Pegassist Relief Update - People Payed, Charities Prospering

The final tally of the Los PEgasus Relief League is under way, donation numbers for each charity, as well as the huge announcement that everyone that was burned during the con has reimbursed.  Good work all! Head on down below the break for all the information on it.

The Los Pegasus Relief League is in the process of winding down.  Due to the generosity of M. A. Larson and the Brony Documentary, we were able to pay off all the verified claims for funds by individuals before the auctions even closed!  We paid out $7707.32 to individuals, including payments for unredeemable 'bits', non-comped hotel rooms, double billed rooms, and travel vouchers owed to the musicians.  We still have some items waiting for receipts, and will pay them if funds are available at a later date from cash donors or eBay auctions that were run indepently.

The reason that we had to pay out so quickly is that by the nature of a "Personal Appeal" charity, the funds can't sit in the account of a tax-exempt charity and then be paid out to an individual.  All donations needed to go directly from a donor to an individual as a gift, or there would be negative tax implications all over the place.  Still, we made every effort to notify anyone with a possible claim that funds were available, and to follow up with anyone who filed an initial claim.

The Las Pegasus Relief Auctions are over, and they were a huge success.  Over $19,300 was bid, and over $18,300 will be passed on to the charities once the funds are paid.  Among the high bids were:

$700 for the various collections of Story Conference Cards donated by Amy Keating Rogers

$3,935 for the EnterPlay donated cards and sets

$550 for t-shirts worn by Amy K Rogers and Meghan McCarthy

$750 for a Celestia pendent by ChaoticBrony

$1,000 for a commissioned piece of art

$480 for a group of donated Trixie posters from Purple Tinker

We obviously owe a huge debt of thanks to EnterPlay, the Brony Documentary, M. A. Larson, Meghan McCarthy and Amy Keating Rogers, who all donated valuable merch to help out the Brony Community!

So if all the individuals were paid before the auctions ended, where did the auction money go?  Well, the 4 big brony charities were also shorted (some by a huge amount) at LPU.  Seeds of Kindness2 was owed $315.00, Kiki's Fund $1,334.00, The Brony Thank You Fund $1,000, and Amy Keating Roger's school charity $5,565.00.  The auction money was used to pay for those losses, and then the remainder (just under $10,000) was split evenly between the charities, as the site terms and conditions had described.

This was not, by any means, a one-person or organization effort.  Any attempt to thank everyone involved is going to fall far short of the mark, but I'll try to mention the ones I can remember.  Haybuck, Rommel Pants, Telofy, Phoe and myself were selected by a group of the Brony illuminati on Skype to vet claims and pay out the funds.  It was a boring and stressful job: collecting receipts, contacting victims for more information, making hard choices on marginal claims, and all under the clock.

Knighty created and kept the LasPegasusAssist web site up and running as well, giving people a central information point to work from.

Managing and closing out the auction was a huge effort, with over 250 auctions running.  Purple Tinker gets a huge shout-out for setting up the site in a flash and keeping it running smoothly over the week.  A volunteer group of moderators kept pots from boiling over. We had a core close-out crew that stayed up into the wee hours of Sunday (very wee for the east coast folks) closing the auctions and double-checking the spreadsheet: causeffect, Larscis, Fennecus Kitsune, Rommel Pants, applurker, Cliona Lethe and Purple Tinker.  Tovarich Brony helped with payment verification on Sunday afternoon.

The Brony Media (all of it) worked hard to get the message out, and let people know how to help out. Add to that all the people who bid, donated, tweeted or otherwise made the auction a huge success, and you can see why this is the most awesome fandom *ever*.

And in other news, they would like to thank MandoMommy for suggesting the entire thing!