Gaians giving back to charities

Which type of charity would you prefer to give to?

General (ie: Goodwill, United Way, YMCA, etc.)	6.7%	[ 3168 ]
Animals	28.5%	[ 13508 ]
Children & Youth	11.6%	[ 5514 ]
Cultural & Educational	4.4%	[ 2096 ]
Disaster Relief	7.1%	[ 3388 ]
Environment	11.9%	[ 5651 ]
Health & Disease	12.3%	[ 5817 ]
Hunger & Poverty	14.4%	[ 6824 ]
Service and Benevolence Clubs	0.5%	[ 254 ]
Other (leave a comment stating which others interest you)	2.6%	[ 1249 ]
Total Votes:			[ 47469 ]

[eaTaiaG]

Hi,

We're appreciative of all the good things in life, so we're thinking about giving back to some charitable causes on behalf of our users and we'd like your opinion. Here's what we're thinking of doing, IF there's enough interest from our users:

* We offer a "charity virtual item" for users to purchase and the proceeds will go to a number of non-profit charities
* The charities chosen to receive the proceed are ones YOU, our users, get to choose
* The virtual item is something you can wear proudly on your avatar, signifying that you gave to a good cause
* This charity "campaign" would be for a limited time only (I'm hoping it can be repeated though if successful)
* We can all be helping tens-of-thousands of people (depends on how many users give)
* Everyone feels good about giving back to the real-life communities that affect many less-fortunate people

So, what do you think?
Would you help us pick the charities that are of interest to you? (vote in the poll above; we may end up rotating through the most popular ones if it makes sense to)
And would you show your support by buying the uniquely-made-for-charity virtual item? (say around the same price as a monthly collectible item)

A penny for your thoughts. smile Thanks.

Tae

PS: Again, we'll determine whether we move forward with this or not based on your interest level, so let us know.

EDIT: No need to argue which charity type is better than another -- we'd prefer to give to them all on a rotational basis or something.

EDIT 10/30: We are brainstorming about how to roll this out soon. Stay tuned and thanks for chiming in with your willingness to help those who need it more!

[Lady Zelda Dragoness]

Sweet, I was the first voter. If only I could take screenshots...
Anyway, I voted for 'animals' because I saw this one show, and this dog had been well...beaten and neglected. It barely LOOKED like a dog. It was purely awful. It had all sort sof diseases and...ugh. Poor thing was put to sleep.
I'd like to not have that happen, y'know? Poor dog. gonk
Edit: And to those who complain about the animals winning the poll: Gosh darnit people, do the words 'CHAIRTY' mean NOTHING to you, hypocrites?!

[Hizzu]

I think it sounds good c: Helping people & enjoying gaia all at once! XD
Environment: Too much pollution = everyone dies.

...
>_______>
Okay, so I'm not very good at debates/explaining myself D:

[Yen Quest]

Are you sure you want to go with this idea when Gaia's been a bit on the downside lately? I'm fine with helping out charities, and it depends on the item if I want to wear it or not. ^^;

I would go for environmental charities not only because I participated in Greenpeace (long time ago, and I bump into them now and then), the environment would help the other charities in return. Well, I think the environment is one of the cause for such problems to begin with.

[LittleRaverJoey]

I am loving this idea. I would gladly buy a virtual item that donates money to a charity. I mean, I buy letters every month without knowing what they are, so in the end, it isn't always about the item, you know?

I think, with all the children that Gaia reaches, charities like Kids Help phone, or whatever would be an amazing direction to go in.

It is wonderful to see Gaia reaching out.

[Mugwamp]

Oh what a great idea!
We should provide third world children with computers and teach them to read and write! These could eventually be future Gaians we're talking about. ninja

[Nobara]

I've heard suggestions from users like this saying they'd donate for a little pink ribbon to help the fight against breast cancer etc. I think it's great that Gaia is in the position to give a little back to the community. You say the cost would be around $2.50, how I feel about that would definitely depend on the item. $2.50 doesn't seem like a whole lot to donate to charity, though for casual donations I tend to think of $1.00 like those ballons with kids name on them. But then Gaia could just take the other $1.50...hmm...that seems a bit high for a charity item though. Well, I'll let you guys worry about how much of the proceeds go to charity.

I voted for education. If we educate people they'll learn how to help themselves, and that pollution is bad and not to abuse animals etc. Plus it's my career. My mom once told me 'If you have enough money to spend donating to homeless animals, you should be giving it to homeless humans instead' but she's a not really an animal kind of person. sweatdrop

I would like to emphasize the brevity of the offer. Like a 1 month special or something. If Gaia comes out with something like this every week then I'll just get overwhelmed and harden so much as to not care anymore. Perhaps doing this around Thanksgiving or Christmas? People tend to be in giving moods during those times, and some also have extra cash to spare. That's my thoughts on the matter. Personally I might buy one. 3nodding

[Madame Blaze]

I believe that this is absolutely it's a wonderful idea! Even if their wasn't an item, I would have donated to the cause anyway. To know that Gaia is trying to better the world makes me feel a little happier to be a part of this website. :'D

I took me so long to pick something from that poll, there should have been an 'all' button. emo

But in the end, I choose hunger & poverty. Growing up nearly homeless and without a good meal to eat, things like charities like this really matter to me. Now as I work as a waitress, and realize how much food we have to throw away, to me this is such an easy problem to fix! We have so much food in this country! Their is absolutly no need that any person should ever go hungry with the surplus of food we just get rid of on a daily basis. =/

So I say let's feed everyone! xd

[Full Metal Keyblade]

I love the direction this is going in. Something like Autism research would make me happy.

[Maril]

This is a great idea 3nodding I would love to see this implemented.

I think hunger and poverty are particularly big issues that aren't really getting enough attention right now compared to most other issues such as the environment and diseases like cancer... I also find many charities involving the environment, and many plans people have to fix the environment would greatly decrease the already low standard of living for the under privileged people of the world, so I'm not for supporting them until they come up with better answers...

[Ally the Wildcat]

This is a great idea.
All of the charities in the poll are great, but I voted for hunger and poverty because it always makes me sad seeing people who do not have the same benefits as we do and they're starving out there while we are fed very well.
This would be one of the easier ways for me to help out.

[Imperfect Sublime]

Good idea. 3nodding

[NoneApparent]

What a wonderful idea!!!! I hope it generates enough interest.