Become a MAGFest SUPERSTAR!
With your charitable donation, you can become a MAGFest Superstar and help our organization put on events for years to come! Plus, you’ll get some pretty nifty perks while you’re at it. Plus, MAGFest, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, and so your donations are tax-deductible! 🥳
By adding an optional donation when purchasing your badge, you’ll receive the following perks:
$30 Donation
With your $30 donation, you officially join the MAGFest Superstars Squad! With this, you will (optionally) be listed as a donor to MAGFest on our 2024 Superstars page. This year, you’ll be able to submit a picture of your beloved pet to be featured on the “Pets of MAGFest” video displayed on the “Jumbotron” at Super MAGFest. (It’s that huge pair of screens in between the escalators.) Additionally, your name (or handle) will be featured on the Jumbotron! Speaking of Super MAGFest, you’ll receive a coveted Superstar ribbon to proudly display on your badge (or give to your friend, or eat—whatever, it’s your ribbon. Pls don’t eat it), as well as a specific Superstar Discord Role in our MAGFest Discord Server.
$420 Donation
If you’ve got some spare capital to burn and want that nice tax write-off, the $420 donation is the perfect way to give your wallet the middle finger. In addition to the perks from the $30 tier, you’ll also receive a personalized Thank You letter from the Event Chair (and possibly other employees), you’ll get Twitch VIP Status during the event, and we’ll specifically mention and thank you during closing ceremonies. But that’s not all! You’ll be able to submit a picture of your pet(s) that will be proudly showcased on the Jumbotron in a premium highlighted way.
$1337 Donation
If you’ve got that “FU money”, what better way to spend it than by supporting your (hopefully) favorite events-based music and gaming organization! With this donation, you’ll have your own (optional) special acknowledgement—all by yourself—on our Jumbotron during the event. Plus, we’ll design a custom Twitch Emote of your choice that ALL subscribers will be able to use. (Please nothing that will break Twitch’s ToS, though.) But perhaps most excitingly, you’ll be PERSONALLY FUNDING a Community Graffiti Banner at Super MAGFest!
What’s a “Graffiti Banner” you say? Well, during Super MAGFest 2022, we had strategically placed what we called a “Vandalized Banner” outside of the expo halls, with the sole purpose of directing any potential hooligans from graffiti-ing our other signage, to instead vandalizing in a more appropriate way. Well, it turned out to be quite popular and creative! And so with your donation, we will place a custom “Graffiti Banner” in our event space, specifically noting that it was donated by you (if you’d like)! With this, you’ll be able to offer would-be troublemakers an outlet for their creative tagging. And best of all, you’ll get to take said banner home with you at the end of the event! (Assuming it’s not stolen, of course.)
Additionally, we want to truly thank anyone willing to offer such a huge donation to our organization, and so we’ll be adding extra perks along the way. (Hopefully some meet and greets, tours, and maybe other fun activities. The possibilities are endless!)
NOTE:
If this is your SECOND time donating to the Superstar program (at the $420 tier or higher), you’ll have an option to swap your Graffiti Banner with a CUSTOM CREATED banner of whatever you want, within reason. We’ll help create a banner featuring something you think would brighten the attendee’s event. Maybe you’d like to proudly display your pet on a banner? Or do you have a fun message for attendees? Maybe a silly shitpost? All design concepts will have to be individually approved, and we won’t permit things like brand logos or advertisements.
Donate via GiveButter
Additionally, you can donate directly to MAGFest here via Givebutter. Please note: Donations made via Givebutter are NOT counted toward the Superstar program. However, if you do not have a badge for MAGFest and would still like to donate, you can do so there.
Your donations go a long way <3
We want to truly thank you for even considering donating. This is an interesting time for the events industry, and all of us, and your donations help keep us going for hopefully years and years to come. However, if you are not personally in a financial position to donate, that’s perfectly okay! We only want those who have the excess means to even consider it. (And that’s primarily why the “perks” you get for donating aren’t really all that significant—we don’t want anyone who can’t spare the extra moolah to feel left out!)
But just know that your donation truly means the world to us. It’s not only financially beneficial, but it’s extremely humbling to know that there are people out there who love what we do enough to support us, even if they’re not really getting anything in return.
All donations come with a receipt which can be used as a tax deduction.
You probably have a couple questions. Hopefully this covers them:
“Is this the same as Pre-Order (kick-in) merch?”
Short answer: No.
Longer answer: At one point in time, years ago, pre-order (formerly “kick-in”) merch was considered a donation, which even came with the benefit of being a tax write-off. Over time, however, the quantity and quality of the kick-in merch became much higher, and the value of the merchandise no longer qualified for a tax write-off.
But it was clear that the community greatly preferred high-quality merch (expertly handled by our friends at Fangamer) over the lower-quality trinkets we were able to put together in-house, and so we’ve continued to embrace increasing the quality of our kick-ins over time. Of course, by purchasing kick-in merch you are still helping the organization, but because of the thinner margins and higher value of the packages, we can no longer legally consider it a donation.
“Okay but uh… why should I donate?”
MAGFest, Inc. is a 501c3 non-profit organization, and while we’ve been fortunate enough to maintain operations primarily through badge and merchandise sales in the past, COVID hit the events industry palpably, and it’s become financially difficult to continue standard operations, let alone continue expanding to existing/new events in the great pursuit of our overall mission.
We’ve had to make considerable cutbacks on departmental budgets, as well as personal sacrifices, such as employee furloughs and reduced staffing perks. Despite the challenges, through the help of our community, we’ve stayed afloat, and are on a path towards financial recovery.
Before it all sounds too dire, we want to be clear; we do not believe the existence of MAGFest is currently in jeopardy. But that doesn’t mean we know what the future holds for us and the events industry. And so we’re hoping by offering some admittedly superfluous perks, we can encourage the community to help support the organization during these unprecedented times.
But you may take a look at that list of donor benefits and be like “meh, that’s not that exciting”, and to be honest, it was designed that way. We originally considered adding big perks, like line priority for concerts/panels, early arcade access, and even guaranteed Gaylord hotel booking. But ideas like those never even made it to the cutting room floor, because we do not want MAGFest to become “Pay to Win”. (That is, until EA offers to buy the org for $1.4B USD and we can all retire on yachts made of Wata-certified Super Mario Bros 3 carts.)
So if you’re in a position where you can offer a bit extra to our non-profit org, we’d be unbelievably grateful. And hopefully the handful of superfluous perks we can offer will brighten your event, just a bit. But we don’t want you, or anyone else, to feel left out if they aren’t in a position to donate, or just plain don’t want to. (And frankly, we don’t even want your donation if you’re not in a financial position to flush it down this MAG-powered toilet.)
We hope you consider donating, but if you can’t, it’s no big deal. Just by coming to MAGFest, you’re still supporting us, and we’re forever grateful for that. <3
“Alright, I’ll donate then. How does this all work, then?”
We currently have three different tiers of donations, and by donating any amount equal or above a tier, you receive all of the perks of that tier (and any below). But you can choose to donate as little or as much as you want.
The one caveat is that the highest tier for donating $1337 or more is limited to 5 total donors. Once we hit that limit, we will be updating this page to remove that perks tier as an option and marking it as “SOLD OUT”. Once that option is removed, even donating $1337 or more will not guarantee that you will receive the perks from that tier unless otherwise stated.
Prior to the event, we’ll be emailing any donors that qualify for at-event perks with instructions on how to receive them. For example, we’ll be asking for your Discord username information so we can add the Superstar role to it. Each email subject line will start with [MAGFest Superstar], so keep an eye on your inbox leading up to the event!
“And where do I donate, again?”
When you’re purchasing your badge, there is a section where you can add an optional donation. Be sure to add your donation at the time of purchasing your badge (or at a later date, using your unique badge link) to ensure it’s tied to your account! Here’s what you’ll be looking for:
“Cool beans.”
Yee! Thanks for making it this far in this gigantic wall of text. We appreciate any and all you’re able to offer to this crazy operation we call MAGFest. :)