The Future of Retro Game Boards: Official Charity Announcement Thread

Hi all,

As we have hinted several times, the staff and I have been working behind the scenes to make Retro Game Boards as cool as possible. And today, we are excited to share everything with all of you. In this post, we will share our plans for funding, charity work, management transparency, as well as our overall legal structure. It is a simple setup that I hope you will all support.

First, Retrogameboards.com will remain ad-free. We have no plans to change this and hope to keep it this way, permanently.

Second, Retrogameboards.com will continue to have open registration and be free to use for everyone. Again, we have no plans to change this and hope to keep it this way, permanently.

Third, Retrogameboards.com is owned by a Delaware charitable corporation whose 501( c)(3) status is pending, called Retro Game Boards Inc. The directors of this entity are our moderators, Btails, D.Lo, Peagles, and Socksfelloff, and I sit as the President and CEO.

Our charity’s purpose is to solicit donations to (1) to keep our forum online, and (2) to provide arcade machines and other video games to children’s hospitals - as well as children’s wings in general hospitals - all over the world.

You may not have been expecting to read that, so let me explain:

Starting today, we will have an ongoing campaign to which you can donate to keep the site alive. Nothing about the content of the site will change. We will still discuss video games like we always have. All funds we raised in excess of our server costs will be used to provide video game hardware and software to children’s hospitals all over the world so that sick kids can play.

Here’s why:

If you’re like me, you often play retro video games to feel like a kid again. Our goal is to spread that feeling of joy to kids who are robbed of their childhood by illness and are now hospitalized. If we can make these children actually feel like children through video games – even if it’s just a means of escape for a few minutes per day – I will consider our mission successful. We will be sharing the very same thing we love to talk about with those who need it most. And we will continue having this awesome place to discuss our beloved hobby and spread the joy even further.

Here’s how this will work:

Everyone donates however much they want, whether it’s zero dollars per month or $100 per month. There is no minimum or maximum. It’s up to you.

Subject to the laws of each donor’s country, all donations will be tax-deductible where possible. After our 501(c )(3) application is approved, all eligible donations will be tax-deductible on a retroactive basis, so feel free to start donating today. As of now, donors will not receive any special perks on the forum. But you will have my respect and genuine appreciation.

The charity is structured to benefit children in hospitals internationally on a roughly pro-rata basis by country. In other words, if we receive a lot of donations from Canada, we will be certain to use a proportional amount of funds to benefit Canadian hospitals. The same will be true for each country from which the funds originate. To start, however, we will be focusing on hospitals in my general area so that we can gain experience in dealing with logistics of our plans before going abroad. We will, of course, need to raise a critical mass of funds from a particular country, however, before we direct our efforts there. This will be a judgment call of the charity’s directors and an ongoing management determination. All of our efforts, however, will be publicly disclosed to you.

If you want to donate, thank you – you are amazing. Please see our Patreon link at the top/bottom of this post. If don’t want to donate and just want to post the same way you always have, that’s also cool. Our intent is not to change the content of the forum in any way. By just being a member of the website and engaging in the conversation, you make this forum a better place and indirectly contribute to our greater charitable cause – and I appreciate it. But please do consider donating eventually. The more we raise, the better.

So far, the mod staff and I have been donating our own personal money and time to establish the charity and keep the servers alive. We will continue donating to this cause and are passionate about spreading the joy of our hobby to those who need it most. None of us will be accepting a salary from our role on the site or charity. This website belongs to everyone, equally. It is a community effort in the truest sense and an entity belonging to the public in full (both figuratively and literally). We want all of the funds to go to the purposes outlined above.

By law, we will be required to transparently publish all of our financial information, and we all will personally answer any questions you have about how your funds will be used. If you have questions about this, please post them in this thread or send them to me in a PM and we will do our best to answer them.

Whether or not RetroGameBoards.com survives and how much good can come from it will be based on how much we want it to as a community. I hope you can all agree with this direction and can see how this will separate us from other online forums where only a few owners financially benefit from the cool content of its vast user base. We are not going to do that and I would feel guilty accepting any money derived from the awesome content posted here. As far as I’m concerned, it does not belong to me. It belongs to us.

So, let’s do something new and be something different. Let’s actually contribute to the lives of those who are less fortunate. Let’s raise some money and enable sick kids to actually feel like kids again through our hobby. I hope you consider donating and look forward to continuing the discussion of retro gaming as we have always done.

And as always, I could not be prouder to be a member of this community. We are one of the most civil and cordial gaming communities on the Internet. Now, let’s be an even greater source of pride and create something special together. Let’s share our joy with those who need it most.

Sincerely yours,

Peltz

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I’m really proud to be able to finally announce this. We all, but especially Peltz, have been working on this behind the scenes for a long time now.

Not only will we be one of the most cool and chill places to discuss retro games, we’ll also be doing something good for others in need.

To echo Peltz, I couldn’t be prouder. This community is awesome. I’m really stoked that we’re doing something that’s not only different, but positive.

Stay cool RGB,
Peagles

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I know I’ve said it before but I just want to say I’m extremely proud to be a part of this community. This is an awesome initiative.

Thanks against to everyone that made, and makes, this community a reality.

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I like this. Was afraid every time the big future announcement was mentioned because I was worried it would be something about making the forums larger or to appeal to a wider audience, but this is the best possible outcome. I definitely know my extended time spent in the hospital while growing up was improved greatly by the access to video games and I hope the charity is a huge success.

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I’m immediately in. Just pledged a few bucks a month to start, but hope to do more as we continue to grow. Major kudos on the concept and execution. Keep it up.

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Surprise!

I’m extremely proud of the direction that RGB has taken, and everytime we crossed another hurdle or got that much closer to this announcement, I felt an extreme sense of happiness and excitement. It’s nice to finally talk about it!

From day 1, Retro Game Boards has always been about one thing: being a great place to gather and talk about our shared passion of Video Games. That is not changing. However, with this new announcement, we now have a second purpose: to spread our passion and excitement to those who need it most, and who will appreciate it most. We all know how great a retro video game can make us feel, and there are so many children out there who need to feel happy again.

Thanks everyone who’s responded already: we really do have one of the best communities around, though there’s always a shadow in the back of your mind about how big announcements like this will be received. In hindsight, I think any worries were unjustified.

Finally, as much as I’d love to take all the credit, I have to give a huge shout out to Peltz. RGB has always been his baby, and he has been working extremely hard behind the scenes to set this up for us. We would not be here without him, period. Peltz, thank you for everything you’ve done, and I’m excited to be helping along with you.

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Wow, this is an awesome idea, nice work!

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So, mind if we start spreading the word about the board and the Patreon? I am in a couple small local Facebook groups about retro games.

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I’m in, happy to donate to the site and the cause!

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By all means. Please do! The more people who know, the better! I really appreciate it!!!

And thank you @raskulous. It’s humbling to have a new member such as yourself be so enthusiastic about our little group. You more than fit in here and you’re exactly the type of person we love to have post.

No, go for it. I’m doing the same thing for some I’m in.

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Very cool idea, definitely plan to contribute. I have to say, I like this direction for the site a lot more than the one proposed very early on. :+1:

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Great Idea guys. I love the idea of giving back to the kids. I’d like to add something to think about that maybe you have not considered.

I don’t talk about it much but I have a disabled-special-needs child and he loves games and has no ability to play them. Gamers that aren’t in a hospital still want to game and can’t thanks to the way games are designed or the way a controller works (or doesn’t work) in their hands. My go to charity for gaming is http://www.ablegamers.org/

Sometimes they customize controllers to help those who are disabled have a chance of playing games based on their unique abilities. The ability to game and do things with our bodies we all take for granted and sometimes we forget about those who can’t.

Thanks for sharing. If we raise enough money, there’s nothing to stop us from giving to other 501c3 registered charities. I hope we find ourselves in an opportunity to donate to other noble causes like this one.

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I am going to try to do my part here but the charities that benefit special needs kids are pretty much eating up all my charitable giving budget. If this is a good sales year, like it was last year, I don’t see why I can’t give some to this charity too. Either way, I think it’s pretty awesome what you are doing.

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Is there a way to do a one time donation via patreon? I think its easier to do a one time thing over a recurring sub.

I don’t believe so. I will also set something else up, however, that allows for one time payments in the near future.

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Great job, Peltz. This really is cool. This site is way better than those “other” game websites…haha.

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This is pretty awesome!! Life is busy enough going to work, maintaining a house/apt, relationships, hobbies etc… and to go above and beyond for others, speaks volumes about how great this group is. Great job everyone involved.

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