2021 Capital Fundraiser – FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Why are we doing things this way?

Pledge drives are old hat in the charity world. In a way charities have been the real pioneers of the concept of crowdfunding. That concept has been taken to new levels by groups like Kickstarter and GoFundMe who have seen millions of dollars raised for projects and individuals using purely digital means of fundraising. COVID has made traditional fundraisers difficult right now, do we thought, why not try our hand at a digital crowdfunding style fundraiser.

Who provided these super cool designs and gifts?

The Foundation's Logo was designed by Nathan Weston, one of our board members.

The four designs on the stickers, and most of the other items, were designed and provided by Valorie Armour, who is also our supplier for the majority of the gifts.

The design on the magnet was provided by Micki Hefley, of Oddball Ink, who is a grandparent of an HLHS kiddo.

The 3-D object is being provided by Perry Grenon, a father of an HLHS kiddo.

Pledge Collection

You will have several options to fulfill your pledge when making a pledge.

If you opt to use PayPal, Square or Stripe then your pledge will be collected immediately after you fill out the donation form and submit it.

If you'd like to send us a check then select the Offline Donation option on the donation form. Then send us a check made out to Micah Mason Foundation to 1607 S Alamo Rd. Rockwall TX. 75087

Don't worry if you forget, we'll remind you, over, and over, and over again 🙂

Tracker Updating

Tracker updating is not automatic. Don't be discouraged if you can't see your contribution affecting the total count right away because it has to be updated manually. It will be updated at least once a day around 8pm. Likely, if donation traffic is heavy and we can get to a place where we can edit the website then we will update it.

Shipping Costs

We don't know what shipping is going to cost yet. Once we have your gifts in hand then we will calculate shipping costs and send an invoice to your email. Once the shipping costs have been paid then we will send you your gifts via USPS First Class Package Shipping.

Gift Exclusives

The ornament will be exclusive to this year, 2021, and will not be made again. This is not necessarily true of any other gift. If there is enough demand for a gift we may make extra copies to sell, or offer a way to buy them down the road, but there are no guarantees, this may be the only time to get these items with these designs on them.

The Gifts seem smaller than what I would get in a Kickstarter

Yes they are. This is a charity pledge drive in a crowdfunding format and not a fund raiser for a project. Most of the money we raise needs to go to our charitable mission. In a Kickstarter most of their money goes toward making the stuff that you get.

This disparity is even bigger when it comes to stretch goals. In a Kickstarter, as the project becomes more funded, a larger portion of the funding goes toward the project instead of to Amazon, who owns Kickstarter, and this ever increasing portion can be spent on extra stuff given to people when stretch goals are made. For us, each stretch goal gift reduces the total amount of money that goes to the charity.

How does the pledge money get used?

Most of your pledge money will go to either paying the charity's bills or to research, but let's give some more details.

The money from each pledge gets used in four ways.

1. Fees - Paypal, Square, and Stripe all charge fees to use their services. Square and Stripe charge a set fee of about 30 cents. All of them charge percentage fees between 2 and 3 percent.
2. Gifts - We are getting an amazing deal from our supplier, but we still need to pay for the gifts.
3. Bills - Charities have operating costs. Our primary costs are for our website and our post office box.
4. Research - Any money left over from the above items will go toward HLHS research.
5. Stretch Goal Objectives - If we make our stretch goals, then pledge money will be used to fund those objectives, with a preference to keeping these expenses down so we can give more money to researchers.

Add Ons

All but the $1 pledge level comes with a gift or gifts. If you want you can add on lower level gifts to your pledge, you can. So if you pledge $15 but you also want a Jar Opener then you can Add that On when you make your pledge. Each Donation page has a selector that can be used to choose Add Ons. Adding an Add On will increase the cost of the pledge automatically. This increase covers the cost of the Add On and provides some extra funding for the charity.

Initial Goal

Our initial goal of $1,000 should fund the charity for the year. Some of the $1,000 will go to fees and to gifts so we won't be getting the entire amount, but in most scenarios the leftover from the fees and gifts should be enough to fund us for the year.

Stretch Goals

Here's where things get good. Each of our Stretch Goals represent something we want to accomplish in the coming year. Some of these will be upgrades to our charity's equipment or website. Some of these will be to raise the funds needed to ensure we can host other charity events like BBQs.

Each Stretch Goal will come with an extra gift to everyone who pledged to the campaign at or above certain levels.

Changing my Pledge

Once you pledge to the campaign a Donor page will be created for you on the site. If you decide to increase your pledge level, you will be able to do this from that Donor page. The email that confirms your pledge will have a link to your Donor page.

I want to donate something different than the levels

At the bottom of the far right hand pledge levels is a Custom Pledge section. You can use that donation page to give a Custom pledge. If you do this, then it makes a little more work for us, but if it is at a level above the provided levels then we will be very happy to do the extra work.

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