Want to give yourself a little extra motivation to get that novel done? Get a NaNoWriMo sponsor!
Just like a walk-a-thon or other fund-raising project, you can get a sponsor for your novel in progress, getting friends and family to pledge a donation to The Office of Light and Letters (which is the non-profit behind NaNoWriMo, Script Frenzy and the Young Writers Program) program if you complete the challenge. You can get sponsors as an individual or as a group.
I have to say that I love this idea! What a great way to support the resources and website behind our favorite writing movement even if we ourselves don’t have any ready cash! It also gives a way for your friends and family to become more invested in the challenge you’re taking on.
If you want to sign up and start getting sponsors for the project, the sign-up page is here through Stay Classy. (This was previously through GiftTool.) You can also join or create a group from that launch page. (Make sure you know whether you are participating as a group or as an individual before you sign up as they don’t let you change it after the fact! I learned this the hard way. If you select individual you can’t later add a new group, though you can join exiting groups.) StayClassy works much better than GiftTool did. You can sign up as an individual and then later join or start a group no problem.
Once you sign up, you get your own fund-raising page to direct people to which you can customize as you wish with a photo, video and HTML. This is the page you’d send to your friends and family when asking them to donate so it’s nice that you can personalize it.
Also cool? You get all the fund-raising goodies offered based on the total you raise. So if you raise $100, you get the fancy $100 level goodies pack even if not a single dime of that money is yours.
My only complaint? The minimum donation is $10. I would have liked if they’d let people do $1, $5 increments because it think it would be easier to get lots of small donations instead of a few big ones but I’m sure it’s so they don’t get killed in credit card fees.
Sitting this challenge out but want to support someone else? You can also pick an individual or group to sponsor.
I love the terms they make you agree to:
I have reviewed and accept the following Terms and Conditions:
1) I hereby acknowledge that I am capable of amazing feats of literary output in ridiculously short amounts of time. When the going gets tough this November, I will keep writing, and I will not stop until I reach 50,000 words. Or until my arms fall off. At which point I will type with my nose.
2) I understand that any thank-you gifts I receive will be based on the cumulative amount of money I raise between now and November 30, 2010. All gifts—including digital gifts such as donor halos for my NaNoWriMo author profile—will be sent to me in December. If I do not wish to receive any gifts, I will drop sponsorship coordinator Tavia a line! (tavia_stewart@lettersandlight.org)
3) I promise to have fun this November. To give myself permission to make mistakes, write some deeply imperfect prose, and not beat myself up over every word and paragraph. Life is short. The world needs my novel. This fall, I will get it written.
If you decide to sign up for a sponsor or to sponsor someone else’s project, let us know below!
Hillary DePiano is a playwright, fiction and non-fiction writer who loves writing of all kinds except for writing bios like this.
