We have to help Japan!

[enrico]

This thought crystalized last night in my mind: we should make this World Wide SketchCrawl a benefit drawing marathon for Japan!
We HAVE to help our fellow artists and all our friends in Japan! They need our help.
We have raised money for a good cause before with SketchCrawl and it's time to do it again. It's time to come together and draw with a real meaningful and important reason!

Here's how it could work:
Each participant around the world will be responsible for raising a minimum of $100 in donations for his drawing marathon day ...
It would work very much like an AidsWalk, you'd look for sponsors to pledge a certain amount of funds for you to draw all day ...
We should get all donations pledged to ArtistsForJapan a trustworthy fund that works through GIVE2ASIA
http://give2asia.org/sketchcrawl [updated url]

With hundreds of SketchCrawlers around the globe we could end up with a significant donation and on top of that we'll let our Japanese friends, brothers and sisters know how much they are in our minds and our hearts.

World Wide SketchCrawl 31 - Japan earthquake & tsunami Emergency Benefit

What do ya all say?

Enrico

[Adolfux]

Hi Enrico, this is a great idea! All work on it!

Adolfo
http://lasombra.blogs.com

[travelingsuep]

we should to make this World Wide SketchCrawl a benefit drawing marathon for Japan!
We HAVE to help our fellow artists and all our friends in Japan! They need our help. Enrico

Fabulous idea. I'm in!

[Kim.M.]

This sounds great! I have never organized anything like this before though. Any tips? Is there anything like a "Walkathon for dummies" guide out there anyone knows about? I'll start looking,

Cheers,
Kim

[Aurakle]

I am so excited to participate in this! Thanks so much for putting it together!

[Aurakle]

I wonder if it might be possible to plan another SketchCrawl in a week or so to benefit disaster relief in Japan? A month is a long way off and there isn't any real reason why we have to wait, right?

[gustavo]

Hi Aurakle and others,

Thank you for your interest and support.

Sketchcrawl events dates are typically setup in advance due to work schedules, in this particular instance it seemed logical (per Enrico's post) to use the current scheduled event to engage our fellow artists across the world to participate with a common goal of assisting our friends in Japan.

A potential approach would be to ask people to sponsor your participation in the April event and entice them to donate now (not wait until after the event), in that way the donation process has been initiated.

http://give2asia.org/sketchcrawl [updated url]

Also, according to the FAQ
http://artistshelpjapan.blogspot.com/p/faq.html

The fund (setup by our friend Dice Tsutsumi), is mainly for US donors, if you live outside the US, please find a local non-profit fund setup to aid Japan, or use one of the ones recommended in the FAQ.

If you are able to engage a local group and do a local even sooner, all the better... you may even be more sucessful at finding some sponsors now and more later. In this type of challenging situation, any effort will make a difference.

Thank you again for your help!

[t-nora]

Hello from Japan!

First, thank your great support!!
I'm in Tokyo. the city has some problem, but we are OK now.
and we worry about the stricken area as you do, and we continue to support them.

Second, I announce　you also can support them with your artworks.
Visit the site below, it's witten in english;
Support the Tohoku Earthquake in Japan with your “Image message of the prayer”
http://jmaa.info/?p=907


Please continue praying for Japan!
Thanks again!
どうもありがとう！

[Kim.M.]

Hi, and again, no problem with a French translation. Just waiting to see if there are more thoughts from you, Enrico and Dice on the whole US - non-US thing. We can discuss via private message (might avoid confusion) or bring it to the board (might get feedback) - either way is fine.

Meanwhile, just thought I'd throw out a few more thoughts. I think April 16th is good, as it will give us time to prepare and "get to it". Setting that date doesn't stop anyone from making immediate donations (or collecting pledges) right away, like Gus said.

I don't think that there is anything wrong with a "one month later" boost. By then I imagine that most emergency relief work will be coming to an end, but it will be too soon for substantial rebuilding. It might be a nice way to say "we haven't forgotten about you"?

IMO the lines for help are going to be long - and go on for a long time as well. As I see it, sparing anyone from some waiting, or giving them a helping hand to get on with their work, will be a good deed done. I'm from Japan, and I live in France, so I can unfortunately say that I have some experience with bureaucracy - and fortunately there are a lot of people who work continuously to get around it. So yes, things can be done!

The exchange rates are extremely volatile at the moment, though efforts to keep them under control are also being made. The yen value of a donation sent just a few days ago was way less, for example, than the same amount sent today. So maybe things will be looking up in that respect as well in a few weeks. And maybe we'll have figured out a way to pool funds, for example, coming from Europe? A way of making a direct exchange?

[Shello]

Hi Enrico, Gustavo, and fellow Sketchcrawlers,
We, in Brisbane, Australia are looking forward to drawing with you all on the 16th! I just wanted to ask permission to download the Sketchcrawl trademarked image so that we can not only put it on emails and posters to advertise the event but also put it on a sheet along with the chosen charities name and basically just a block of columns with appropriate headings: donation, conditions, hours drawn, full amount etc.(Like ye olde Spellathon!) I'm trying to keep it simple and some of the team , including myself would feel more comfortable asking for money /donations this way. We are hoping to build a core Brisbane team of Sketchcrawlers to support these quarterly events and fantastic fundraisers such as this. (And have a great time drawing together too!) If that's possible, I'd then just post it on the Brisbane/GoldCoast, Australia topic as a PDF for people to download or here if you wanted me too, as an example. That's my query and idea, as we are hoping to have quite a few people who are new to this so we are trying to keep things as simple as possible.
Cheers
Shello

[gustavo]

Below is the hirez image that you can download to use for flyers.
<removed>

Edit:
The following topic contains the Logo for to be used for SketchCrawl #31
viewtopic.php?f=56&t=6355


As you may have noticed we updated the front page of sketchcrawl.com (the blog is now in the front page), in the near future we will be adding a resources page and will move the image there.

I think it would be best to post the link to the finished PDF to the Brisbane/GoldCoast, Australia topic when you are done, to make it easier for participating people in your location. We would also appreaciate it if you include a link to http://www.sketchcrawl.com (for more information).

Please make sure to check the Artists Help Japan blog often (and/or the FAQ) as they have have added/updated additional NPO. http://artistshelpjapan.blogspot.com/

Thanks

[Shello]

Thanks Gustavo!

Shello

[enrico]

Thanks for your responses everyone.
We are working to set up an account with GIVE2ASIA that will be dedicated to SketchCrawl funds. I'll let you know as soon as that is ready.

How would the sponsoring work?

Here's how! You reach out to as many people as you can asking them the following or something in this vein:"I am gonna sketch ALL day on April 16th to raise funds for Japan. Help me! Be my sponsor in this drawing marathon! Please pledge what you can and donate it at this following url"
I will give you a special URL for SketchCrawl donations asap!
But the idea is that your sponsors would donate directly to give2asia and let you know how much they donated for you.
I am in the process of making a downloadable "SketchCrawl for Japan - sponsor sheet". This you can use to track the sponsors that are supporting your sketchcrawl and how much they are donating for you.
If everyone one of your sponsors is donating $20 for you, you only need 5 to raise a $100!
So aim for the sky! See how much money you can raise ... Japan needs this!

Important! for those of you outside the US, donating to Give2Asia will not make donations a taxbreak for your donors.
So I would suggest choosing a local non-profit that of course would still donate all its proceeds to Japan.
We want donations to be a taxbreak for the donors in your country, so the best way is to find good local NPO.
The redcross should work almost everywhere in the world ...
In fact let us know what you think are the best organizations in your country, we can try and coordinate locally on the forums.

Ok? Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions!
More details real soon ... and also the sponsor sheet!!!

thanks everyone!

[Dhanaraju]

Hi, Enrico,

Greetings from Dhanaraju, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.
31st world wide Sketchcrawl for Japan is a great idea. Thanx for concepulising and doing the same. I am trying to involve as many as and would love to do something for the cause. I am in the process of organising the event and would be updating you later.

Thanx and regards
Dhanaraju

[Sophie Valenti]

Ciao Enrico,

I agree completely with your project.
Here in CLAVIERS (France) it will be easier to send our donations directly to the RED CROSS or LE SECOURS POPULAIRE FRANCAIS ! We will manage to do our best next saturday !
I already made this suggestion to our sketchcrawlers in my first annoucement of 31st SkechCrawl !
Many Thanks
Sophie