Fandom Trumps Hate 2021 Raises over $32,000 for Progressive Causes

Fandom Trumps Hate

This year’s Fandom Trumps Hate charity auction took place between Monday, February 22, and Friday, February 26, 2021. Fandom Trumps Hate began in the wake of the 2016 election, so this was the auction’s fifth year, and, with just over $32,000 raised, 2021 comes in at the second-highest year in terms of money raised. The auction raises funds for a variety of progressive causes; bidders donate to nonprofits and fan creators write, draw, or otherwise make fan works to thank the bidders. Neither the fan creators nor the event moderators ever touch the money; instead, bidders send proof of their donations to the moderators, at which point creators get to work creating the thank-you gifts.

This was my second year participating in Fandom Trumps Hate as both a bidder and a creator. I’ve participated in other fan work charity auctions as well, and Fandom Trumps Hate always amazes me with how well organized it is. The forms are slick and easy to fill out, the Dreamwidth site where the bidding takes place is tagged comprehensively so that it’s searchable, there’s a system for sending in proof of donation, deadlines are clearly communicated, and creators who don’t fulfill their obligations are banned from future participation to increase the likelihood that as many people as possible will indeed create what they’ve pledged to create. As a creator, I can clearly delineate what I am willing or not willing to write about on my bidding page, which is full of information I’ve submitted on a form; as a bidder, I can find examples of people’s work through a link on their bidding page in order to see whether they write the sort of things I’m interested in reading.

Perhaps one of the most genius things about Fandom Trumps Hate is that bidding runs Monday morning through Friday evening, and on Thursday afternoon or evening the mods put together a tag called the “golden needle.” This tag includes every auction item that hasn’t received any bids yet. The mods explain that they call the tag the “golden needle” tag because finding such offerings can be like finding a needle in a haystack, and I think that is such a lovely and compassionate way of phrasing that. Also, as someone with interest in several fandoms but also a limited budget, I really appreciate that the mods make it easy to connect bidders with people whose offerings haven’t received any bids pretty late in the game.

Fandom Trumps Hate also allows creators to honor their highest two bids, rather than just the highest bid, if both the creator and the second-highest bidder are interested in that. This is a win-win-win, as far as I’m concerned; it raises more money for the targeted nonprofits, it lets people who got outbid at the last minute still get that fan work they had their heart set on, and—for creators who have the time—making an additional fan work can be a lot of fun.

The organizations Fandom Trumps Hate supports change every year; the organizers try to pick organizations with relatively small budgets in order to make the impact of the auction as large as possible. This year, the auction supported the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Chicago Abortion Fund, Higher Heights Leadership Fund, Life After Hate, Manomet, the National Network to End Domestic Violence, the Prison Policy Initiative, the Queer Detainee Empowerment Project, SWOP (Sex Worker Outreach Project) Behind Bars, the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, Unsilence, Votebeat, the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, and a variety of food banks. Creators participating in the auction could indicate whether they would support any of the organizations supported by the auction, some subset of the listed organizations, or a subset of the listed organizations plus an additional organization of their choosing that was approved by the mods. Bidders who win auctions then donate to an organization that the creator indicated they were interested in supporting.

Tumblr banner for Fandom Trumps Hate. Fandom Trumps Hate

One of the most enjoyable parts of Fandom Trumps Hate is participating with friends, occasionally friends I’ve met in person but more often friends who I know from online fan spaces. Both last year and this year, I’ve known my second-highest bidder from Tumblr and Archive of Our Own. This year, I’ve been in my main fandom for longer and was more familiar with both the people bidding on my work and the people whose work I was bidding on. As fun as it is to bid on friends’ work, it’s also fun to get outbid on work my friends have signed up to create, because that means other people also value my friends’ work and recognize their brilliance.

Fandom Trumps Hate will almost certainly be back next year, regardless of what happens politically (or otherwise) in the meantime. There may be other fandom charity auctions you can join in the meantime, but if you’re new to fandom charity auctions I can’t think of a better place to start, because it’s simply so well run. If you’re inspired to try to start your own fandom charity auction, on the other hand, contact the Fandom Trumps Hate mods; they’re more than willing to share their expertise with people fundraising for other worthy causes.