, which CCF was not.”

Whether it’s laws, corporate policy, or some dude that just said so, something went amiss here. Did Gen Con really give the impression that they were endorsing the event (cause that’s an oops) or did CCF make the mistake?

In any case, I think we can all agree it was a misunderstanding.

In a follow-up email though, the CCF then brought up the bankruptcy as the cause. Well, which was it? The endorsement or the bankruptcy? I fail to see how the bankruptcy had anything to do with this since the money wasn’t coming from Gen Con directly.

But I digress… it’s clear there was a misunderstanding here. I am not so much emotional about this as I am confused by it. It’s an unfortunate event.

If Gen Con was actually seeking a charity to endorse the event, then that’s just silly. Either way, as I said in my original post:

“Perhaps this is much ado about nothing, but I can’t help but think that starving children are the victims of this corporate nonsense. “

I wish the gaming community would put as much effort into apologizing as they did in attacking CCF. This hurts us in the long run. It shows how ignorant some of us are as to how businesses and non-profits operate, as well as how sensationalism can overpower common sense.

I thought us gaming geeks were supposed to be of the smart and intelligent variety, but apparently some of us are choosing to put our brains second and our emotions first.

If a non-profit organization fails to adhere to their bi-laws the I.R.S. takes away their tax exemption and effectively blows the whole charity up.

I work with a fraternal order. We have 8 active members on a good day. If we meet on the 2nd Tuesday of the month instead of the 1st Tuesday we risk losing out tax exemption. If we handle more than $2500 of revenue in a year (even just to give it away to needy folks as a go-between) we have to file special tax forms and are at increased risk for an audit. We don’t have the man-hours necessary to properly field an I.R.S. audit.

If you want to declare that you were “right,” and “something is fishy” with the Christian Children’s Fund please don’t bash their “priorities” for having to follow rules – bash the government that wipes them out if they don’t follow them. Also, please be mindful that GenCon was in the middle of Chapter 11 due to LucasFilm suing them over the Star Wars Celebration Charity Auction of 2007.

http://reporter.blogs.com/thresq/files/LucasVGenCon.pdf

1) Gen Con LLC starts planning the charitable event for the next Gen Con.
2) Gen Con works with a charity to arrange for the donation to be made after the event is held.
3) Gen Con is held and the event raises money.
4) Gen Con donates the money raised by the event to the charity they decided upon in step 2.

So CCF didn’t refuse $17K. There was no $17K at the time that Gen Con LLC, an entity currently involved in a lawsuit over another fund raising event for a charity and that has recently filed for bankruptcy, approached them with an offer to be the sponsored charity.

Now CCF refused to lend their name to the event for some reason, and Gen Con goes with their second choice. Note that they had an alternate choice before they contacted CCF, which from my past experience with organizing events is not unusual because sometimes two organizations can’t reach an agreement for any number of reasons and you work down your list.

Whatever happened, Gen Con refers to this refusal as their being “misinformed”. That can mean many, many things. From crackpot CCF zealot refusing “D&D devil money” to crackpot gaming zealot telling his superiors that “those Nazis said no because they hate D&D”. It was probably something nowhere near either extreme, but we don’t know.

Gen Con then reaches an agreement with another charity. CCF then clarifies that they are interested in the event, but Gen Con LLC has already made the deal. A missed opportunity. But Gen Con LLC admits that CCF did express interest. Maybe they decided that Gen Con LLC would be able to honor their commitment despite their financial and legal situation. Who knows?

Gen Con holds the event, raises the money, gives it to the second charity. This probably took place months after the CCF deal fell through.

Now, after Gen Con 2008 in Indy is done and over with, the story somehow gets out to the public and it turns into a “CCF is evil and won’t take money to help starving kids” blogfest.

That is just plain wrong. Do we really think that Gary Gygax would support such an institution? Do we have that much faith in Gen Con LLC despite the facts that we have around their bankruptcy and their legal issues? Or are gamers looking for a little payback for the witch hunt of the 80s? I’m betting on the witch hunt.

There’s so much smoke here that there must be a fire, right? Well I agree, but I’m betting that it is on our side of the line and not CCF’s.

However, check out this response I got to my letter:

” Thank you for your follow-up inquiry.

One of the criteria we take into consideration is whether the organization is financially sound. At the time we were contacted Gen Con was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Before we could reach consensus, Gen Con moved forward in selecting another charity. Again, we did not realize how much concern this caused within the gaming community until we began hearing from so many of you. It was never intended as a slight.

I hope this provides the needed clarification. It is my understanding that Gen Con also has posted information under “Forum” on its Web site.

Sincerely,

Cheri Dahl
Vice President, International Communications and Fundraising”

That’s the first I’ve heard of Chapter 11 being an issue. Since the money comes from gamers, not from GenCon, I can’t see how this matters.

So my point stands. The CCF has an issue with priorities. They place corporate nonsense above the well being of those they are claiming to serve. I have yet to see a valid reason why CCF wouldn’t agree to be the recipient of the charity auction.

The quote in Patrick’s post above says “we had been misinformed”… but by the time this was realized, it was too late. This just seems weird. How are you misinformed about their position with D&D?

Much ado about nothing? Maybe so. But I call into question whatever corporate practice that prevented CCF from just saying “yes please and thank you” in the first place.

Having been there for the initial flare-up, I’ll make this observation – trying to stand up for objective sourcing, skepticism, or even giving people the benefit of the doubt was hazardous duty when this started. People who pointed out that there was no source material other than unsubstantiated rumor were vilified and insulted in many quarters.

Frankly, the combined level of Religious Bigotry and “Jack Chick Flashbacks” in the gaming community in some circles was downright worrisome. For a community that often prides itself on intellectual curiosity, open-mindedness, and rationality I saw massive levels of knee-jerk emotionalism, religious bigotry, and appeals to stereotypes.

CCF was asked to be the official charity of Gen Con. This plasters their name all over the charity auction, the signage, and the directory.

It took less than 30 minutes to discover that the original rumor was incorrect on at least one major point. (I honestly think it only took a few minutes plus breakfast, but 30 minutes is the time between my outraged reply to first hearing the rumor, and my “waitasecond” reply correcting the information.) Why couldn’t all these web sites reporting this as news be bothered to check it out?

Better question: Why won’t they correct it now? Or if they are correcting it, why are they doing so with the attitude of “if there’s smoke, there must be fire”?