The Crisis of Crisis: Our Support of Earthquake Victims in Turkey and Syria

All of us at Stonemaier Games are united in support of the earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria. This catastrophe in the dead of winter has resulted in the deaths of over 41,000 people and hundreds of collapsed buildings. It’s devastating.

Today I want to briefly mention what we’re doing to support those at the heart of this disaster, what you can do, and some of the things we consider in the face of major tragedies.

What We’re Doing: On Sunday afternoon, we are going to donate $5,000 to ahbap, an organization in Turkey that comes highly recommended from multiple sources (including a close friend from Turkey of my coworker, Dave). The donation will help to provide shelter, food, and medical supplies to those in need.

What You Can Do: Our $5,000 is actually the minimum we’re going to donate. For every person who has signed up for a launch notification for Tapestry: Fantasies & Futures by Sunday afternoon, we’ll add $1 to the donation total. Prior to this post, we’ve already received 986 launch notification requests, so that’s $986 already added to the $5,000 base amount. [UPDATE: The total donation I made on Sunday afternoon was $6,402 USD.]

Some Things We Consider During Times of Crisis (in General)

• Donation amount and method: John Oliver has a great phrase that he’s said a number of times on Last Week Tonight. “The answer to ‘where you draw the line’ is literally always ‘somewhere.’ You draw it somewhere.” Why $5,000? Because it’s where we drew the line. Or, at least, it’s where the line begins–as mentioned above, we’re happy to increase that amount without asking anyone to spend their own money. We’ve done this a number of times in the past, but we haven’t typically started with a set amount, and now that I’m trying it in this case, it feels right to me. Also, there are many great organizations supporting the disaster, and sometimes we’ve split up the donation amount among multiple charities.
• Why this and not that: Why support disaster relief efforts for this crisis but not others? Unfortunately, terrible events happen all over the world every week, and I think sometimes it can be almost paralyzing to choose one over the other (and you may end up not supporting any of them). Here’s my take on this: You can’t help everyone, but you can help someone. When you’re compelled to help, go for it (in the way that’s right for you–donating is just one example of support). It’s okay that you didn’t help someone else last week or the week before. You can’t solve every issue or donate to every charitable organization. But we can help sometimes.
• How this is related to board games: From a macro point of view, everything in the modern world is directly or indirectly connected. Just because a tragedy happens far away from St. Louis doesn’t mean it’s unrelated to Stonemaier Games. At the very least, these are fellow human beings who are suffering. In a more micro sense, we have two localization partners in Turkey–Troy Games and Goblin Games–who are geographically quite close to the disaster.
• Why announce our support: I think sometimes there is the sentiment that if a person or organization tries to do something good, that it doesn’t “count” if they share the news, as if the act of sharing turns philanthropy into capitalism. I heartily disagree. Rather, I’d call it leadership. Altruism is at its most powerful when you inspire others through your words and actions. When I share something like this, it really isn’t at all about Stonemaier Games: It’s about shining a spotlight on the cause itself, showing those who can help and those who need help that there is a path.

As an individual or an organization, how do you deal with the crisis of crisis? What would you add to these considerations? Again, you can add to your donation total by simply signing up for a launch notification for the new Tapestry expansion.

Other charitable organizations to consider:

• Fast Company list
• Time Magazine list

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