Orange Nation,

Last year, we twice did an incredible job raising money to donate football tickets to the Boys and Girls Club of Syracuse and the Southwest Community Center. Because of your generosity, we provided 84 game tickets, parking passes, t-shirts, food vouchers, and Doug Marrone signed mini-helmets and footballs. It's an understatement to say that we successfully brainwashed the next generation of SU fans positively affected many young lives with our philanthropy.

We're doing it again for Cincinnati @ SU on November 26.

The nice folk at the Carrier Dome informed me today that we can score some seats for these kids in the 100 level for only $10/ticket. We have over $600 in the bank already, so I am going to go ahead and purchase 60 tickets.

In the event that the Boys and Girls Club can't send enough people, I will extend the offer out to organizations of your choosing. The only rule is that the kids we send can't be high school age, lest we want to be part of a Miami-esque recruiting scandal, as fun as that sounds.

Donate here: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=45FPWH5EBAUV8

Donation total: $662.18 Updated 10/25/2011 11:00 AM ET

Update 10/25/2011 12:40 PM ET: Just got off the phone with the dome. 60 tickets purchased, 100 level on the 10 yard line. We have the first three rows of 103, plus 6 seats in the fourth row!

(Mostly insane) suggested donation amounts:

• $9 (number of undergraduate schools at SU)
• $22, $44, or any multiple of those.
• $1,870 (year SU was founded)
• $2,003 (year of the basketball national championship)
• $6,206 (number of SU graduate students)
• $14,201 (number of SU undergraduate students)
• $49,250 (football seating capacity of the Carrier Dome)
• $894 million (current SU endowment)

FAQ

Q: What will the fundraising target buy?
A: The $1000 target gets us ~48 tickets. A portion of those tickets will go to an appropriate number of chaperones.

Q: What if we go over the fundraising target?
A: We will either send additional kids to the game or, if we reach capacity or the Dome is unable to suitably seat the group, we will keep leftover funds for the next time we do this.

Q: Which organization(s) will receive my donation?
A: The Boys and Girls Club of Syracuse. I am open to suggestions for other organizations.

Q: Why does the fundraising link bring me to "Otees Online" ?
A: The name is in reference to a separate, unrelated business associated with my PayPal account. Since we do not yet have an organization to funnel these donations through, I'll continue to use my personal account so that we don't lose momentum. In our previous dealings, I've posted the result of the ticket purchase w/ my personal credit card, and the subsequent reimbursement from the PayPal account.

Q: Are the funds being donated to a registered 501(c)(3) organization? Is my donation tax deductible?
A: We are essentially proxying the money as tickets to registered nonprofits, but the account the money goes to initially is not one of a nonprofit.  We are in the process of getting one set up for these efforts, but in the meantime, your donation is probably not tax deductible.  I'd recommend consulting an accountant.  The alternative is to donate directly to the organizations, but we won't be able to efficiently organize the ticket purchasing.

Q: Weren't you guys getting a 501(c)(3) established?
A: We're working on it, but it takes some time and effort, and we haven't been able to complete all the necessary steps yet. Having the non-profit allows you to write your donation off, but has very little effect on the fees we pay to collect donations electronically (see the next question).

Q: What are the fees associated with donating?
A: The person donating does not pay any fees.  However, we will incur a 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction fee on incoming funds.  The total donated amount will reflect the after-fee amount.  When we get the 501(c)(3) set up, we will pay a reduced 2.2% + $.30 per transaction fee.

Q: Why PayPal for donations?
A: PayPal currently has the lowest fees for collecting donations that I've found. Regardless of non-profit status, I haven't found a site that will eat the credit card processing fees on our behalf.

Q: Is there a deadline for donating?
A: There is no deadline for donating.  Any funds we collect after the actual ticket purchase date will go towards the overage options mentioned above.