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| The Brony Thank You Fund |
There have been a few rumblings around the internet that the Brony Thank You Fund is a scam; that they never actually intend to fund the commercial and are going to make off with the money. EQD has personally contacted The Hub, and a spokesperson for The Hub confirmed that the network has been contacted by this group about the possible purchase of commercial time.
So if you were looking for proof, there it is! That aside, I have a few updates for you about the Fund itself written by the founder himself, which you can find after the break in full.
Pony on!
First off, we have fully funded the ad, including all expected administrative costs and expenses to fulfill donor perks. All money now being collected is now going to our first charitable donation, to be announced in the next few weeks. We're currently in negotiations with a well-known national charity to be our designated donor for the ad and recipient of our first financial donation. Funds beyond that will go for filing fees with the IRS to establish a permanent Brony Charitable Tax-Exempt Fund. We need to raise about another $1,500 to both make our initial planed donation, and file our IRS Form 1023. Luckily, we have been graciously offered the pro bono services of a Florida brony lawyer, Andrew Schwartz, who has some expertise in taxation law and has assisted non-profits in filing for tax exempt status before. At the moment, the newly created Brony Thank You Fund, Incorporated is a New Hampshire registered non-profit corporation.
We have a new web site to go with the new corporation, www.bronythankyoufund.org. You can make direct donations to the fund via PayPal there, or buy some of our CafePress merchandise, with one of two awesome Fund logos that PixelKitties designed. That's also where you can go to learn about how to submit a video, and possibly become one of our on-air spokesponies for the ad that will air in the fall. Remember that the submission deadline for videos in June 1st.
And speaking of spokesponies, the brony who will represent the $500 "Be a Star" donor has been selected, and we couldn't be happier. Eighteen-year old Mari Ohman, a high school senior from Colorado, will appear on air praising the ponies and their makers.
Finally, we've been chatting with William Anderson, and he really wants to dig in to the music side of the project with both hooves. He's asked us to send him the top 10-20 scores we receive for him to listen to, and help us choose a lucky brony to work directly with him on the final polish. Note: Please DON'T send anything directly to him, we'll have a press release later in the summer to describe how to submit a score for consideration.
Our current, subject to change at any time, plans are to have a rough-cut to show at BronyCon, and a final version to premiere at Canterlot Gardens, before the commercial airs during the premiere week for MLP:FiM in the fall. Until then, the best ways to keep up with the project are to subscribe to our Twitter feed @bronythankyou, participate in the production forum at bronies.lefora.com, and check out the blogs on the corporate web site (www.bronythankyoufund.org). The President of the Fund, Coder, will be appearing on Everfree Radio this week as well.
