Charity

A common Fannish activity are fans raising money for charitable causes. This can come in the form of a Charity Zine or Charity Drive Challenges or special events or campaigns. Most of these actions are fan-run.
Fan driven charity actions usually can motivate a lot of people in and outside a Fandom to donate to a certain project or raising awareness. Often TPTB or stars get involved as well which further helps a cause - or fans support charities stars or TPTB are already involved in. Fans consider supporting charities a way of giving back.
== Online Charity Fundraisers ==
Fans often run fandom related charity fundraisers, many sites and charities make it easy to set up secure online fundraising pages, the links for which are promoted and shared among fans, usually with a goal to raise a certain amount by a certain date. The reasons for these fundraisers can vary greatly from annual holiday drives to honoring their favorite performers (example Mark Gatiss Birthday Project) or characters. Fundraisers to thank creators, like fundraising for an actor's favorite charity at the end of a long running TV series, or to support Sports starsVikings fans donate $221K and counting to Saints punter’s charityBlackhawks Fans Raise Money For Charity After Racist Chant, or musicians is also common. 
=== In Memoriam Fundraisers ===
In response to the death of beloved characters many fans with organize online fundraisers to honor them and show their appreciation, for an example see Fan Response to Game of Thrones Finale for responses to Daenerys' death. In the mid-2010s, when there was unfortunately a great many LGBT+ characters killed off, many fundraisers were organized with the money being raised usually for the Trevor Project, see examples at LGBT Fans Deserve Better for fans reaction to death of The 100's Lexa, or Destielgate for reactions to Castiel's death.
One fan commented:
== Charity Auctions ==
:See the Fandom Auction page or :Category:Charity Auctions for further examples on Fanlore
Historically in person auctions of physical goods were often held at conventions or other fan events to raise money for charity, see art auctions for example. Online auctions have become increasing popular in the past couple of decades, and opens up the experience to a greater breath of fans. Sometimes these auctions are in response to a specific disaster where people are in need of immediate help, like for example help_haiti, help_pakistan, X-Philes for Japan or, fandomlovespuertorico.
== Charity Zines ==
:For a listing of charity zines on Fanlore see the Charity Zine page or :Category:Charity Zines
Charity zines are projects organized and contributed to by fans, any proceeds from the sale of would be donated to charity. Historically they were print zines, and that is still popular, however now it is also not uncommon to see the sale of downloadable PDFs or some sort of online versions. 
== Charity Actions at Conventions == 
Many conventions run charity auctions and raffles; for example, the Worldcon and Eastercon SF conventions usually have auctions in aid of fan-related funds such as the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund and/or Down Under Fan Fund, sometimes for more general charities; Britain's Novacon SF convention usually raises money for Talking Books for the Blind; and Ireland's Gaelcon and the UK's Dragonmeet games conventions run very successful charity auctions, usually for children's charities.
== Charity Actions headed by Celebrity Creators == 
Some Youtube Gamers like Markiplier are known for hosting various charity streams where over $628,670.14 were raised.http://markiplier.wikia.com/wiki/Charity. Felix PewDiePie Kjellberg raised $1M for charities like the World Wildlife Fund , St. Jude, Save the Children, and Charity: Water according to Forbes MagazineYouTube's 'PewDiePie' Made $7.4M Last Year, Raised $1M for Charity by Paul Tassi ,Jul 8th 2015
==Charity and Fundraising for Fans in Need==
Fans raising money to help other fans out financially:
Examples: 
* CharityWank and Cassandra Claire
==A list of charity actions by fandoms==
Almost every larger Fandom has at least one charity they support or activity:
===Barbie===
*Dream: A Barbie Art Book
===Blake's 7===
*RevelCon (charity convention)
===Doctor Who===
*Eye of Horus
===Forever Knight===
*Grave Secrets
*Pillow Book
=== The Legend of Zelda ===
* Zeldathon
===Lost===
*Cancer Gets Lost 
===Marvel Cinematic Universe===
*Coloring for a MARVELous Cause 
===BBC Merlin===
*Albion: A Merlin Charity Zine 
===Multifandom===
*Battle of Hope
*FriscoN
*Fandom, Give Back!
*Fandom Loves Puerto Rico
*Fandom Trumps Hate
*Help Haiti
*High Flight
*Howlercon
*Mourning
*Strong Enough
*Sweet Charity
*ZebraCon
===Star Trek===
*Aucon
*Intercon (UK Star Trek: TOS con)
*STAG Con (convention)
*The Intergalactic Viewscreen
===The 100===
*The 100 Charity Project
===Twilight===
*The Fandom Gives Back
===Whedonverse===
*Whedonopolis (charity convention)
===War of the Worlds===
*The Ezekiel Project
===Xena===
*For The Greater Good
===The X-Files===
*Carterfox
*Fandersons
*Frankenbear
*HeART
*IBG Inc.
*LAX-Files
*Scullythons
*Scully Coffee 4NF
*X-CON (charity convention)
*X-Phil Antropy
*X-Philes for Japan
==Other Fandom charity actions==
*Dragon*Con hosts a yearly blood drive during the convention so attendees can donate throughout the weekend
*FandomAid - a LiveJournal-based community that raised charitable funds through a series of fanwork auctions throughout the 2010s
*New York Comic Con - art auction
==Choice of Cause==
The charity or cause chosen can be based on a number of reasons that influences the frequencies of certain causes in fandom over others. Factors include personal experiences of both organisers and fandom more generally, and current events. For instance, during the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza beginning in 2023, many various fundraising events occurred to raise money for orgs such as, in particular, the Palestine Children's Relief Fund.
==Further Reading==
* by Karen Ann Yost (1994)
*Being of service: X-Files fans and social engagement by Bethan Jones (2012)
*The Philosophy of Fandom Charity by Melanie Schmitz, Aug 1, 2016 Den of Geek
*Charity cases: how fans of fictional realms are giving back in the real world by Rik Henriksen March 29th 2013, wired.com
==References==
Category:Activism