Please read this entire post carefully, and leave any questions you have in the comments! Yes, it's long, but I'm trying to be thorough--we want everyone to be on the same page, and I want to make sure there is no confusion about anything. If I've forgotten to explain anything, please let me know in the comments. :)
When you made your donation to Sandi's fundraiser, you were granted virtual raffle "tickets"--one for each $5 you donated. Using GiveForward's donor tracking, we are able to see how much you donated and record the number of tickets to which you are entitled. At any time you may donate more money to the fundraiser to get more "tickets."
The reason we keep saying "tickets" because they aren't really tickets at all--they're blog comments! :) And the way you'll enter to win packages is by leaving a comment on the package's post when it is listed for the raffle. In your comment, be sure to leave your email address so we can contact you if you win. If you *really* want to win a package, you may choose to leave more than one comment on the post. To do this, you can post ONE comment, and state in it that you wish for the comment to count for X number of tickets. We'll keep track on our end of how many you're using and how many you have left. If you leave a comment but technically have no more comments left to leave, your comment will not be taken into account when we go to pick a winner. It's up to you to keep track of your donations and how many comments you have left--and remember, if you run out, you can always donate more and get more comments! :) If you've forgotten, you can go back to GiveForward.com and log in; you'll be given a summary of your donations to the fundraiser.
To stay within the law, we do have to allow people to enter at least once without leaving a donation. So, if you choose to enter to win a package without leaving a donation, you must state in your comment that you are donating for free. Obviously we think that's a pretty crummy thing to do, but hey, it's a free country and the law's the law, so there you go. :)
We'll post two packages per day to be raffled off. Each post will go up at noon MST and comments will close 24 hours later. When I'm able to, I will actually close comments at that time so that no more can be left; when i'm unable to, let it be understood that any comment left after noon will not be considered when a winner is drawn. We'll be using Random.org to draw winners--we'll label the comments starting with 1 (the first comment left), and set Random.org to choose one number from 1-whatever # represents the number of comments left (for example, if there are 25 comments, them Random.org will choose one number between 1 and 25). If someone has marked their comment to count as more than one ticket, then their comment will be labeled with consecutive digits (for example, if they're the 4th person to comment and want their comment to count for 5 tickets, then their comment will be labeled as 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and the next commenter after them will be 9).
I will post a screen shot of the Random.org result in a new post, and the winner will be notified via email that they have won. Winners will need to respond to this email with their full name and mailing address. The winner has 72 hours to respond to the notification email. If the winner does not respond in time, a new winner will be chosen. The generous prize donors are responsible for shipping their items to you within 7 days, and I don't want to leave them hanging while they're in the middle of dealing with the busyness of the holiday season.
All items you have won will be sent to you and cannot be divvied up and mailed to multiple addresses.
Please do not delete or modify comments after they have been left. I don't want the numbering of the comments to be called into question when it's time to draw a winner. Leave your comments wisely!
I think that's it--thanks for reading and good luck!
