Everyone, I want to thank you all again for participating in our March Raffle, and I want to let you folks know that our 1st Place winner,  Prowler7, has selected his prizes.

They are...

Selected Artists
 aqb52
 gonah
 kampaisuchi
 kayla-la
 mottled-kitten
 naynay
 occoris
 phantomapfel
 roareyraccoon
 shiuk
 taasla

Bonus Prizes
 kamperkiller
 shinjiskunk
 sssage (selecting the 'Strike a Sexy Pose' print)
 thehybrid
 zoichi20

Congratulations on your 16 Prizes!

Now, for our 2nd place winner  occoris, you will receive bonus prizes from the above Bonus Prize artists, and will receive a prize from the lovely  devia_luna. You now can choose 7 more artists from the following:

EDIT: Occoris has made their selection, and have chosen these artists:

GraveWalker - 1 full con badge OR a digital speed-painting (anything goes)
ProjectBlue02 - 1 full colored chibi character
SarinFox - 1 single character sketch that will be inked and colored with colored pencil (tame) AND 1 single character inked sketch with no color (tame)
SpazzyKoneko - 1 full colored chibi OR 2 flat colored chibis
ta-ek - 1 digital flat color of up to 2 characters
toaythefurry - 1 full body, inked outline, with pencil shading
Wovstah - 1 prayer badge

(And the "Basking in the Glow" print from Sssage)

Which means that the 6 artists remaining that will go to our 3rd place winner,  finfox; who will also receive Bonus Prizes from all the Bonus Prize donors, (save for Zoichi20)

AngelAito - 1 digital 1 character pic, either general, or clean nude [in a similar style to these pics -
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2076119/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2085988/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2088135/ (mature)]
Leenden - 1 single character, traditional picture. Sketched, inked, and colored. (Only restriction is to keep it clean)
Mukichan - 1 flat-colored piece of up to 2 chibis
RisuMurasaki RisuMurasaki - 1 icon OR chibi
strawberryxvodka strawberryxvodka - 1 fully colored picture with background
VidFox VidFox - 1 Sketch with 2 characters

(and the remaining print, "Mr. Blue Toes", from Sssage)

Congratulations Once Again!

---

Now for the news!

Thanks to your efforts, we raised $513.33 for everyone in the March Raffle! While a bit shy of the $600 goal, this is still a phenomenal amount raised, and definitely nothing to sneeze at! It will be split into 6 shares of $85.56 that will be sent out to the 6 recipients.

But who is our 6th recipient?

After thinking it over and going over various PMs from other furs in need; I have decided to give the 6th share to Stripes_Roshal Stripes_Roshal.

Folks that have been following us for a while, may remember that he was originally set to be a recipient from the February Raffle, back when Kittyoffandomdoom Kittyoffandomdoom was holding the raffles. Since his situation wasn't so bad after a fortunate event pulled through, he graciously gave up his spot on the February Raffle to Kyuubi_Shira Kyuubi_Shira who needed the help more.

However, after a roommate jipped him on rent, he had to move out to live with his aunt, and is now struggling.

Since he was gracious enough to forfeit his spot during the February Raffle, I figured that was an excellent sign of character; showing that he could be trusted with his share of the funds.

While I know there are still many people in desperate situations, I am already working on organizing the April Raffle, and will make sure that those who need it will get the coverage they deserve!

Problems with PayPal

As some of you may have noticed, PayPal had an issue with using them for raffle ticket purchases. On the last day of the Raffle, March 31st, 2009, PayPal notified me that the Anti-Drama Llama Movement account was put under restrictions and had issues that needed resolving. To meet their needs, I had to remove the e-mail link for the PayPal account off the Raffle page, and I had to sign an online form in regards to their terms of use.

The AUP of PayPal states that you can not use them for Raffles.

HOWEVER...

Today, I logged in to distribute funds for the recipients, and got this notice:

The PayPal Notice Screenshot!

Since the financial efforts of the Anti-Drama Llama Movement are, at it's heart, a Non-Profit Organization; PayPal wants me to prove to them that we are.

Now I had toyed with the idea of taking this Movement to the next step and getting it recognized as an official Non-Profit Organization before. It would increase the people's trust in the Movement, and also assist with taxes for those involved in the Movement.

Now that PayPal has requested that I show proof, I have decided to go ahead and file for official Non-Profit Organization status this month. (Tax month in the USA. How fitting! XD )

The only limitation PayPal has put in place is that while this issue is getting resolved, I can not close the account. Which is fine by me, as I have no intention of doing that.

My only concern is whether NPO status will let us continue using them for raffles, or whether I need a different method of ticket purchase and donation handling for the April Raffle.

Only time will tell.

Delays with Recipient Payments

So while that's going on, I SHOULD have been able to send the fair shares out to the people in need today, but I was hit with another road block.

I haven't linked a bank account to this PayPal account yet!

In order to send money via PayPal, I MUST have a bank account attached to it. I thought to myself that this would be no problem since I could use my personal bank account information, but unfortunately I had no such luck. Since my personal bank account is tied to my personal PayPal account, PayPal would not let me use the same account twice!

Since that was my only bank account, that left me stumped for today!

Tomorrow, however, I'm going to head down to my local bank before they close at 2:00 PM EST, and set up a Savings Account which will be the official bank account for the ADLM's financial services. Once I tie that to the PayPal account, I can send out the funds to our recipients.

I apologize greatly for the delay, and want to let everyone know that I am working on this right away. The money is safe and sound, and I am working on getting it out as quickly as possible. Please bear with me on this.

Thank you.

~Otaku-Man