Bid early, bid often

Three Kasparov classics, autographed by The Man.  All proceeds to Chicago Chess Center!

Chicago Chess Center: fundraising update

No one likes fundraising appeals, so I'll try to keep this brief.

Our board has decided that once the Chicago Chess Center raises $30,000, we're going to open our nonprofit in to serve the people of Chicago.

It's my personal belief that once we raise $100,000, we're going to be open for a very long time. (Nothing is forever: in a few billion years, the sun will become a red giant and engulf Earth, and let's not talk about the latest Higgs news.)


Mr. Thermometer says that we've raised about 26% of what we need for our first goal. The sooner we get the rest, the sooner we open our doors.

 Here are ways you can help:

• Write a check to Chicago Chess Center NFP, Inc., 230 W. Monroe, Suite 330, Chicago IL 60606 
We're giving a copy of Igor Khmelnitsky's You vs. Bobby Fischer to all Founders' Court members who donate $250. The next person who donates $500 will also receive our final copy of IM Khmelnitsky's Chess Exam and Training Guide and Chess Exam and Training Guide: Tactics (five generous people have already received this cool premium). 

• Or hit the darn Donate Now button administered by the fine folks at Network for Good to get the same cool premium.
  

• Have you done well in the stock market since February 2009? Don't feel like paying 20% long-term capital gains rate plus 3.8% Medicare plus 5% Illinois income tax? Transfer your appreciated stock to Chicago Chess Center and save big on taxes. You won't pay tax on the gain, and you can write off the fair market value of your contribution on your 2013 tax return.                     
• No money to spare? Consider auctioning some of your surplus "stuff" on eBay: you can earmark some or all of the proceeds to Chicago Chess Center via eBay Giving Works. This works for things as mundane as excess chess books (I'm selling some right now) to big-ticket items like used cars. Don't want to be bothered with an auction?  Please drop me a line and we'll be happy to sell for you directly.
• In the very near future, we'll need donations for the Center's library. That won't help us open our door, but it sure will help us achieve our mission. Please keep us in mind!
• No money, no securities, no stuff? We still need your support: please get on our email list and share this post with your friends. We particularly need masters who are willing to volunteer their time for events, volunteers to lend their expertise to the Board and committees, and just plain friends.

Startup nonprofits face a chicken-or-egg conundrum: it's hard to raise money unless you do good things for the public first, and it's hard to do good things without money. Look for news on this front in the very near future.

Again, thank you for your generosity to date!

The clock is ticking....

We're trying to get the Chicago Chess Center open by May 1, 2013, and in the next 35 days, we need to raise another $27,955—give or take a buck or two —to turn this vision into reality.

What's in it for you and me?  The CCC will be a home for serious tournament play virtually ever weekend, and for for individual and group instruction from absolute beginners to advanced levels.  And we want to make it accessible to everyone in Chicago—at the risk of setting an impossibly lofty goal, the CCC aspires to be to chess players what the Old Town School of Folk Music is to guitar players.

If you haven't already visited the CCC's home page, please stop by to learn more!  And if you have already donated, we'd appreciate it if you could consider upgrading your donation level to join our Founders' Court.  It's OK not to donate before December 31st—this stage of our fundraising campaign is open until January 18th, and we appreciate that many charitably inclined folks like to take the tax consequences into consideration.

Finally, if you'd like to make an in-kind donation (whether it be books for the Center's library or that 2005 Mercedes taking up space in your garage), please drop us a line.  We can turn cars etc. into cash via eBay's Giving Works auction program and provide you with the paperwork to making the charitable contribution kosher in IRS's eyes.  (Or if you'd like to go for the Caissic equivalent of sainthood, you can run eBay Giving Works auctions yourself, and the proceeds can be automatically donated to the Center via Missionfish: please don't hesitate to ask for help on this!)

It's been humbling to get so much support from the community: thank you all for you interest and your support!

eBay auction items

In the next few days, a few chess books will be auctioned via eBay Giving Works for the benefit of the Illinois Chess Association's Warren Junior Program.

Bid early, bid often: it's for a good cause!

Oops: some of the auction items are not displaying: I've linked directly to the items here.