Match It For Pratchett

Potent Voyager

Countdown Initiated

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• Lift off
• Potent Voyager has cleared the tower

Pratchett fans plan to place a satellite in orbit on behalf of the Alzheimer's Research Trust (ART) in an attempt to win the N-Prize. If successful the winnings will go to the ART.

The N-Prize is a low cost take on the Ansari X-Prize. The rules are simple:

The N-Prize is a cash prize of £9, 999.99 (nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine pounds and ninety-nine pence, sterling), which will be awarded to the first person or group to put into orbit, around the Earth, a satellite with a mass of between 9.99 and 19.99 grams, and to prove that it has completed at least 9 orbits. The cost of the launch (but not ground facilities) must fall within a budget of £999.99. Imaginative use of string and chewing gum is encouraged. Entrants are responsible for everything, organisers are responsible for nothing.

The team is called Potent Voyager and according to their website:

We have a concept for a kind of Rockoon that we think has a good chance of succeeding at the N-Prize tho some details need refining. The core team needs to thoroughly check out some more safety, legal and funding issues before we involve others but we may be looking for volunteers from the Discworld fandom community to help us with our goal over the coming months and years (the deadline for the prize is 19:19:09 (GMT) on the 19th September 2011).

The whole concept of the N-Prize is fantastic but for a group of fans to be doing it for Alzheimer's research is absolutely brilliant. They can rely on Match It For Pratchett's support in this endeavor.

Thanks to From Rim To Hub for the info.

MatchItForPrachett.org : $8,921.30

Through this website in Paypal donations, t-shirt sales and advertising, Discworld fans around the world have raised $8,921.30

This does not include any donation made directly to the Alzheimer's Research Trust in the UK or to other bodies around the world. You can still donate to the ART by using the Paypal button the right or via the ART's own donation page

A big thank you to everyone who donated, brought t-shirts, sent me information and spread the word via blogs and email. A very big thank you to Fran who helped to hold the fort and a massive thank you to Pat who came up with the idea and started the ball rolling.

Money In
Palpal Donations: $6,464.10
T-Shirt Sales: $2,436.91
Google Adsense: $20.29

Money Out
To ART via Paypal (25/03/08): $6,464.10
To ART via Cheque (02/07/08): $2,231.29
To ART via Cheque (01/08/08): $225.91

T-Shirts: Final Reckoning

I've just put the final cheque for $225.91 to the Alzheimer's Research Trust in an envelope and will be dropping it in the post later today.

In total we sold 201 T-Shirts earning $10 per shirt. On top of that we received a $321.41 volume bonus in May and a $105.50 volume bonus in June. Bringing the amount raised to $2436.91. In July Match It For Pratchett sent a cheque to the ART for $2231.29 leaving a balance of $205.62.

In addition to the $205.62 from T-shirts sales, the final cheque included $20.29 revenue from Google Adsense. All money earned via this website has now been payed to the Alzheimer's Research Trust.

Pratchett on the Radio

Terry Pratchett was on BBC's Radio 4 program, On The Ropes, discussing his diagnosis and the challenges of living with it. You can listen online using the Beeb's fabulous listen again feature. It will be up for at least a week and maybe much longer than that.

Thanks to Mind Hacks for reminding me about this and for giving Match It For Pratchett a mention.

Wear the Lilac - Tomorrow 25th May

To celebrate the wonders of the Discworld and to support Terry Pratchett with his 'embuggerance', tomorrow is Wear the Lilac day. The concept is simple, wear a sprig of Lilac in your hat, button hole or whatever. Alternatively turn your website Lilac or use a Lilac icon.

A special thanks must go to Auronsgirl who has been selling Lilac pins and has raised over $1000 for Alzheimer's research. Each pin is handmade so the amount of time and effort she has donate is immense. Thank you Auronsgirl, I think the Discworld has a new hero.

T-shirts - A (Nearly) Final Reckoning

Since the 15th March, Match It For Pratchett has sold 189 T-Shirts generating $1,890 in commission for the Alzheimer's Research Trust plus $321.41 in volume bonus. CafePress should be sending me a cheque for $1,610.45 around the 15th May and this will cover the sales in March. Around the middle of June, I should receive the remaining balance assuming there are no returns or cancelled orders. I will pay each cheque into my US Dollar account and make a corresponding payment in UK Pounds to ART. By the End of June all outstanding money will of been paid to the trust.

On a related note, we used to have Google Adsense adverts on the page. Before I removed them they had earned $20.29. I shall add this on to the first payment of T-shirt money to the Trust.

Word of the Day: Chicklet

Mr Bobowski has sent us this great chicklet for Match It For Pratchett.

I never knew these things had a proper name other than one-of-little-icons-used-to-mark-an-RSS-feed but now I'm enlightened and the Match It For Pratchett RSS feed now has a chicklet. Thank you Mr Bobowski.

Wear the Lilac - Over $500 Raised So Far

Auronsgirl's fantastic lilac pins have raised over $500 so far. I imagine that this has involved a lot of work creating the pins, especially as its five times her original target.

Well done Auronsgirl.

Remember, Wear the Lilac day is May 25th so if you want one you need to get your order in pronto. On the subject of speed, you have less than 48 hours to order a Match It For Pratchett T-shirt before I take the current design offline.

Dine with Terry Pratchett

A message from the Alzheimer’s Research Trust:

Calling all fans of Terry Pratchett and Raj Persaud!

On 1st May the Alzheimer’s Research Trust will be hosting an exclusive dinner at a private venue in London. The format of the evening is a dinner hosted by consultant psychiatrist, broadcaster and author of various popular publications on psychiatry, Dr Raj Persaud, with acclaimed author Terry Pratchett OBE as guest of honour. Mr Pratchett and Dr Persaud will spend time with our guests talking about their involvement with the Alzheimer’s Research Trust.

Places are strictly limited and seats will be allocated to the highest bidder with monies raised going to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust to support further research into Alzheimer’s and related forms of dementia.

If you would like to join Alzheimer’s Research Trust for this wonderful and unique evening, please register your pledge with us as soon as possible. You can do so by email to terrypratchettdinner@alzheimers-research.org.uk or by letter to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, The Stables, Station Road, Great Shelford, Cambridge, CB22 5LR or fax to 01223 843325. We need to hear from you by 3pm on 21st April. Successful bidders will be notified by close of business on 24th April.

Seat allocation will operate on a closed-bid basis. In the event of several bids of equal amount being received, where it is not possible to distinguish which bid was made first, invitees will be chosen by process of random selection.

T-Shirt News

This is the last week that the current Match It For Pratchett t-shirts will be available.

Terry's agent, Colin Smythe requested that anything we do doesn't involve Discworld characters. Though the request wasn't specially directed at the T-shirt I feel uncomfortable about the current design. I plan to replace the design with one that is more abstract and less Discworld specific. In the meantime, I've removed the link from the front page but I've left the Cafepress shop running for the time being. If anyone has been thinking about buying a shirt but hasn't yet, you have until next Monday. So get your wallet out now.

So far, we have sold over 170 T-shirts raising $1,700 for the Alzheimer's Research Trust. This is a fantastic amount, and even better, we qualify for a volume bonus worth an additional $321.41. Meaning that in total over $2000 ( £1000 ) will be going to help fund scientific research into Alzheimer's.

Because of how CafePress operate their returns and refunds policy, I do not have access to the money yet. Once I do, I will update the accounts and send the money directly to the trust.

Hello Again

I'm sorry things have been very quiet around here for the last two or three weeks. A close family member is seriously ill, leaving me with little time for anything except work. Things have now stabilised and I hope to posting regularly once again. Many thanks to Pat and Fran for holding the fort.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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

£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.

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.

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

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.