Greetings everyone! It is time once again to give you all an update on what we have going on over at the Twin Suns Foundation!
But first, for those who are joining us a bit late, allow me to introduce you to the company! Twin Suns Foundation is a 501 C(3) non-profit tax exempt organization formed in 2016. It was created due to the combined efforts of many passionate Star Wars Expanded Universe fans.
Its slogan explains exactly what its purpose is; “Binary Suns, Eternally Shining”
Twin Suns Foundation has two main stated goals. First, it spreads the love of reading and writing through donation of Star Wars Expanded Universe books to Children’s Hospitals, Libraries, Schools, Little Free Libraries, and more. To the date of this writing, we have donated 1,313 books since 2016!
Second, Twin Suns Foundation aims to further the cause of advocating for and one day obtaining two separate canon timelines, both being actively added to by official sources. In other words, Twin Suns Foundation seeks the continuation of the Original Expanded Universe but not at the expense of Disney’s new timeline. It also seeks to keep the two separate from one another. We believe that this is the best way to make fans of one or the other happy while also making sure that everyone gets more of the Star Wars they love!
So, with that out of the way, what is Twin Suns Foundation up to for the remainder of 2022?
Great question! Back in the early part of 2022, we put together plans for several donation fundraisers throughout the year. We have been able to accomplish one of those fundraisers thus far, it being our first donation in the state of New Jersey to Galloway Township Middle School. Thanks to the generous donations of our supporters, we were able to donate sixty books in total.
The level of support we received in the first donation even was sufficient to put us up to our goal just ahead of our one-month deadline for raising the funds. This was good news.
Now for a bit of bad news.
The fundraiser, while successful, did not show the performance we hoped to see to justify our ambitious plans for the year. That donations came in a bit slower than we had expected and, based on earlier discussions we had internally, we decided to eliminate our anticipated fundraiser we were going to hold on a livestream at the end of May due to the limited support.
This decision was arrived at after doing some research into how non-profits are generally preforming across the country. Simply put, we are in hard economic times. Many people that we rely on for donations during these events simply do not have the excess funds to put towards our efforts at this time. To be clear, we are not blaming them. The Twin Suns team itself is comprised of many donors as well, having donated at least 25% of all the funds to our efforts to date. But our team’s ability to contribute financially is also compromised somewhat due to current conditions.
Additionally, while purchasing books for the donation to Galloway Township Middle School, we discovered that the pricing on all books we purchased went up a full dollar on average. It used to be we could expect to donate one book for every ~$9.00 donated. We are now above one book for every $10.00 donated. Slightly more if we include the organization’s operating costs which goes almost entirely to keeping our website up and government related paperwork in place.
In short, the problem is our donors do not have the excess funds to give and things are pricier to purchase.
That said, we will not allow tough times to keep us down! After all, Expanded Universe fans have endured an eight-year drought on our beloved Star Wars. What’s a little economic hardship compared with that?
Twin Suns Foundation is far from done this year. We have one more guaranteed fundraising even coming up in August/September where we expect to raise funds for one more donation event. The location for this event is still being worked out, but we do have interest from our friends in the 501st Star Garrison in Texas who have requested to partner for such an effort and we are hopeful that our donors and team can come together to help fulfill this request at that time!
So, with that in mind, I would ask on behalf of the Twin Suns Foundation that you all keep your eyes open come August & September for news on our next fundraiser. The Twin Suns team is going to once more be gaging the response to help determine our future donation event schedule!
Thank you for taking the time to read our update and we hope to provide an overall more positive update next time!