Match It For Pratchett

News From Down Under!

I woke this morning to receive this message from Martin Livings in Perth, Western Australia:

"Hey Pat,

Inspired by your amazing M4P efforts, I decided to do my small part for the cause here in Australia, and made a collection tin to have at the Australian national SF convention here in Perth last weekend. We collected AU$400 over the weekend, which has been donated to Alzheimers Australia in the name of Swancon and Terry Pratchett. Small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, I know, but still some amazing generosity on the part of the con goers.

Just so you know, the idea is spreading across the globe. :)"

Thanks so much for the news, Martin!

Our Friends Electric Digital

Its been a few days since I gave a big wave to all the people who have linked to us and supported us. Out biggest friend is StumbleUpon so huge thank you to users of that service who have clicked on our link. Next up are Neil Gaiman and Nielsen Hayden. Both these blogs have sent us a mountain of traffic which in turn has helped raise thousands of dollars.

Live Journal is the birth place of Match It For Pratchett and hundreds LJ users have linked to us but a special mention must go to George R.R. Martin. He has sent us over 500 visitors. Thank you George.

Of course size isn't everything. The whole point of Match It To Pratchett is that we don't have £500,000 each but 500,000 of us each have £1. So I would like to thank all the blogs who sent us just a few readers. Like Mad Hatter Muses, Magic For Beginners, Lynn Gardner and Faery Scrapper.

Accounts

Summary of Accounts as of 28/3/2008 at 10:44

Donations via MatchItForPratchett.org: $6838.32

T-Shirt sales (Completed and Pending): $1215.01

Costs (Paypal Charges): $-304.58

Total Raised via MatchItForPratchett.org: $7748.75

On the 25/3/08 $6,464.10 was sent to the Alzheimer's Research Trusts' Paypal account. The Trust have confirmed receipt of £3070.52 on the 27/3/08

I will be doing these accounts less often in the coming few weeks. The Paypal donation button now goes directly to the Alzheimer's Research Trust and bulk of the money from the old Donation Jar has been sent to the Trust. The last few Paypal transfers are still filtering through as sometimes they take a week to clear. I will send the remaining balance once I happy everything has come through and I expect it to be around $200. The money from the T-shirts will take longer to come from Cafe Press (about 60 days). My plans are to do monthly accounts and send everything I have received straight to the Trust.

100 Orders = $1205.01 for the Alzheimer's Research Trust

I've just checked the Cafe Press shop and since I first designed the T-shirt two weeks ago, it has been ordered 100 different times. Some orders were for multiple T-shirts giving us a total of 121 shirts sold, raising a grand total of $1215.01. Thank you everyone who has brought one (or more).

When you receive your T-shirt, why not send us a photo of you, your pet or your beeblebear wearing it. Put the photo on FlickR and send us the link via the comments. If you have a science fiction / fantasy society, role-playing club or maybe a book group you wish to promote, then let us know as well and we will give you, your photo and your group a big plug.

The money from the T-shirts will not reach me for about 60 days because of Cafe Press's 30 day guaranteed refund policy. Once I get it, I will send it straight on to the Alzheimer's Research Trust.

Sheffield SF

A brief note from Fran

The Sheffield SF Group has formally adopted Match It For Pratchett as a charity [ campaign they support ]

If there are any fan groups out there who are raising money for Alzheimer's, don't forget to lets us know. We will do all we can to give you publicity.

UPDATE: I've had a note from Rebecca at the Alzheimer's Research Trust warning us to be careful of using the word charity. The UK's Charity Commision is very hot on ensuring only registered charities describe themselves as charity.

So just to be clear, Match It For Pratchett is a grass roots campaign raising money for the Alzheimer's Research Trust in the UK and other Alzheimer's charities around the world.

Wear the Lilac, $100 so far

On her LJ Discworld community, auronsgirl reports

In just a little over a week, sales of lilac pins for Alzheimer's have reached and exceeded my inital donation goal of $100.00!

Remember, on May 25th, wear the lilac to celebrate the Discworld books and raise money for Alzheimer's research.

Eastercon Generosity

The good folks at Eastercon have excelled themselves in their generosity. The collection bucket raised £2100. The David Stewart Auction raise £370 by selling off various books, and the Fan Funds auction raised £50 from a copy of Good Omens signed by both authors.

A big thanks to eveyone at Eastercon who donated, to Fran and everyone else who gave time, books and enthusiasm in raising such a big total.

Paypal & Donation Jar

Thanks to advice from Sue and Lee, I've tweaked the donation button so that it once again prompts you about how much you want to donate.

I've had confirmation from Rebecca of the Alzheimer's Research Trust that the bulk of the money ( $6464 ) has been transferred to the Alzheimer's paypal account ( Paypal Unique Transaction ID #8KA746512R368904G ). They can't access it yet because their bank account details are still being confirmed.

On other Paypal news, it appears I am a suspected money launder because of the sudden influx of money into my long dormant account. This means jumping through a few hoops and providing some documentation in order to show that I'm a real human being. One thing they have been repeatedly asking for is a "Subordination letter from the parent organization". I've explained that there is no parent organization but they don't seem interested. Does anyone know what they actually want?

Look Out! Robots!

Nothing to do with Match It For Pratchett but I thought this might provide some light entertainment.

They are all there... 51 different robots from film, television, books, toys and one even from a famous classic rock album. Can you figure out all 51? Do you even know who Konky was?

Its from the T-Shirt store, Chop Shop and its called We Robot.

Aten't dead yet

On her LJ account, Pat has posted some donation news and has some things to say about Match It For Pratchett:

And yes, I know: Terry "aten't dead yet." That's the whole point.

Here's my thing (to phrase a coin):

Memorials are nice. They're OK. They're the mark of civilization, of an intelligence great enough to conceive of something beyond itself, to live beyond the five senses. But frankly, I prefer to help people while they're still around to benefit.

Read the complete post: Match It For Pratchett in Action

EDIT: Link fixed and now points to the correct post. (Thanks Jem)

Donation Jar Change Over

Up until now the Donation Jar has paid into my Paypal account and I've been tracking the donations. Given the amount of money coming via the Donation Jar (thank you everyone) Rebecca from the Alzheimer's Research Trust and I felt it would be better if it went straight into their account. As of 8pm this is now the case but there is a slight problem.

The Donation Jar was a feature provided Typepad (the blogging software that runs this site). It sent the donated money into the Paypal account linked to the email address set up in my Typepad profile. Which turns out to be the one, single email address you can associate with an account. So if I switch the email address to point to the Alzheimer's Research Trust for the Donation Jar, all messages from Typepad to myself would be sent to the Trust including anything from my other blogs.

Obviously not a viable option and a bit of an oversight by Typepad. If you let people have multiple blogs on one account, its not a great leap to assume that each blog will want to use a different email address. This is not a disaster as I've set up a Paypal donation button to do the job instead. This does go straight to the Alzheimer's Research Trust. The only drawback to this solution is that the amount of the donation is fixed at $20 where as the old Donation Jar allowed the donor to choose the amount. On the plus side, it now clearly states that the money is going to the Alzheimer's Research Trust before you complete your donation.

Hopefully tomorrow I will get some time to rework the HTML to make it look better and also make two Match It For Pratchett donation buttons. One going to the regular Trust donation page and a quick $20 Paypal donation button. Up until then please use the direct donation link or the Paypal button on the right.

Going Going Gone

Sky One's auction of the Luggage for the Alzheimer's Research Trust sold for £3667.42 (about $7280). Additionally the auction for Once More With Footnotes has also closed with a winning bid of $510 for the Alzheimer's Association National Office.

Thank you to all the bidders, winners and losers alike.

Lots and Lots of Money

A message from Andrew at the Alzheimer's Research Trust.

I’m pleased to be able to inform you that the tally of donations to the Trust given in honour of Terry Pratchett is:

£40,627.50 from more than 1,000 donors.

This includes a couple of major individual donations and a £540 gift from the International Conference of the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, Florida, which was on 22 March.

We’ve already allocated vital research spending from Terry’s and many other donations. We’re desperately seeking more support. Applications for research grants from world-class scientists are still having to be rejected.

This is how much the Trust has actually received so doesn't include the Donation Jar or T-Shirts sales for this web site.

Thank you every who has donated and everyone who has blogged about Match It For Pratchett.

More Fundraising Over Easter Weekend

Orbital wasn't the only science-fiction convention working to Match It For Pratchett. Writer Jay Lake reports that NorwesCon raised $3403.70. Here are some photos of their efforts to Match It For Pratchett.

Good going, guys!

Thank You For The Comments

Lots of people have left comments with suggestion or remarks about the web site. These are a great help and I will try and address them all as soon as I can. Either by implementing the idea, addressing the issue in a post or by simply commenting back. Please keep it up, its always nice to have feedback.

Welcome Back

Welcome back everyone who was at Eastercon or Norwescon. I've heard that the Eastercon was a great success and that all the GoH were great. Though I'm reliably informed by an excited fan-girl that Mitch Benn was the highlight. More importantly, there were collection buckets and book auctions in aid of the Alzheimer's Research Trust. I expect to have information on how much was raised soon.

Talking of money,

Summary of Accounts as of 25/3/2008 at 9:34

Donations via MatchItForPratchett.org: $6764.1

T-Shirt sales (Completed and Pending): $1095.01

Costs (Paypal Charges): $-300.9

Total Raised via MatchItForPratchett.org: $7558.21

For information see Money & Accounts

Note: Each t-shirt generates a $10 donation to Match It For Pratchett. The eagle-eyed amoungst you will see that the total is not a round number. The odd $5.01 included is from the sale of other goods from Poosk purchased by people buying a Match It For Pratchett t-shirt. To avoid any ethical grey areas, I will be donating all such revenue.

Note: There is an additional $10.37 due to be included from the Google Adsense adverts displayed on the web site.

I have to dash out now and spend the day introducing one of my nieces to Nottingham and the legends of Robin Hood. Hopefully when I get back, the information I need to transfer everything Match It For Pratchet has raised to the Alzheimer's Research Trust will be waiting for me.

More Good Things Up For Bid On eBay!

I've just received a message that George RR Martin has put up seven books for bid on the eBay Match It For Pratchett fundraiser.

Have a look here: http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZbenveniste

Thank you, George!

Spend Money For Charity

Online comic strips Narbonic and Skin Horse are selling off original artwork at $25 a strip. All proceeds to The Alzheimer's Research Trust. Thanks to From Rim To Hub for the tip-off.

Alternatively you can spend your money on a variety of auctions including proof editions of Good Omens and Only You Can Save Mankind, as well as various George R. R. Martin books. All proceeds going toAlzheimer's Association. Full details of the auctions here.

Money & Match It For Pratchett

The amount of money the campaign has taken through the Donation Jar has been staggering. The jar itself was just an after-thought, quickly added to the web site when I saw Typepad made it very easy it set one up. I only ever expected it to be a connivence for those who had Paypal accounts and for it to collect a small amount of money. In some ways this is true, much much more money has gone straight to the charity. However several thousand dollars in my Paypal account is more than I expected to handle and this has been worrying me.

To the rescue comes Rebecca, CEO of the Alzheimer's Research Trust. We had a good chat yesterday and the Trust is in the process of setting up its own Paypal account. Once its up and running, I will switch the Donation Jar so that it pays direct into their account instead of mine. All the money collected so far will also be transfered over. Because of the bank holiday and the hoops the charity needs to go through to set up their Paypal account this is not going to happen until next week. In the meantime I will continue to give regular updates and list each and every donation on the Detailed Accounts page.

The money from the T-Shirt's will still flow into my account and be forwarded on to the charity at regular intervals. However I will be updating the site slightly to make it clear how much of each shirt goes to the charity. (Its $10 per shirt).

Rebecca has promised to keep us informed of how much has been raised and she sends her thanks to everyone who has donated, posted on their blog about the campaign or simply told a friend about it. The response of Terry's fans around the world has been fantastic.

$35 Dollars an Hour

In the six days this site has been running, we have raised an average of $35 per hour via the Donation Jar and T-Shirt sales with lots more given directly to the Alzheimer's charities. As an hour of Alzheimer's research costs $25, for every hour Match It For Pratchett has existed, its funded at least one and a half hours of research. This is purely down to everyone's generosity, in money, in time and effort spent spreading the word. Thank you.

Summary of Accounts as of 21/3/2008 at 10:39

Donations via MatchItForPratchett.org: $4504

T-Shirt sales (Completed and Pending): $845.01

Costs (Paypal Charges): $-203.58

Total Raised via MatchItForPratchett.org: $5145.43

Full details on the Money & Accounts page.

Thank Goodness For Google

We are seeing a slow down in traffic arriving at the site. This is only to be expected as the freshness of the campaign wears off and we head into the long Easter Weekend. But it is clear that the idea of Match It For Pratchett has entered the internet consciousness. Hundreds of visitors have arrived here after searching on "Match It For Pratchett" in Google*. We also have been picking up traffic from the wonderful bloggers like Jemjabella and grrlScientist who continue to link to us.

*If, like me, you are fascinated by search engines and all things internet, the fact that Yahoo has supplied less then 10% the number of visitors of Google may be of interest. The first visitor from Google was at 11.41 PM on the 15th. Not bad as the site only 2.34 PM the same day.

Wear The Lilac - May 25th

It is a tribute to the Terry Pratchett's writing skills and his friendly attitude to fans that he has inspired not only Match It For Pratchet but a second campaigns to raise money Alzheimer's.

In Nightwatch, the men who fought and died (and in one case, fought, died and kept on fighting) in the Revolution are remembered by the wearing of sprigs of lilac every May 25th. The online Pratchett communities have adopted May 25th as Wear The Lilac day, an unofficial holiday celebrating Pratchett's work. Now AG has taken it one step further with these fantastic Lilac Pins with the proceeds split between the American Alzheimer's Association and the Alzheimer's Research Trust.

From AG's website:

These lilac pins are made from life-size silk blooms and tied with a black velvet ribbon. The large size blooms are approximately the size of a lady's corsage spray, and the smaller blooms are the size of a gentleman's buttonhole/boutonniere.

More details on Wear the Lilac for Alzheimer's

We think that Wear The Lilac is a great idea to show your support of both Terry Pratchett and to raise money for Alzheimer's research. Here at Match It For Pratchett we have ideas to support Wear The Lilac with special Icons for download and possibly T-shirts. |f you have ideas or ways of supporting Wear The Lilac day, please let us know via the comments.

Thank You Big & Small

I'm very busy so I won't get the chance to do the donation total today. They continue to flow in and people's generosity is amazing. We have had several for $100 and one for $200. Thank you so very much.

But its not about size, it is about the act of giving. Not everyone can afford to give large amounts so the donations for $2 and $5 dollars are appreciated just as much as the big donations. If you cannot afford to give money then please give time and publicity. I started this web site to support the Match It For Pratchett campaign because I don't have money but I wanted to do something. This is my contribution, what is yours?

Buy Books

Dan Blum writes

I've just listed two items on eBay with 100% of the proceeds going to the US Alzheimer's Association: The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox (signed limited edition) and The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox (book club edition). Obviously Pratchett items would be better but I have nothing in that line of value except my own copy of Once More* With Footnotes (unlike some people I only have the one :)), and the Noreascon shirt, which I can't find. If I can find the shirt I will auction that. In the meantime I figured other humorous fantasy works would do well enough. The signed edition of this is highly collectible (less so when reprinted in October, to be sure), and even the book club version can go for $100 or more these days. I will probably put more items up soon, such as Lankhmar hardcovers.

I've not read the book (its a collection of Bridge of Bird, The Story of the Stone and Eight Skilled Gentlemen) but my partner has, and has reread it, and reread it again. So buy these books. The money is going to a good cause and someone you don't know thinks they are good enough to warrant repeated reading.

Details of all the charity auction and fund raising events happening are on the aptly named Charity Auctions & Fund Raising Events page. If you are thinking of auctioning something for charity then read this:

I've been a full-time seller for 8 years now, and am pretty much used to navigating the myriad rules on eBay. So if anyone else auctioning anything for Alzheimer's would like me to cast an eye over their listing for anything that might get the listing removed, I'll be happy to do so. Just drop me an email - sue -at- tamebay -dot- com.

Sue's blog, Tamebay, was one of the first non-LJ places to cover Match It For Pratchett. Sky's problems with its auction show how easy it is to get things wrong so please take advantage of Sue's offer. The Luggage's current bid is £2,550.

Donate And Get A Book Deal!

Ok, not quite but Jennifer Jackson (arcaedia on LJ) is a literary agent and has offered to read and review a synopsis of your novel plus 50 (or so) of its pages. But only for the person who donates the most. This is all being done by Jennifer so please don't send me anything.

All the details are here.

On Air In Glastonbury

The Match It For Pratchett campaign is scratching away at the edges of mainstream media in exactly the same way my cats scratch at a door when they want it opened (except without the pathetic mewing and with less damage to the carpets). The prize for the being the first radio station to cover us goes to Glastonbury Radio. Thank you Glastonbury Radio. I hope to be at the Glastonbury festival later in the year so if anyone from Glastonbury Radio wants to say hello, I will be in the 30,543rd tent on your left as you go in.

Generous In Seattle

News from Adrienne Loska

Inspired by Pat's challenge to match Terry Pratchett’s one million dollar donation, we will be doing Match it for Pratchett fundraising at Norwescon 31 in Seattle this weekend. The donation box available at the Northwest Science Fiction Society Table. We’ve just begun advertising our involvement and the response has already been fantastic - fans and pros alike are very excited to participate in this global fund drive. One book seller will be donating her profits from the sale of Terry Pratchett books! Be sure to stop by the NWSFS table, or see one of us, at Norwescon.

The Emerald Isle

If you want something to do over the weekend of 29th-30th March, then go to Dublin. Its a great city and it hosts a great SF convention full of generous people.

Hey, I'm CE Murphy, GoH at P-Con in Ireland, and we are planning on doing a Match It fundraiser of some kind, in the form of a tip jar at the front desk if nothing else. I'm hoping we'll be giving out tickets to everybody who donates, and at the end of the weekend I'll be donating a full set of my Walker Papers series (consisting of URBAN SHAMAN, "Banshee Cries" (in the anthology WINTER MOON), THUNDERBIRD FALLS and COYOTE DREAMS to a ticket drawn from the Match It hat.

You can give direct The Alzheimer's Society of Ireland through its Donation Page. Details are also on the Guide To Giving.

You can also drink tea for Alzheimer's with The Alzheimer's Society of Ireland fundraising Tea Day on the 1st of May with a website. (Thanks Sshi)

Update on Paypal Payments

My total for yesterday from Paypal was wrong. I double counted many donations. It turns out that some Paypal payments generate multiple events in the history file with each one having a separate Transaction ID. Naively I had assumed that each unique transaction reference referred to a single payment into my account.

The upshot of this is that I over-estimated yesterday's total by about $1500. The good news is that today's correct total includes about $1500 donated or generated via t-shirts sales in the last 24 hours. It also doesn't include payments that have been made but haven't yet cleared into my account.

Summary of Accounts as of 19/3/2008 at 15:10

Donations via MatchItForPratchett.org: $3382

T-Shirt sales (Completed and Pending): $590

Costs (Paypal Charges): $-150.22

Total Raised via MatchItForPratchett.org: $3821.78

Lies Travel Fast But Love Goes Even Faster

I think its in Making Money The Truth (thanks PixelFish) that someone uses the line "A lie can be halfway around the world before the truth has got its boots on". Well it seems than people's love of the Discworld can travel just as fast. We are now getting traffic from a huge range of sources including a very small mention in "mainstream" meda such as USA Today and the Guardian Booktalk forum. We are also been turning up on political sites like Democratic Underground and Free Republic.

The SF & F community continue to be supporters, such as Forbidden Planet, Locus Magazine, UK SF News, the Traveller RPG forums, Dear Author, the Library Thing, ActuSF, Elbakin, Wyrdsmiths and the Discworld MUD.

Social networking sites are sending us lots of people including some sites I had never heard of like Utterz. Live Journal plus Insane Journal and Dead Journal continue to send hundreds of visitors to us. Its impossible to list all the people who have mentioned us on their journal but thank you, thank you, thank you. Facebook, Reddit and Stumbleupon have sent us thousands. Numerous blogs such as Suzies Book Pages, Firefox News, the Rage Diaries andRagnell have also linked to us.

The range of interests that Pratchett fans enjoy is impressive. From the Fountain Pen Forums to fans of Barenaked Ladies (work safe, its about the band). It also seems the motorbike fans are also big Pratchett fans with Bikers Web and The Rev Counter, and 100% Biker all send us decent traffic.

Please keep up the good work in spreading the word. You can help by using the Digg buttons on each post or by promoting Match It For Pratchett on Reddit and similar sites.

Books are not Entertainment

I just went to Digg to give Lara Croft's Buttocks a push because every little helps (you can help by using the Digg option under each post). To submit something to Digg you have to place it in a category and so I looked at the options under Entrainment. A reasonable choice I thought, but not according to Digg who has these options for Entertainment are.

• Celebrity
• Movies
• Music
• Television
• Comics & Animation

It seems Digg doesn't have any Books related categories at all so I placed it under General Science as the least worst option. With people like Terry and J K Rowling making headline news (along with the sad news about Arthur C. Clarke), its strange that books and authors in general seem to be forgotten.

Lara Croft’s Buttocks

From the start of the speech to Alzheimer’s Research Trust Network.

Ladies and Gentlemen. My name is Terry Pratchett, author of a series of inexplicably successful fantasy books and I have had Alzheimer’s now for the past two years plus, in which time I managed to write a couple of bestsellers. I have a rare variant. I don’t understand very much about it, but apparently if you are going to have Alzheimer’s it’s a good one to have. So, a stroke of luck there then…

and from the end

I'd like a chance to die like my father did—of Cancer, at 86. (Remember, I'm speaking as a man with Alzheimer's, which strips away your living self a bit at a time). Before he went to spend his last two weeks in a hospice he was bustling around the house, fixing things. He talked to us right up to the last few days, knowing who we were and who he was. Right now, I envy him. And there are thousands like me, except that they don’t get heard.

So let’s shout something loud enough to hear. We need you and you need money. I’m giving you a million dollars. Spend it wisely.

If you want to know what this post title has to do with anything, read the full text of the speech.

Thanks to pwt_fan and the Discworld LJ community for finding this.

People Are Wonderful

Its hard to describe the feelings you have when you come back to your computer after a couple of hours and find several hundred dollars have been donated since you left it.

New Dedicated T-Shirt Shop

I've set up a dedicated Match It For Pratchett T-shirt shop so that we don't have to use my Poosk store as it contains some items that may offend. I hope to have a Spreadshirt store set up for UK & Europe but there is a delay whilst they check the design is OK to print with their process. Everything should be up and running by the end of the week.

Grand Total: £34,000

Direct to Alzheimer's Research Trust: £32,189.65 (824 donations)

Via MatchItForPratchett.org: $3973.34

Approximate Total: £34,000

The Alzheimer's Research Trust figure is on the conservative side as the charity is still catching up with the flood of donations. Details of the money raised from MatchItForPratchett.org can be found on the Money & Accounts page. We don't know how much has been donated in the US or around the world but we hope to have some information soon.

Events This Weekend

This weekend is Orbital, 2008's Eastercon SF & F convention and it has a great line up of guests including Neil Gaiman who co-wrote Good Omens with Terry Pratchett and has written much, much more including the delightful Stardust.

Orbital will be stuffed full of Discworld fans who will be given amble opportunities to donate money to Match It For Pratchett including a book auction. There will also be buckets going round and other fund raising activities.

I'm sure there will be other events happening over the next few weeks that will be similarly full of people willing to donate to Match It For Pratchett. For example Norwescon (19th - 23rd March, Seattle, WA, USA) or P-Con (29th-30th March, Dublin, Ireland). If you are organising an event and are doing fund raising for Match It For Pratchett, please let us know via the comments and we will give you a big plug. If you are going to any event, no matter how big or small, remember to take hat or bucket with you and have a collection.

Every little bit helps.

Just £12.50 ($25) is enough to fund one hour of cutting-edge research yet charities have to turn away most research grant applications because they haven't the money.

Summary of Accounts as of 18/3/2008 at 11:41

Donations via MatchItForPratchett.org: $3811

T-Shirt sales (Completed and Pending): $330

Costs (Paypal Charges): $-167.66

Total Raised via MatchItForPratchett.org: $3973.34

Gorgeous Discworld Badges

UPDATE: This post has been removed because of this Important!. We of course respect Terry's wishes on this.

Auctions

The has been some problem with the auction of the Luggage from Sky's Colour of Magic production but it has now been re-listed. The latest bid is £1919.69 and the auction runs to March 24th. Other auction news, Arkady Rose, the seller of Antique Violin, 1860s, German, beautiful instrument!! writes

I will be donating 20% of the final sale price to the Alzheimer's Research Trust for "Match It For Pratchett". Alzheimer's research is a cause close to my own heart, as I have lost two grandparents to Alzheimer's and a third is suffering from it. Given that there is a genetic component to Alzheimer's, I am faced with the very real prospect that it is also in my future one day.

The Charity Auctions & Fund Raising Events page has been updated with new details.

Contact!

Match It For Pratchett and the UK's Alzheimer's Research Trust have made direct contact and I should be able to bring you daily updates of direct donations along side updates of donations taken by the web site. We are also trying to build links with other national Alzheimer's groups. If you work for one, please get in touch.

In his email, Andrew from the Alzheimer's Research Trust wrote

I got the chance to see the results of some of the research we've funded over the last year at the conference in Bristol last week, after Terry spoke. It really is promising stuff. There's a sense amongst the world class scientists working on dementia in the UK that we're on the brink of some major breakthroughs. Having Terry speak with such clarity and wit really helped bring home why we're doing this.

We can all make a difference to the millions of people a year from around the world who are diagnosed with Alzheimer's by giving money, time, enthusiasm, space on your blog or simply emailing the URL to a friend.

Go on, make a difference

Where to Give - Part 2

Thank to sshi, visibleprocrastinations, Sue, Siobhan for supplying information on Alzheimer's charities from around the world.

You can give directly to either of these two Australian organisations. The links will take you straight to their donation page.

• Alzheimer’s Australia
• The McCusker Foundation for Alzheimer’s Disease

Can a French speaker have a look at the France Alzheimer's site and let me know a URL that goes straight to a donation page. France Alzheimer's Donation Page (Thanks Joanna).

You can probably give to Alzheimer’s Canada but their site is down at the moment.

From K`shandra

A recommendation for those who use the online donation page at Alzheimer's Association (USA) - use the Tribute link, and note that your contribution is in honor of Match It For Pratchett. It's not perfect (there's only room to note one honor/memorial, so you can't mention that AND a family member or friend), but it would be nice to see how many contributions the other organizations outside the UK receive.

I've updated the Guide to Giving with the new direct donation links and there is a new page for a list ofAlzheimer's Groups from around the world.

£29,286.15 from 688 donations

This is how much the UK's Alzheimer’s Research Trust has received since the start of the campaign.

As promised, here’s the total value of donations to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust thanks to the Match it for Pratchett campaign so far:

£29,286.15 from 688 donations

This is tremendous news. We’re so excited about the way this campaign has grown. It’s non-stop right now in the Trust’s offices.
The research this will fund offers hope to the more than 24 million people around the world with dementia. Thanks to Terry, online fans like you, and many others the dementia deficit in research funding is narrowing.

Via Another Message From the Alzheimer's Research Trust

Its a great start but there is still a lot more money to raise. Whether it is face-to-face, on Twitter, LJ, your blog or your favourite forum, don't stop mentioning the campaign.You can make a real difference to humanities understanding of Alzheimer's.

Money

I've added two new pages about money but the big news is that so far $1171 has been raise directly through the site including donations and t-shirt sales. In the half-hour since I calculated the total, another $50 - $100 has come in. Thank you everyone and please keep giving and keep spreading the word.

Money & Accounts provides the latest total for funds raised through MatchItForPratchett.org and details of where it is going. Detail Accounts are provide a complete transaction list of donations and T-shirt sales.

UPDATE: Note the amount for the Donation Jar is the gross total donated. Paypal charges a processing fee per transaction that will reduce this amount. As time allows I will work out if Google Checkout or similar will do for it for less.

$1001

The Donation Jar has taken $1001 ( ~£500 ) in 69 donations. More news about money once I've finished sorting out some accounts for Match It For Pratchett but I wanted to share the total with you straight away.

I CAN HAS DONASHUN?

News is spreading far and wide and I'm having trouble keeping up with all the places and people who are linking to Match It For Pratchett. If you've linked and I've missed you, please accept my apologies. If you haven't linked to us, why not? Help spread the word where ever you can, such as on I Can Has Cheezburger, Terry Pratchett's Wikipedia entry, the Lord of the Rings forum Ring Bearer, the Nexus War Forums, disability site But You don't Look Sick, Knitting forums Ravelry, or theBoard Game Geek forums.

Science Fiction & Fantasy fans are standing up as one and offering support including David (Discworld quiz books) Langford's long running Ansible, SF Signals, SFX Magazine's forums, Discworld Stamps forum, North American Discworld Convention community, Australian Discworld convetion, The Watch House forums, SFF Net , the Terry Pratchett Books forum, Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America and writers Torey Hayden and Melanie Fletcher.

Bloggers are doing their thing: Tame Bay, {Insert Witty Tittle Here}, Book Garden, Bart's Bookshelf, Non-English blogs Sukumas, Actus SF and No SF , Making Light, Visible Procrastinations and Owls Count

Please keep posting about Match It For Pratchett, in every forum and in every blog you can.

Why They Are Giving

News of Match It For Pratchett is continuing to spread fast thanks to the numerous Live Journal folks who have been linking to us. We are also seeing Match It for Pratchett spring up elsewhere, such as the Fancy Rat community, the Book Crossing forums, Journal Fen users, UKNot, BPal and bloggers like Tania and From Rim Too Hub.

Amongst all the links there are reminders of why research is desperately needed and glimpse of the human cost of Alzheimer's. A cost that is normally hidden from all but the close family such as Jason Lundberg.

My parents took me and my sister to visit [Grandmother] a few times in the later stages, and she was hardly recognizable from the sweet thoughtful woman who spoiled me on visits, sang to me at inappropriate times in restaurants, and had once performed at Carnegie Hall. She didn't know who I was and had a hard time communicating at all; her body, petite to begin with, had pulled into itself, her back hunched over, knees clamped together, hands contracted into claws. Toward the end, she had to be fed intravenously because her epiglottis was no longer preventing food from going into her lungs when swallowing, and she was unable to cough it back up. It was an unbelievably uncomfortable experience seeing this woman that I loved in such an undignified and helpless position

Auctions, Events and Gaimen

We have a new page for Auctions and Fund Raising Events. So far there are three different auctions featuring The Luggage, Terry Pratchett's rarest book and a woodcarving. We also have a 10K sponsored run in aid of Alzheimer's research.

Thanks go to Neil Gaiman who has mentioned us on his journal. Neil and Terry wrote Good Omens together. I remember one of the authors once commenting that the was originally going to be called William the Antichrist after Richmal Crompton's Just William stories.

Why I'm Giving

Back in 1984, I was a spotty, geeky teenager who spent most of his lunchtimes hanging around in the local branch of Games Workshop chatting to the staff and other spotty teenagers. One day, Ben the deputy manager shoved a book into my hand and told me to buy it. Impressed by his no nonsense approach to selling I brought it without really looking at it. It was only when I was on the bus home that night that I gave it any attention and discovered it was called The Colour of Magic.

A few years later I was the proud owner of several Discworld novels but I had fallen in with a bad crowd of Douglas Adams fans know as ZZ9. After sitting in a pub all day someone suggested than there should be a Discworld fan club and a few minutes later we had a committee for Octarine, the Terry Pratchett Fan Club. Next weekend, we descended on a science fiction convention that Terry would be at. After hanging around in the bar all day, nervously waiting our chance, we pounced on Terry, explained our great plan and something amazing happen. Terry Pratchett listen and talked to us. With a skill I didn't appreciate until I was a lot older, he guided us away from being the Pratchett fan club and instead suggest we covered all science fiction and fantasy humour. It was good advice and Octarine, The Science Fiction & Fantasy Humour Appreciation Society was born.

Terry gave us his contact details and that of his agents. In no time Terry's publishers were sending us press releases and review copies. To a bunch of fan-boys and girls, this was heaven. The club prospered, especially as Terry would refer to us as The officially unofficial Not-the-Terry-Pratchett-Fan-Club and pass on our details to anyone who asked. This led on to Octarine's Way-Out Day-Outs where fans and the man himself would visit a theme park and have a party. Eventually we thought it would be a good idea to run a convention and Terry came along as "the man who most certainly wasn't the guest of honour, oh-no most definitely not".

The convention was great fun but an organisational disaster because none of us knew what we were doing. Despite this, through out the convention, Terry got involved with everything and willingly played the fall guy in half the programme. His presence and enthusiasm saved the weekend from complete meltdown.

Time passed and Octarine faded from my life and from existence but others fans took over. Alt.fan.pratchett gave birth to the first Discworld convention. We went along and saw Terry, who was now a world famous, best selling author, engage with his fans in exactly the same way he did with us ten years before. He would take time to talk to fans and thank them for buying his books. He knew how much his books meant to the fans and was, and probably still is, touched and honoured by this.

As I write this, sitting on the bookcases downstairs is every book Terry Pratchett has written. They still give me as much joy now as they did when I first opened The Colour of Magic on a bus home more than twenty years ago. What gives me even more joy, are the memories and friends I made through Octarine. Without Terry's support, advice and above all patience, none of it would of happened.

This is why I'm giving to Match It For Pratchett.

Why are you giving?

T-Shirts & Icons

This Match It For Pratchett Icon and t-shirt design is currently available from my Poosk web site of strange stuff. I'm going to be setting up a separate Cafe Press store for it and probably a UK / Europe friendly Spreadshirt store as well but I probably won't get time until tomorrow.

If you are feeling artistic and have icons or t-shirt designs for the Match It For Pratchett campaign then let us know using the comments. The more t-shirts, icons and so forth we have, the faster we can spread the word.

Why Every Little Helps

From The Alzheimer's Research Trust (via Pat)

As you may already know, the Alzheimer's Research Trust currently has to turn down two out of every three applications for research grants. Up to now, only £11 is spent on UK research into Alzheimer's for every person affected by the disease, compared with £289 for cancer patients. We're urgently scraping for every penny as we search for better treatments. (Statistics)

The support from Terry, you and many others will fund vital research in the UK and around the world. Whether it's $2 or $1million that you give, the difference made is tangible. £12.50 ($25), for example, is enough to fund one hour of cutting-edge research. It looks like the blogosphere is making the fight against Alzheimer's a whole lot stronger.

A Big Thank You

This site has been up for less than 24 hours and we have already had several hundred visitors. Most of them are from Live Journal but we are now getting traffic from Google and a few other places. So far the Donation Jar has raised over $100 which is a great start from a small number of people. I think it shows how much pleasure and joy Terry Pratchett and his writing has brought to people all around the world.

What we need now is lots of publicity. The mention on Boing Boing helps but we need to get mentioned on as many blogs as possible. So contact your favourite blog and ask them to give Match It For Pratchett a plug. Its a great cause inspired by a fantastic writer. With your help we can raise people's awareness of this disease and take a few steps down the long road to better diagnosis and treatment.

Where To Give

I've added a Guide To Giving on all the ways people can donate. So far I only have information on UK and USA Alzheimer's charities. Could someone please find information on national charities around the world and put the details in comments below? I will then update the guide.

You Can Own The Luggage

The Alzheimer's Research Trust is auctioning off a replica of the Luggage used in the filming of Sky's One’s adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s The Colour of Magic. This quirky ‘suitcase’ is filled with the full library of Discworld novels, plus the production designs used to build the luggage as seen in the film. Both the books and the designs have been signed by Terry Pratchett.

Its a once in lifetime opportunity to buy something special and help a good cause so get bidding on Terry Pratchett & Sky One, Colour of Magic for Charity

Don't forget, you can also bid on the Terry Pratchett's rarest book, Once More* with Footnotes.

Boing Boing On Match It for Pratchett

Boing Boing has just posted on the Match It for Pratchett drive. One of things mentioned in the comments is this charity sale on eBay of Once More* with Footnotes. If you have any fund raising events, charity auction or whatever then comment below and we will give them a proper plug.

Match it For Pratchett! Raising £500,000 for Alzheimer's research

Calling All Fan Groups

If you know of any Pratchett fan groups on Facebook, LiveJournal or elsewhere that are helping to spread the word about Match It For Pratchett then let us know. Put the details in a comment below and we will give them a nice big plug plus add them to our 'Getting Involved' list.

Facebook Action

If you are on Facebook you can join the Matching Funds with Terry Pratchett.

First Post!

Welcome to Match It For Pratchett, the campaign to match Terry Pratchett's $1 million ( £500,000 ) donation to Alzheimer's Research. In time we will have news of how much has been raised and how you can help but right now things are still being set up. If you would like to support the campaign, the most useful thing you can do right now is spread the word. Post a link on your web site, on Twitter, Face Book or whichever social networking site you use.