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Thursday, January 1, 2015

2015: Seeds of Kindness Year Against Malaria

http://sok.yoursiblings.org/


Welcome to 2015, the year of our charity album Shine Together and our Seeds of Kindness program for the Against Malaria Foundation!


shine-together.banner.png


No teleportation needed. Since the launch of our fund-raiser in late December, we’ve received donations from smart and empathetic folks in Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the US, the UK, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Germany, France, Russia, Brazil, Poland, Italy, Spain, New Zealand, Sweden, Australia, Ireland, Denmark, Belgium, Norway, Switzerland, and more—donations from all over the globe! Many thanks to all of you!

Distances are no hurdle anymore for us band together to do good in the world. Thus it’s all the more important today to make sure that we care about the struggles of people in far-off countries as much as we care about the people in our street.

In fact, there are great opportunities for us to help people in some of these countries, opportunities that, luckily, do not exist in Europe or in the US. Malaria is extremely easy to prevent. A mosquito net for just $3 greatly diminishes the risk for a person to contract malaria. Distributing just a few hundred of these nets will save the life of a person like us who would’ve otherwise succumbed to the disease!

Taking proper aim. The Disease Control Priorities Project found that there are differences of up to a factor of 1,000 between interventions in how much suffering they avert with the same donation. This means it’s usually much more important where you give rather than what you give!

The average donation to Seeds of Kindness so far is $40, which funds 13 potentially life-saving mosquito nets. Since we support the Against Malaria Foundation, one of the top cost-effective charities in the world, the suffering this donation can avert is equivalent to that of a donation of $4,000–$40,000 to a less effective charity.

We all have limited resources in time and money. Hence, such highly effective giving opportunities are the best way for us to invest these resources. Don’t save 1 life when you could save 1,000!

Sniping them mosquitoes. 2015 is going to be a big year for the fight against malaria. GiveWell—an organization that constantly looks for the best charities in the world—again recommends the Against Malaria Foundation as one of the four best giving opportunities in the world, and AMF is about to conduct a distribution of 730,000 mosquito nets in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with four more distributions hopefully launching later this year.

All donations to Seeds of Kindness go directly to AMF, who use them exclusively to buy nets. Donations are tax-deductible in the US, Canada, and most of Western Europe. Each donation will be publicly allocated to a specific distribution, and extensive distribution and follow-up reports will be published online.

For further motivation why you should donate to AMF, here a TED talk by Peter Singer and a TEDx talk by Toby Ord, explaining effective altruism.

All with musical accompaniment. The musicians who have opted to support his life-saving intervention have pooled their artistic talent in Shine Together, our Seeds of Kindness album for 2015. It features twenty-two tracks of folk, rock, alternative postrock, orchestral, and electronic jams recorded by our charity album veterans and new blood alike—over an hour of uplifting tunes in total.

To download the album, either donate directly to Seeds of Kindness or, if you can’t for whatever reason, pledge that you will. We trust that you know the necessity for alleviating the terrible suffering in the world, and we expect that Shine Together will make a significant positive impact—because every life saved is significant!

Never out of the loop. Are you subscribed to our Seeds of Kindness newsletter yet? If not, then you know what to do.

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Seeds of Kindness: Shine Together Album Premiere with Donation Matching


A new fund-raising initiative is about to launch: Seeds of Kindness: Shine Together! Like our previous iterations of Seeds of Kindness, this fourth one is going to reach out through multiple conventions, pony fandom livestreams, giveaways, and other spectacular events all throughout 2015. This year, we are pleased to kick off this fund-raiser for the Against Malaria Foundation with our fifth charity album: Shine Together.

Shine Together Release Party
Saturday, December 20, 2014, at 6 p.m. EST (11 p.m. UTC)
on events.yoursiblings.org

The album drops on December 20, and we are having a livestream party hosted by Ponyville FM to celebrate! For the limited time of the stream, an anonymous donor has agreed to match all donations up to $1,000, so tune in and donate, and it’ll count double!

The album. Shine Together is the culmination of months of effort on the part of many dedicated fandom musicians. Featuring twenty-two tracks of folk, rock, orchestral, and electronic jams recorded by charity album veterans and new blood alike, Shine Together offers over an hour of uplifting tunes.

We’re offering up this and our previous four albums for any donation at all that you feel appropriate. Because we understand that not everyone is able to donate, the album download will be freely available—a thank you to the fandom for its years of support, and a goodwill gesture to facilitate donations toward the Against Malaria Foundation.

Here, a preview of the album.

The charity. Half the world’s population is at risk of malaria. In 2012, about 627,000 people died of the disease, the equivalent of four Boeing 747 crashing every day with no survivors. On average, one person dies of malaria every minute. (WHO 2013) This has to stop.

Long-lasting insecticide-treated nets (LLINs) are the most cost-effective means of malaria prevention. They protect physically against mosquitoes and also kill any that try to find gaps or rents in the nets. They also protect against dengue fever, yellow fever, and forms of encephalitis.

The Against Malaria Foundation (AMF) supports local distributors by funding the hundreds of thousands of nets that are needed in LLIN distributions. It stands out because of its strong commitment to transparency and self-evaluation. AMF is one of the most provably effective charities in the world.

All the money donated to Seeds of Kindness goes directly to AMF, who will use it exclusively to buy LLINs. Donations are tax-deductible in the US, Canada, and most of Western Europe. Each donation will be publicly allocated to a specific distribution, and extensive tracking, predistribution, and postdistribution reports will be published online.

For further motivation why you should donate and why you should donate specifically to AMF, here a TED talk by Peter Singer and a TEDx talk by Toby Ord, explaining effective altruism.

The newsletter. To always keep you posted of our latest charity campaigns, please visit our website and subscribe to our newsletter in the sidebar. If you’re already subscribed but didn’t get our last announcement of this event, please check your spam folder, mark the newsletter “not spam,” and add us to your contacts to be sure that it won’t get filtered again. Thank you!

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Seeds of Kindness 4 Charity Album: Shine Together

The Patron Saint of Science by DarkFlame75


About two months are left to the release of Shine Together, our fifth charity album!

Thanks to the tremendous work of the music community, the ongoing Seeds of Kindness 3 fund-raiser together with our three previous fund-raisers have raised about $150,000 from online donations alone, supporting various Your Siblings and Engineers Without Borders projects in Uganda, Burundi, and Tanzania. We incorporated a few suggestions and rule changes to make this work even better for the musicians, and we would like to ask for your help to support the outstanding work of the Against Malaria Foundation!

Soft deadline: November 22nd, 2014
Hard deadline: December 10th, 2014
Release date: December 20th, 2014

The Charity. There is no middle man. All the money donated will go directly to the Against Malaria Foundation and will only be used to purchase insecticide-treated nets (LLINs). Donations will be tax-deductible in the US, Canada, and most of Western Europe. Each donation will be publicly allocated to a specific program and extensive tracking, predistribution, and postdistribution reports will be published online.

Half the world’s population is at risk of malaria. In 2012, about 627,000 people died of the disease, the equivalent of four Boeing 747 crashing every day with no survivors. On average, one person dies of malaria every minute. (WHO 2013)

LLINs are mosquito nets, usually bed nets, that not only physically protect against malaria-infected mosquitoes but are also treated with an insecticide that lasts for several years and in that time kills any mosquitoes that may otherwise be able to find possible gaps or tears in the net. At a price of just about $3, bed nets are a thoroughly proven, highly effective means of protection against malaria. Depending on the region they also protect from other diseases transmitted by the same vector species, such as dengue fever, yellow fever, and forms of encephalitis.

The Against Malaria Foundation (AMF), founded in 2004, supports local distributors by funding the hundreds of thousands of nets that are needed in LLIN distributions. AMF stands out because of its strong commitment to transparency and self-evaluation. (From Your Siblings’ summary of AMF.)

Here is a TEDx talk by Dr. Toby Ord, the founder of Giving What We Can, explaining effective altruism and the logic behind our choice to support a highly effective charity such as the Against Malaria Foundation.



What changed. This album will operate on a pay-what-you-want basis and a free download for the album will be provided, so you may release your song as soon as the album is out. For the sake of musicians who submit their songs early, there is a set release date this time around. It does mean that we will get less breathing room to give feedback and help entries that are close to making the cut, so we recommend that you submit before the “soft deadline” to make that still possible.

What you can submit.
  1. It does not have to be pony: Pony and nonpony songs are equally welcome.
  2. Remixing and sampling: No copyrighted material can be used, and we cannot accept entries that remix, sample, or cover the show either (sorry, we really can’t). Submitting a remix requires the composers’ permission. Collabs are encouraged!
  3. Theme: There is no specific theme or genre restriction besides common sense. Don’t make anything angry, creepy, or overly depressing (but sad is fine) and your song should have no problem fitting in.
  4. Length: There is no set length restriction, and most importantly, short songs are just as welcome as longer pieces are. Don’t stretch your song solely to fit a given length – this was perhaps the most common issue with entries for the previous albums.
  5. Number of entries: You can submit as many songs as you want (within reason). Two songs from the same artist can get in without any problem, but over that number (not counting collabs), we might only take the best two of them.
How to submit. Please send an email to smile.bfg@gmail.com, with the subject “[ST]” followed by your user name, and include the following:
  1. An MP3 file without the artist’s name in its title or meta data, hosted on a service that offers streaming (preferably Mediafire or Box.com). Please make sure to take the sharing link rather than copy-pasting from your URL bar. You may check your link by accessing it while logged out, e.g., using private browsing.
  2. A lossless file (preferably FLAC or AIFF) uploaded on a third-party hosting service, not sent as an attachment. We tend to see a lot of Dropbox links dying when we need them, so please be careful.
  3. Your preferred artist name and a link for credit (YouTube channel, Soundcloud, etc.).
  4. Lyrics, if applicable.
You can upload your song on YouTube when the album is released, but please do not make your song public until then. However, feel free to upload previews or ask for feedback!

If you have any questions, you can email us at smile.bfg@gmail.com or ask in the My Little Remix thread.

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Final Notice: The Kallisti IV Charity Livestream



After months of preparations, we’ll launch the fourth of our Kallisti art and charity livestreams on May 3 at noon EDT (4 p.m. UTC) on events.yoursiblings.org!

The 24-hour livestream—organized by Bronies for Good and GalaCon with the help of Ponyville Live—will allow you to watch famous fandom artists draw your art requests while you listen to live interviews with the talent working on Friendship is Magic. With a little luck, you’ll even be able to pose your own questions to them.

The interview guests. Several of the preeminent minds behind the show have agreed to support our cause!

  • Anneli Heed (May 3, 1 p.m. EDT): the Swedish Spike, Sweetie Belle, Cheerilee, Spitfire, Photo Finish, singing voice of Rainbow Dash, and many more
  • Cindy Morrow (May 4, 11 a.m. EDT): the writer of “Winter Wrap Up,” “Sisterhooves Social,” “Read It and Weep,” “Hurricane Fluttershy,” and many more
  • Dave Polsky (May 3, 7 p.m. EDT): the writer of “Keep Calm and Flutter On,” “Daring Don't,” “Rarity Takes Manehattan,” “Equestria Games,” and any more
  • Jennifer Weiß (May 4, 6 a.m. EDT): the German voice of Pinkie Pie
  • John de Lancie (time TBA): the voice of Q, uh, of Discord
  • Lee Tockar (time TBA): the voice of Snips, Steven Magnet, and many more
  • M.A. Larson (May 3, 11 p.m. EDT): the writer of “The Cutie Mark Chronicles,” “Luna Eclipsed,” “The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000,” “It's About Time,” “Magical Mystery Cure,” and many more
  • Nicole Oliver (May 3, 3 p.m. EDT): the voice of Princess Celestia, Cheerilee, and many more
  • Tara Strong (May 3, 2 p.m. EDT): the speaking voice of Princess Twilight Sparkle
  • William Anderson (time TBA): composer of the score of almost ninety episodes of the show

Please understand that guests, especially those who have not yet been able to indicate a time, may be called away by real-life duties on short notice. We will update our copy of this release and announce any changes to the schedule on Twitter. (By the way, we also have a FIMFiction group you can join.)

The artists and community guests. So far, Adlynh, Anticular Pony, BlindCoyote, Captain64, ChuckyBB, Colonel210, DeathPwny, DerpTime, Feyrah, futzi, Garrett Gilchrist, Ikasama, James Corck, John Joseco, LeekFish, Rain-Gear, Sketchy, St-Timid, Suikuzu, Tsitra360, XTailsDudex, and Yooyfull, have signed up for the stream. However, we’re still looking for more artist guests. If you can draw, you have experience streaming your work, and you are interested in doing so for Kallisti IV, please contact us and link us your art portfolio. We’ll also need your Skype handle.

The cause. The donations are again split fifty-fifty between GalaCon—who support us with their charity auction and other charity programming—and Your Siblings’ support project for the nonprofit Child Need Africa, which runs the medical clinic in Uganda that we all have helped to fund in 2012. In order to keep up the level of life-saving medical service that they’ve been providing to the impoverished region, they need a strong and sustainable source of income for the clinic, one that will be independent of donations in the long term.

The first step to achieving this is for Child Need Africa to buy and renovate a house near the capital, so that the complete revenue from the rents can help pay for essential supplies for the clinic, especially the medication. All details of the project can be found on Your Siblings’ Permanent Income for the Clinic project page.

Now bookmark events.yoursiblings.org and set an alarm for May 3, so you can’t miss it!

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Seeds of Kindness 3: A Beautiful Heart

Rarity Vector by FlawlessTea

They say that beauty is in the eye of the culturally-conditioned beholder, or that it comes from within as the individual undertakes acts of kindness and reciprocity. Well, abstract definitions aside, having a beautiful heart is certainly something worth sharing with others. And what is one way of sharing said beauty? Of course, through the art of music!

We are therefore pleased to announce the third installment of our Seeds of Kindness charity album campaign: A Beautiful Heart!

If you are a musician and you’d like to find out how to be a part of the album, then please check out the guidelines for submission on our Seeds of Kindness 3 pages. You can also hit up this My Little Remix thread for more discussion on the album guidelines.

In the past, Seeds of Kindness has raised over $90,000 for charity projects in Uganda, Burundi, and Tanzania from people like you! Continuing on with this wonderful legacy, we are proud to announce that the proceeds from Seeds of Kindness 3 will go to our wonderful partner in charity, Your Siblings! If you have yet to learn of who this amazingly altruistic group is, then please do yourself a favor and go check out their beautifully-written FAQ.

Seeds of Kindness 3 Prize Contest – Call for Donations

The gift of music is not the only way of sharing beauty. The abilities to craft ornate equine-inspired objects or to sew heartfelt narratives and musings are equally beautiful, especially when gifted to others!

Whether pony crafts, customs, official toys, or commissions, anything that may serve as a prize is accepted and appreciated, and will help in our customary prize contest. It’s the generosity of our fellow fans that makes our work possible!

If anyone is interested in making any sort of donation or has any comments or questions, please feel free to email us at broniesforgood@gmail.com.

Convention Appearances

On a bit of an unrelated yet equally important note, we like to formally announce our attendance to this lovely set of conventions this spring and summer. If you’ll have time while you’re getting your fill of pony, then please be sure to drop by our table and say hi, chat, or to make a donation to one of our ongoing fundraising campaigns.