Let's Get This!!

Alright, Bravehearts, it’s go time!! Here’s how this will work. Gotta do it in 5 Steps, right? PLEASE READ ALL 5 STEPS BEFORE DOING ANYTHING!

Step One: Log into your PayPal account and click the tab that says “Send Money”. Where it says “To” enter the email address joemac2011@gmail.com

Step Two: Make your donation. Please be sure to click the tab that says “Personal” rather than “Purchase.” Enter the amount you wish to donate. Then click the button that says “Gift” and press “Continue.” It’s important that you make sure you click Gift before Continue. Be sure that you are making a payment to joemac2011@gmail.com

Step Three: Determine your payment method.

If you make your donation using a bank account or PayPal balance, there is no fee associated with making the donation. If you use a Debit or Credit Card there is a 2.9% fee that goes to PayPal.  If you choose not to pay the fee, it will be deducted out of the donation you make.

Step Four: BEFORE you click “send money” Scroll down to where it says “Email to recipient.” Please add a message that includes your Twitter name and preferred email address for future communication. THEN click “Send Money.”

You’ll instantly receive a receipt from PayPal for your donation. Again, it will list the name of the fan whose credit card is being used to hold the group’s donation. Once we make the donation, United Way will send us a letter and we will forward that on to everyone who has donated.

Step Five: Within 24 hours of your donation (probably less), you’ll receive an email to the address you specified in Step Four that will give you instructions for your message to Joe to be posted on the blog. Reply to that email with your message, following the instructions, and be sure to include your Twitter Name in case there are any problems. We will email you back, confirming it has been received.

The last day to donate will be Wednesday, December 22^nd at 10am EST. It’s a little early but with people going on vacation for Christmas, this is the only way we can ensure Joe’s gift is received by United Way before his birthday.

If there are any problems or you have any questions, please DM us @joemac_2011 and we’re happy to help in any way we can.

As stated in our previous blog entry, if you’re not comfortable proceeding through PayPal, please follow the directions to donate directly by check. We’ll keep everyone up to date on how much money we’ve raised through the Twitter account. We will NOT post people’s individual donation amounts. 

On December 22nd at approximately 12PM EST the blog will go live with everyone's messages.

Let’s Get This!!!

The Message Sent with the Donation

One of our followers brought up a good question-how should we phrase the message sent from the group of us with the final donation amount. The original idea was to make the donation "In Celebration of Joe." However, the following have also been suggested:

For Griffin & Rhys

For the McIntyre Family

For Griffin (since Joe's partnership with First Book was tied to his first son.)

Any thoughts or suggestions? Post them as comments!

The Necessary Deets

Hi everyone! Well, we’ve locked the Twitter account down and we’re ready to Get This! Here’s where we are so far with getting things set up. We hope to begin collecting donations by the weekend.

To donate as a group, the best option is to use PayPal. When using PayPal, the account has to be associated with a real person’s name and either their bank account or their credit card. Someone has to be responsible for the money.

We created a separate PayPal account that is not directly linked to anyone’s bank account. A fan offered to use her credit card to “hold” the account. So, when you check out, it will have a real person’s name attached to it, per PayPal’s requirement. This is the same way the Remember Betty Luncheon at Hard Rock was handled for RCMH in June.

The person responsible for the PayPal account is working directly with Susan Lawton who manages United Way of Tampa Bay’s early literacy initiatives. If you donated in mid-July when Joe tweeted about United Way’s Children’s Book Drive, Susan was the person who managed that effort.

Susan has the legal name and contact information of the person whose name will be on the PayPal account when you check out. She’s got an eye on the twitter account and the blog. She’s also made Joe aware that we’re doing this.

We want people to feel comfortable that this isn’t a scam and we’re not simply putting the money in an existing business account with no proof it was sent to charity. We want to be as transparent as possible as we go through this.

If this still seems shady, or you’d prefer not to use PayPal, donations can also be made by check directly to the charity. These donations will go to the Imagination Library which conducts neighborhood literacy events to connect families with young children to library resources. Instructions on donating by check are as follows:

Make check payable to United Way of Tampa Bay

In the “Memo” line write “Book Drive-Joe McIntyre”

Mail to the attention of:

Susan Lawton-Director of Early Literacy Initiatives

United Way of Tampa Bay

5201 W. Kennedy Blvd, Suite 600

Tampa, FL  33609

We hope you’ll join us in a group effort to celebrate Joe’s birthday and honor his enthusiasm for early literacy programs. How amazing would it be to have Susan inform Joe that a group of Bravehearts raised $1000 (or more?) in his name on December 31^st? As said previously, Joe knows what we’re up to already. His response was “I’m honored.” (Probably sounded something more like “I’m honaaahed.”) So since he already knows we’re doing this, the only way to surprise him is to raise as much money as we can in the next couple weeks. We can do that, right?

Let’s Get This!

Team Joe Mac

The Plan So Far...

Working with Susan at United Way who collected our donations last summer for First Book to determine the best way to handle this. We're going to be collecting money through PayPal and making a group donation on Joe's behalf in celebration of him for his birthday (that's December 31st if you're new around here!)

We'll be using the blog as a way to send a message to Joe. Everyone will have a chance to send in a message and picture after you donate. The only people who will be allowed to leave messages will be those who have donated to our group fund. 

Follow @JoeMac_2011 for more information or check back here. All donations will be secure through PayPal and we will send everyone a copy of the letter we get from United Way for tax purposes. Spread the word ASAP. We'll be locking up the Twitter this weekend so we can really get the ball rolling then.

Let's Get This!!

Team Joe Mac