Furs raise $243,000 for charity in 2012; $1 mil. this century

Furry fans have raised money for charity for over 15 years, totalling $1 million since the end of 2000. Donations fell in 2009, but rebounded to $243,000 in 2012 – 59% more than 2011.

In part, this increase is due to a rise in the number of events. Six new conventions were held in North America, and Australia's MiDFur brought in $24,184 over two events held this year. More significant, though, was increased fundraising at existing events, exemplified by MFF:

We were glad to make this an incredible year for our charity, Felines & Canines, Inc. They received a total of $8,500 including cash and checks in their donation jars (including $1,000 from a single donor!), the Charity Auction, and 2 & Kage's Saturday Performance. An additional $1,950 was raised by the Charity Poker Tournament. To this, Midwest FurFest was pleased to add an additional donation of $30,000, meaning that Felines & Canines took home a little over $40,500!

Felines & Canines, mired in a $100k construction debt, has since dedicated a room to MFF.

Want to know who gave what last year, and which were the most charitable events? Read on!

Some events mix auctions, raffles and charity events – like Anthrocon, which almost doubled its charity total last year. Others combine these with direct donations from convention's funds, deciding how much can be spared after the bills are counted.

In a few cases, convention sponsors have argued that if the con has so much money to spare, the membership fee should be lowered. But some events, such as MFF and Further Confusion, are established as charitable organizations, and see raising funds as a core part of their mission.

But do they succeed in this goal? Not quite. In practice, there's a wide variation between conventions and between years, and the largest conventions don't come out on top when considering the average donation per head.

In fact, this year, the top aren't even in the USA - Canada's Condition, Australia's MiDFur and Scotland's ScotiaCon lead with average donations of $30 or more per registered member. ConFuzzled did the same in 2011, while RBW managed it a year earlier. Within the USA, Mephit Furmeet and Oklacon attendees are consistently generous. The Western Pennsylvania Furry Weekend deserves a nod for averaging over $15 per person.

Meanwhile, Further Confusion languishes with just $2.32/person in 2012… though, to be fair, the event has run at a loss for the past two years, and gave the most in absolute terms from 2006-2010. (This year wasn't helped by the absence of representatives for one charity.) Board members cited organizational issues, and pledged to do more in future years. [Budget pressures continued to limit FC to ~$9000/year.]

RMFC also scores low, but was asking donors to pay down a $30,000 debt it incurred in 2008. They claimed to be debt-free as of August 2012.

Figures include convention-sponsored fundraising events and the funds raised by the charity at their tables, if any.

Read more: [adjective][species] on smaller-scale giving throughout the fandom - Furry fans give generously to Fernando; over $20,000 raised