2024 Wrap Up

2024 is over and I've accomplished a lot this year. I want to share what has happened, what my goals are, and present how funds are managed.

• Sanford Children's Care Center

  • This year, I decided to donate some creative tools/books to the Sanford Children's Care Center. Dungeons and Dragons has made a huge positive impact on my life and I have been trying to share that with others.

  • I donated multiple copies of The Young Adventurer's Guide books (Series 1 & 2). These books cover all sorts of aspects of the D&D. Weapons, spells, monsters, locations, dungeons, and more. They are meant to give creative inspiration to kids. No specifically to play D&D, but for whatever fantasy world they want.

  • The Sanford Children's Care center works with kids with traumatic experiences, like sexual abuse or witnessing a homicide. I chose them because there is a lot of beauty in fantasy, in world building, and in story telling, and I felt that these books could offer some healthy escapism.

  • It felt great to speak with the team at Sanford, this particular facility did not receive many donations so they were very thankful.

• Events

  • I did a few events this year. Not as many as I would have liked but funding became an issue. Icewind Brewing hosted me several times and I can't thank them enough for that.

  • I also was at the Fargo Pop Expo and will be there again in 2025. Valley Con is in sight as well.

  • Doing events and tournaments takes research and help from other people. And it can be exhausting to manage all the moving parts. I am still learning how to manage my time and resources.

• Legacy Adventure

  • As something fun for the charity, I started the Legacy Adventure. This is a year long fantasy themed adventure that I post on Facebook and Instagram.

  • Each month, I create 3 options for the next stage of the adventure. We start with a hero, then a region, then get into monsters and traps and all sorts of fun stuff. People can vote for which one they like most by donating. The choice with the most donations wins.

  • The following month I make Dungeons and Dragons 5e (and soon 5.5 as well) content based on that winner. I post all the content on social media.

  • Some months I struggled to keep my schedule. Some months I questioned my quality or creativity. But I am proud that I completed a full year of this commitment. Even though it didn't pull many donations in. But I'm hopeful one day it will.

  • I am working on a Kickstarter for the 2024 Legacy Adventure. This is a first for me as well so I have a lot to learn. But I am optimistic and I am trying to remain disciplined in working on it.

• Reselling Games

  • I get a fair amount of used games donated to me, but for various reasons I can't always donate them to the kids. So I've been reselling them for additional organization funds. I've been selling at events as well as on Ebay now.

• New Wheels!

  • I acquired an SUV. The charity was a major decision in this. I was needing more space for travelling. So it is an exciting step for me and the organization.

  • This purchase was not used with donation funds. It was a personal purchase.

• Year End Total

  • This year we ended with $1839.37 in donations!

  • This is less that my goal but it is still an incredibly generous amount.

  • Below is a breakdown of income sources. Events are very high as they are a bulk donation to me from numerous donations. Individual donations are single instances that I receive directly. I.E. no middleman.

• Costs

  • I struggled to Bookkeep consistently this year. There were so many new things to consider. Ebay, website orders, Paypal, etc. So I spent more than I wanted on Event Support. However, all that spending is good. Much of it is a permanent resource for the future.

  • I still had a generous amount of funds to purchase items for the kids. My goal is to keep it about 50% for games and 50% for business upkeep and event support.

  • What I can spend is based off the previous year's income.

• Thank you

  • Thanks to everyone who donated, who shared, who simply liked social media posts. I'm learning so many things with this non-profit. I'm making mistakes and learning how to do better. And I've been putting immense effort into managing my personal life, which is seeing very good results, but it can make it difficult to dedicate sufficient time to Games On The Table. So I am truly thankful for any support, as it takes a huge weight off of me.

Ethan J Helling