Fandom Trumps Hate 2020 FAQ

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What is Fandom Trumps Hate?

FTH is an online fanworks auction, designed to raise money for nonprofit organizations that help and protect those who are being targeted by the current administration.

In the past three years, hundreds of fans have joined forces to raise nearly $75,000 for a range of progressive organizations. This year, we’re hoping to break $100,000.

Can/should I call the fanwork I create or receive a commission?

Please do not call your fanwork a commission! Neither the creator nor FTH are receiving any money at any point, and the word "commission" implies that they are. In particular, calling a fanwork a commission on AO3 can cause them to take down your work. A fanwork made for FTH is a gift, made to thank the bidder for their donation to a good cause.

When can I sign up to offer fanworks? When can I start bidding?

The full calendar is available on our stickied post. Signups have closed for the year, but there is still time to participate as a bidder! The auction opens on the morning of February 24th and closes the evening of February 28th. Take a look at the calendar for precise times.

What types of fanwork can be offered?

You can offer any type of fanwork that can be delivered digitally, including:

• fic 
  
• digital art, which includes but is not limited to gifsets, manips, moodboards, etc.
  
• podfics
  
• fanvids
• fan labor, which includes but is not limited to betaing, brit/japan/america-picking, etc.

Each of these categories is intentionally broad, so that the auction can encompass as many kinds of fanworks as possible. When participants sign up, they will be asked to describe their offering not only in terms of one of these five categories, but also in terms of the relevant subcategory (e.g. someone who signs up to offer fan labor will be asked to indicate whether they are offering beta work, -picking, or translation, and to add any other necessary information in a comments box.)

We’ve also added an “other fanwork” category this year. We encourage you to use the five categorie listed above to make your auction offerings easier for potential bidders to find, but if your fanwork really doesn’t fit into any of these categories (but is still digitally deliverable), you can use this option! You will need to describe your offering carefully, since bidders won’t be able to rely on familiar categories to find or classify it.

Why can creators only select three fandoms per offering?

This year, we’re changing things up a little bit: you’ll select a max of 3 fandoms per fanwork you decide to offer. We’ve done this for two main reasons:

• To make your offer easier for bidders to find
• To make things easier for the Mods to track

Can I offer more than one thing?

Yes. Each creator can offer up to three (3) auctions. We’ll ask you to fill out the signup form separately for each fanwork you offer. Please be mindful, though, of how many assignments you can actually fulfill. If you over-promise and cannot come through for your bidders, that is not helping the auction over the long term. It’s okay to offer only one fanwork.

I’ve already started a work similar to my bidder’s prompt, or I’m planning on writing a work similar to it for a big bang or other challenge. Can I just use that to fulfill my auction?

Unless your bidder expressly says that this is fine with them, no, your fanwork needs to be an entirely new creation created only for this auction. This is so that your #1 priority is creating something to your bidder’s tastes, in a timely manner. If you’ve already laid out plot points that aren’t what your bidder was looking for, need to wait to post the finished product until another deadline, etc etc, your bidder becomes a lower priority.

What about fan crafts? Why can’t I auction off fan crafts as part of the auction?

Because of the added complication of shipping costs and the possibility of objects getting lost in transit, we are not able to take on the added responsibility of overseeing their exchange. This auction project is big enough that we can’t responsibly agree to take that on.

If you are interested in offering or receiving physical crafts, check out our Fan Crafts Bazaar.

So I sorta flaked on my bidder last year. Can I still offer something at the auction this year?

Sorry, but no. While we cannot absolutely guarantee that every bidder will receive the item they bid for in a timely fashion, it’s our goal to get as close to 100% success as possible. If you failed to come through for your bidder last year, we don’t want to ask this year’s bidders to risk similar disappointment.  

You are still very welcome to participate in the auction as a bidder.

What causes/nonprofits are you supporting this year?

You can see the full list here!

All of the groups linked here are national-level organizations. But if you want to donate to a local chapter of one of these groups that’s fine too, so long as your creator agrees.

I’m thinking of offering a fanwork in the auction this year. Can I ask bidders to donate to a different group instead?

While we encourage you to consider donating to the supported nonprofits, creators do have the option of listing one additional nonprofit of their choosing. You can read our policy on outside organizations here.

Is it legal to sell fanworks like this?

The legality of selling fanworks is a big grey area that depends highly on the individual work and the details of the sales transaction. Luckily, that doesn’t apply to us, because we aren’t selling fanworks. We are asking people to donate directly to charities, and fan creators are promising to create a work as a gift for that person to thank them for this donation. No creators are getting any money for this (and neither are we!).

So who are you guys, anyhow?

We are a motley ragtag crew from many fandoms, though we mostly come from Sherlock and Supernatural fandoms. (Or at least we did in late 2016; it’s been a big couple of years.) You can read more About Us here.

FTH supported nonprofits for 2020

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Our list of supported organizations for 2020 can be found below. Like last year, we are concentrating on small organizations that are doing vital, unique work to protect persons and communities targeted by the 45 administration, and doing so on very small budgets. Like last year, we are giving creators the option of listing one additional organization of their choice to which bidders can donate, so long as it’s in line with the overall mission of FTH.

Check out our list of amazing supported organizations below! if you prefer to ask your bidders to support an organization that’s not on the list, please read our policy on outside organizations here.

Border Angels - Providing support for migrants crossing the US-Mexico border and education for border communities on issues surrounding immigrant rights

Clean Water Fund – Advocating and organizing for clean air and water through local, community-based action

Center for Public Integrity - Investigative reporting in the public interest, aimed at exposing betrayals of public trust by those in power

ConPRMetidos - Building innovative, sustainable infrastructure in Puerto Rico, including ongoing relief to communities damaged by Hurricane Maria

Fair Vote -- Fighting gerrymandering and advocating for ranked-choice voting

GLSEN (the gay, lesbian, and straight education network) – making K-12 schools safe for LGBTQ youth

Higher Heights - Investing in and supporting Black women’s political leadership; electing Black women to office and mobilizing Black women as civic participants

Life After Hate - Providing support to people leaving hate groups, and providing pluralism education and training to vulnerable young people

Manomet – advocating for environmental protection through science education and partnering with local communities

RAINN (the rape, abuse, & incest national network) - Offering local services to survivors of sexual violence, and organizes programs to prevent sexual violence and bring perpetrators to justice

Spread the Vote -- Helping eligible voters make their voices heard through voter education, supporting voters through the process of getting necessary ID, and advocating against voter suppression laws

Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund - Working toward legal equality for trans people through education, public policy, litigation, and direct legal services

Unsilence - Helping communities talk about human rights issues via public learning experiences, youth programs, and training for educators and community leaders

The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights - Providing legal advocacy to unaccompanied immigrant children in detention

FTH -- policy on outside organizations

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As noted on the page listing this year’s supported nonprofits, we are sticking with last year’s policy of allowing creators choose to support a single additional organization, so long as it’s broadly in keeping with the overall FTH mission. While we believe that it’s important and worthwhile to use FTH’s platform to direct attention and support toward smaller, less well-known organizations, we understand that you may feel very strongly about a particular cause that is being addressed by some larger group.

Therefore: any creator who chooses a small subset of nonprofits from the supported list will have the opportunity to add one additional nonprofit of their choice, as long as it is in line with the mission of FTH. (These additions will be minimally screened; our goal is to be as inclusive as possible, while ensuring that nobody is trying to send money to, for example, the NRA.) As usual, creators will also have the option to give the bidder free choice of any group on our list.

There is one important caveat to this “nonprofit of your choosing” policy: after a great deal of discussion, we have decided not to allow donations to specific campaigns. We understand this decision will likely be controversial, and we know it has drawbacks–but we have concluded that it’s the best choice overall, for the following reasons:

1) scale of impact. Over its three years of existence, FTH has raised an average of $25,000 per year. That’s a huge amount by some reckonings, but it’s still pretty small, compared to the budget of a very large organization – or a very large campaign. (You can check out the fourth-quarter fundraising numbers for the democratic presidential candidates here.) We’ve chosen, since 2019, to focus on smaller nonprofits where our donations can make a real difference to the organization. The natural extension of that principle is to rule out really big campaigns, too.

2) pushing back against systemic problems. One of the hardest lessons of the past few years has been that our problem is much bigger than any one person, including the president. The system was broken long before 45 was elected, and the harms of the past three years will resonate into the future no matter who wins the 2020 presidential election. That’s why we’ve chosen to keep focus on organizations that protect immigrants and refugees, offer support to victims of race-based or sexual violence, and engage in community-based work that combats racial hatred.

3) keeping our eyes on the prize. Even if we agree on what the problems are, we’re likely to disagree on which candidate(s) are best suited to start fixing them. In our discussions, we the organizers worried that allowing people to support particular candidates – especially this early in 2020, before most primaries have taken place – would likely foster annoyance and even in-fighting when people began to discover that their favorite creators prefer different candidates.

If you do feel strongly about raising money for a candidate, we are very happy to help you do that! We will gladly share organizational materials with anyone who wants to run another auction (as we’ve done for over a dozen other auction-runners in the past three years), and we will help publicize as well. If you’re interested in running an auction of your own, please drop us an email at fandomtrumpshate at gmail dot com.

And in the meantime, if you feel strongly about focusing on the upcoming elections in your contributions to FTH, we urge you to check out Fair Vote, Higher Heights and Spread the Vote. All three of these election-oriented organizations are on our supported list for 2020.