Convention Auction Charities & Brony Causes

[Simon 4,557]

I was thinking about this after Babscon's announcement about the charities for the charity auction and thought it would be an interesting topic.

 

What types of non-profits or causes would you like to see  pony conventions or the brony community in general support?

 

For me, I really like the idea of supporting local non-profits.  I think it's great for conventions to support big international causes and national charities, but I think the money raised at conventions can make such a bigger impact at a local level.  I mean, with $10,000 a local suicide prevention charity like the one Babscon is supporting can really do tons for that community and really change a lot of lives.  On the other hand, national charities have so much overhead and advertising costs that I feel like it would just get eaten up and not have nearly as big of an impact.

 

I also really like the fact that I haven't seen any conventions supporting any charities or causes that have a largely political agenda.  This is also a reason I like them staying local.  Most any national charity is going to use a giant portion of the funds for lobbying and other political agendas to help shape the law to benefit their particular cause.  Now that's not necessarily a bad thing, but the brony community is so diverse that I would hate to see a convention turn a wonderful thing like a charity auction into a political arena.  Plus I think focusing on causes that pretty much anybody is willing to support like suicide prevention will obviously cause there to be more bidders and more donated items, and thus will bring in more money.

 

As for the community in general, I'd really like to see more causes like Michael Morones.  First of all, I think focusing on a single family or individual really allows this community to make a huge difference in that person's life and I think that's amazing.  Plus from a more selfish perspective, I think those types of causes have really served as a rallying point for a lot of bronies.  It lets us come together as a community and help someone and remind us why this community is so special.  I really hope that the community finds more families it can help in the same way as it has done for Kiki and Michael. 

 

Anyway that's my thoughts... so what causes would everybody else like to see bronies support?