URGENT: Help save RPG Research Community Center Today! Else it all ends this February!

[rpgresearch]

Dear RPG Research Supporters,

Please donate all you can today, or the RPG Research Center will be lost the beginning of this coming February.

https://rpgresearch.com/donate

We have to somehow come up with around $10k before February, this week will be the last time we can meet at the RPG Research Community Center.

Donations plummeted in 2023, and are just barely enough for the utilities per month the last 6 months, so unfortunately I have been carrying the rent through the LLC and my own personal funds for several months, and I maxed all of the LLC's and my own finances in November.

We are one of the most lean and efficient, most bang for the buck non-profits anywhere. We're 100% volunteer run, so all donations go directly to resources to provide the programs, not to any salaries. The administrative overhead is the lowest possible. We run on all opensource software, on donated hardware. It is amazing how many people we've helped with our programs. We impact the lives of thousands of people and we've never broken the $50k USD mark in a year! Talk about impact!  https://rpgresearch.com/impact

I am spending this week moving the RPG Museum contents to safe storage in case we do lose the place. So the museum collection won't be in jeopardy.

Unfortunately we are now behind on December and January's rent, plus property taxes. Right now we owe about $8k, and it is $10k due by February 5th. 

We're doing all we can to try to get the word out to get people to donate ASAP to save the center and the museum, but apparently most nonprofits have had a record bad year in 2023, so I am very concerned about our ability to save it.

Since we incorporated as a non-profit in 2017, we have directly provided programs directly impacting more than 100,000 people! And our online resources have helped millions more around the world. At our peak (before the insurance companies) we had over 200 volunteers across 6 continents, running programs guided by us in communities all over the world!

If we lose the RPG Community Center, it impacts:

* RPG Museum and our unique historical collection

* RPG Research

* RPG Research online archives (over 10,000 content items on role-playiong game research)

* RPG Community Center

* RPG Mobile Wheelchair accessible RPG Bus and trailers (nowhere to store them)

* RPG Community center neighborhood participants.

* RPG Research online community sessions.

* RPG Research broadcasts, shows.

* Tolkien Society monthly meetings.

* TolkienMoot

* American Sign Language community study group

* Spokane Music Therapy study group

* And many others.

Additionally, because the non-profit was too small, the landlord wouldn't let us get the lease without my being an additional personal guarantor. So, I will still be personally stuck paying for another year's rent and the back pay, penalties, and taxes (about $40k! USD) even if we are evicted. I would much rather be paying rent on a place we can use.

If you didn't know about the RPG Community Center and RPG Museum, learn more about them, and the many challenges with insurance company underwriters biases against RPG-based non-profits (not a problem on the for-profit, but small non-profit it was shocking). They are a large part of the reason our donations died off because they made us shut down 95% of our operations temporarily in order to get any insurance for the property. We eventually overcame it, but it cost us dearly in donations.

You can read that saga here:

https://rpgresearch.com/blog/blog-news-category/good-news-approval-received-to-resume-access-for-younger-and-older-players

https://www.rpgresearch.com/blog/blog-news-category/role-playing-game-research-archives-once-again-available-to-the-public

https://www.rpgresearch.com/blog/blog-news-category/rpg-community-center-accommodating-blind-visually-impaired-deaf-and-hard-of-hearing-in-addition-to-others

https://www.rpgresearch.com/blog/fundraising/keep-the-rpg-community-center-doors-open-to-the-public-hurry-and-donate-today

https://rpgcenter.org

https://rpgmuseum.org

https://rpgresearch.com/blog/blog-news-category/good-news-approval-received-to-resume-access-for-younger-and-older-players

Please help spread the word and donate ASAP at https://rpgresearch.com/donate.

See you all online in a few hours.

-Hawke Robinson

USA +1 509.481.5437

RPG Research phone: +1 509.608.7630

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RPG Research, a non-profit 501(c)3 100% volunteer-run charitable organization providing tabletop role-playing game community programs for everyone ages 4 through 104+, at 101 North Stone Street, Spokane Washington, 99202. 

TAX ID EIN: 82-3521274

Learn more about our 100% volunteer-run organization at:

https://rpgcenter.org 

https://rpgresearch.com

https://rpgmuseum.org