teamliftfest

[teamliftfest]

Completed Fanworks Form

Hello, Team Lift denizens! Many of you have been hard at work completing your fanworks, and it's been such a joy to see those works come through. As always, we're so inspired by your hard work and bravery! 💛

This is gentle reminder to please submit completed works using this form! This allows us to keep track of completed works and ensure people are getting the works they've won. Each work needs a separate form submission. It's a little bit of extra work, but your mods really appreciate it!

You're also invited to tag this blog with your completed works so that your mods can share them far and wide. We're so excited to share everyone's creations & we're so grateful for the energy you've all put in over the past few months and all the work you continue to do. We remain inspired to think about this year's auction!

Works are due July 23rd, 2025 at 9PM UTC-8 (Pacific Time). ( What time is that for me? ) You got plany of time 😎

[teamliftfest]

Completed Fanworks Form

We are starting to see works come in and your mods could not be more thrilled! Everything we are seeing looks amazing - we're so proud of everyone's hard work and vibrant energy 🎉

Creators, we have just a gentle reminder to fill out the Completed Fanworks Form, found in an email we sent you, once you are done with your fanwork(s). This is how we track completion and can ensure that everyone got the works they won. You need to fill it out once per work.

It's been an amazing start of the year and we can't wait to see what comes next. Thank you for your bravery and your good vibes 🌞

[teamliftfest]

Workable prompt deadline - tomorrow

Hello everyone! Just a reminder that the deadline for providing the contributor with a workable prompt is Tuesday, 12/17 (tomorrow) at 9PM PT, bidders and contributors need to have worked out a prompt together that the contributors can create from. For those using Fan Labor, you both need to have worked out the how/what/why of how the fan labor will work.

If you are running into issues or need some mod help, please reach out to the team lift email - we'd be happy to help!

[teamliftfest]

Creators, today is your deadline to get in touch with your bidders 💪

We know most of you have gotten in touch with your bidders already so thank you!! If you have been holding off, please contact your bidders by midnight in your timezone. Bidders, if you have not heard from your creator(s), please email or DM a mod ASAP.

Thank you all!! We're so excited to see what you all create.

Contact bidder deadline on Sunday

Hello everyone! Reminder to creators that your deadline to get in contact with your winning and second chance bidders is this Sunday, 11/24. You do not need to have a workable prompt -- that deadline is in December -- but you do need to have made some form of contact with your bidder and opened the line of communication.

If you are running into any issues contacting your bidders (emails bouncing, for example), please reach out to your mods immediately! We're glad to help in anyway we can. Likewise, if you are a bidder who has not heard from your creator, reach out to us on Sunday if you still have not heard from them.

And to everyone - check your spam filters if you're missing an email 😅 Even your mods are getting Team Lift Fest emails caught in their spam filters.

Thank you all!

[teamliftfest]

Contact bidder deadline on Sunday

Hello everyone! Reminder to creators that your deadline to get in contact with your winning and second chance bidders is this Sunday, 11/24. You do not need to have a workable prompt -- that deadline is in December -- but you do need to have made some form of contact with your bidder and opened the line of communication.

If you are running into any issues contacting your bidders (emails bouncing, for example), please reach out to your mods immediately! We're glad to help in anyway we can. Likewise, if you are a bidder who has not heard from your creator, reach out to us on Sunday if you still have not heard from them.

And to everyone - check your spam filters if you're missing an email 😅 Even your mods are getting Team Lift Fest emails caught in their spam filters.

Thank you all!

[teamliftfest]

Hello everyone! We know many of you have been hard at work on your offerings so we wanted to offer a page to showcase your amazing works 🎉

Tag either blog if you post your work publicly on Tumblr and want to share and we'll reblog!

Public works created for @teamliftfest 🎉

Tag us or @teamliftfest and we'll reblog your works here.

Check out our AO3 collection as well.

[teamliftfest]

Donation total 🎉🎉

Happy Monday everybody! We have our donation total and we're not going to be chill about it because we're too excited.

Through 60 auctions and 78 total donations, together we raised:

$3453.43

Which is $2000 more than your mods thought we'd raise at best!

This is an incredible achievement from all of us and we could not be more excited by all that we have accomplished so far this year.

Your mods are incredibly humbled by the way you all showed up not only for these organizations, but for each other. So many of you told us you were signing up scared but you did it anyway! Every single auction had at least one bid and almost all over them were over the starting bid amount! Every single auction had their winning bidder come through with a donation! Many of you donated more than your winning bid! We'll provide a numbers breakdown under the cut but your mods cannot say it enough: we're so proud of all of you! Thank you, thank you, thank you for joining us in our inaugural year!

Under the cut we have a numbers break down of each organization if you're curious how much money went where. Some organizations received more than others, but know that for all of these organizations, $20 can be the difference between keeping the lights on versus being able offer more services.

If you're interested in what the donation before and after employer match was:

(ID in alt, message a mod if we messed something up!)

If you're interested in the breakdown by organization:

(Click to enlarge. ID in alt, message a mod if we messed something up!)

"Other" are the total number of donations from geographically local sports charities that bidders chose to donate to. These covered 8 different countries, 7 of which were outside of the USA!

Other fun numbers:

The average donation amount for each organization, including the geographically local organizations, was between $31-48 dollars!

The total number of extra donations (money donated on top of the winning bid) was $458.40!

We had 60 auctions, with 17 second chance bids (creators offering works for the runner up bidder), and 1 creator who chose to donate in honor of the fest on their own!

We can't overstate enough how excited we are and how grateful, too, that you all joined us in our inaugural year. The future looks very bright for these organizations with all your donations.

[teamliftfest]

Donation total 🎉🎉

Happy Monday everybody! We have our donation total and we're not going to be chill about it because we're too excited.

Through 60 auctions and 78 total donations, together we raised:

$3453.43

Which is $2000 more than your mods thought we'd raise at best!

This is an incredible achievement from all of us and we could not be more excited by all that we have accomplished so far this year.

Your mods are incredibly humbled by the way you all showed up not only for these organizations, but for each other. So many of you told us you were signing up scared but you did it anyway! Every single auction had at least one bid and almost all over them were over the starting bid amount! Every single auction had their winning bidder come through with a donation! Many of you donated more than your winning bid! We'll provide a numbers breakdown under the cut but your mods cannot say it enough: we're so proud of all of you! Thank you, thank you, thank you for joining us in our inaugural year!

Under the cut we have a numbers break down of each organization if you're curious how much money went where. Some organizations received more than others, but know that for all of these organizations, $20 can be the difference between keeping the lights on versus being able offer more services.

If you're interested in what the donation before and after employer match was:

(ID in alt, message a mod if we messed something up!)

If you're interested in the breakdown by organization:

(Click to enlarge. ID in alt, message a mod if we messed something up!)

"Other" are the total number of donations from geographically local sports charities that bidders chose to donate to. These covered 8 different countries, 7 of which were outside of the USA!

Other fun numbers:

The average donation amount for each organization, including the geographically local organizations, was between $31-48 dollars!

The total number of extra donations (money donated on top of the winning bid) was $458.40!

We had 60 auctions, with 17 second chance bids (creators offering works for the runner up bidder), and 1 creator who chose to donate in honor of the fest on their own!

We can't overstate enough how excited we are and how grateful, too, that you all joined us in our inaugural year. The future looks very bright for these organizations with all your donations.

[teamliftfest]

Donation total 🎉🎉

Happy Monday everybody! We have our donation total and we're not going to be chill about it because we're too excited.

Through 60 auctions and 78 total donations, together we raised:

$3453.43

Which is $2000 more than your mods thought we'd raise at best!

This is an incredible achievement from all of us and we could not be more excited by all that we have accomplished so far this year.

Your mods are incredibly humbled by the way you all showed up not only for these organizations, but for each other. So many of you told us you were signing up scared but you did it anyway! Every single auction had at least one bid and almost all over them were over the starting bid amount! Every single auction had their winning bidder come through with a donation! Many of you donated more than your winning bid! We'll provide a numbers breakdown under the cut but your mods cannot say it enough: we're so proud of all of you! Thank you, thank you, thank you for joining us in our inaugural year!

Under the cut we have a numbers break down of each organization if you're curious how much money went where. Some organizations received more than others, but know that for all of these organizations, $20 can be the difference between keeping the lights on versus being able offer more services.

If you're interested in what the donation before and after employer match was:

(ID in alt, message a mod if we messed something up!)

If you're interested in the breakdown by organization:

(Click to enlarge. ID in alt, message a mod if we messed something up!)

"Other" are the total number of donations from geographically local sports charities that bidders chose to donate to. These covered 8 different countries, 7 of which were outside of the USA!

Other fun numbers:

The average donation amount for each organization, including the geographically local organizations, was between $31-48 dollars!

The total number of extra donations (money donated on top of the winning bid) was $458.40!

We had 60 auctions, with 17 second chance bids (creators offering works for the runner up bidder), and 1 creator who chose to donate in honor of the fest on their own!

We can't overstate enough how excited we are and how grateful, too, that you all joined us in our inaugural year. The future looks very bright for these organizations with all your donations.

[teamliftfest]

Proof of donations due tomorrow🎉

Happy first of November everyone! Reminder that Proof of donations by ALL bidders need to be in by 11/2 at 9PM UTC-8 (Pacific Time). [what time is that for me?] You have about a day and a half to get those in. We are missing only a handful of bidders and we'd hate for anyone to miss out.

Your mods are very excited to share final numbers -- we're well past the total amount of donations we thought the fest would gain -- and we cannot wait to show you all how much you have accomplished in our inaugural year. So if you've been waiting to donate, now is your last chance! Let's do this together 💪

[teamliftfest]

Winning bidders and creators, please check your spam filters if you think you are missing an email from us!

We have had some reports of our emails getting caught by spam filters 🥲 What happens when you are sending dozens of emails with mostly the same text, surely. If you are still missing an email from us (letting you know of a winning or second chance bid, introducing you to your bidder etc), please reach out as soon as possible.

Thank you all for your patience 💪

[teamliftfest]

An additional question!

The deadline for having a workable prompt is 12/17, but do those prompts need to be submitted to Team Lift Fest? This is a great question, and the answer is no! The workable prompts are between the creators and bidders and we trust that you guys have figured it out if we haven't heard from you. However, if you have any concerns leading up to that deadline, please do reach out and let us know so we can help. And if you don't have a workable prompt by the deadline, definitely let us know!

A couple reminders and a short FAQ 🎉

Happy Sunday everybody! We have a couple of mod notes for you. We do not have final donation numbers for you yet as we are still waiting on a handful of donations but those numbers will be coming!

A couple of reminders for bidders (second chance and winning) and creators (all):

Proof of donations by ALL bidders need to be in by 11/2 at 9PM UTC-8 (Pacific Time). [what time is that for me?] You have about a week to get those in.

Creators/contributors need to be in contact with their winning AND second chance bidder (if you have one) by 11/24 at 9PM UTC-8 (Pacific Time). [what time is that for me?]

Creators/contributors and bidders (all) need to have a workable prompt with your winning bid is 12/17 at 9PM UTC-8 (Pacific Time). [what time is that for me?] A workable prompt means creators has at least the broad strokes of what they're going to create for bidders and contributors know exactly how they are going to help bidders.

Keep those dates in mind, because we will be checking in with you before those deadlines by email! Some of you are already hard at work and that's amazing 🎉 We can't wait to see what you create together!

And a short FAQ:

Do I need to cc the Team Lift Fest email in all my emails to the bidder? Nope! We trust that you are or will be in contact with each other once we send that introductory email. If your emails are bouncing when you contact your bidder or if you're having trouble getting in contact due to technology, definitely reach out to us, but if you're in regular communication with your bidder, there's no need to cc us. We trust you 😄

What do I say when I contact my bidder? A good question that we've gotten a couple of times. Your mods' shorthand is: thank them for their generosity and start by asking what they're interested in, did they have any ideas for you, what are they excited about working with you on? For fanfic authors: it may help to ask if they have a list of likes and dislikes so you can start thinking about what they like and what to avoid. For fan labor: it may help to ask exactly what they need help with or why they bid on you or what they wanted to work with you on. For fan art: ask about prompts, mood boards, reference photos, basically anything that will help both you and them bring their idea to life! For podfic: ask what fics they have in mind to record, remind them of best practices in podficcing, and work with them to hit your recording word count!

If you have any questions, email the mods! We'd rather spend a couple minutes answer questions than have you flounder and not know what to do. All questions are good questions and we're happy to help you out!

[teamliftfest]

A couple reminders and a short FAQ 🎉

Happy Sunday everybody! We have a couple of mod notes for you. We do not have final donation numbers for you yet as we are still waiting on a handful of donations but those numbers will be coming!

A couple of reminders for bidders (second chance and winning) and creators (all):

Proof of donations by ALL bidders need to be in by 11/2 at 9PM UTC-8 (Pacific Time). [what time is that for me?] You have about a week to get those in.

Creators/contributors need to be in contact with their winning AND second chance bidder (if you have one) by 11/24 at 9PM UTC-8 (Pacific Time). [what time is that for me?]

Creators/contributors and bidders (all) need to have a workable prompt with your winning bid is 12/17 at 9PM UTC-8 (Pacific Time). [what time is that for me?] A workable prompt means creators has at least the broad strokes of what they're going to create for bidders and contributors know exactly how they are going to help bidders.

Keep those dates in mind, because we will be checking in with you before those deadlines by email! Some of you are already hard at work and that's amazing 🎉 We can't wait to see what you create together!

And a short FAQ:

Do I need to cc the Team Lift Fest email in all my emails to the bidder? Nope! We trust that you are or will be in contact with each other once we send that introductory email. If your emails are bouncing when you contact your bidder or if you're having trouble getting in contact due to technology, definitely reach out to us, but if you're in regular communication with your bidder, there's no need to cc us. We trust you 😄

What do I say when I contact my bidder? A good question that we've gotten a couple of times. Your mods' shorthand is: thank them for their generosity and start by asking what they're interested in, did they have any ideas for you, what are they excited about working with you on? For fanfic authors: it may help to ask if they have a list of likes and dislikes so you can start thinking about what they like and what to avoid. For fan labor: it may help to ask exactly what they need help with or why they bid on you or what they wanted to work with you on. For fan art: ask about prompts, mood boards, reference photos, basically anything that will help both you and them bring their idea to life! For podfic: ask what fics they have in mind to record, remind them of best practices in podficcing, and work with them to hit your recording word count!

If you have any questions, email the mods! We'd rather spend a couple minutes answer questions than have you flounder and not know what to do. All questions are good questions and we're happy to help you out!

[teamliftfest]

Creators, check your emails please 🤲

We had a question for you that may affect your auction(s). Thank you!

[teamliftfest]

ANOTHER good question from a bidder outside of the USA!

How do I show exchange rate?

We do not require exchange rate proof but we certainly appreciate it for our records! (And so we don't have to do extra math 😅) A screen shot of a currency exchange calculator will suffice.

Donation questions

Happy Friday everyone 🎉 As we near the end of bidding tomorrow night, your mods are starting to get more questions about donations as people start thinking about what they want to bid on. We're starting an FAQ post here.

Many of these questions will have further instructions in an email you will receive if you win an auction, but we'll try to answer them as thoroughly as we can here too.

Keep those questions coming - we'd rather spend 15 minutes updating this post than have you be confused for the next day and a half!

Donation FAQ:

Can I split my donation between multiple charities?

Absolutely! When you submit your proof of donation (usually in the form of a screenshot of your donation receipt), we will ask you to submit individual proof from each charity you donate to so that we know that you did donate the total amount of your winning bid.

Do you accept employer matching for donations?

Yes!! We love employer matching. When you receive an email notifying you that you've won an auction, we'll include further information about reporting the match amount - we include it in our final totals. We do not ask for proof from you or your employer.

Can I include donations as charitable donations on my taxes (in the USA)?

HUGE CAVEAT THAT WE ARE NOT FINANCIAL CONSULTANTS, THIS IS NOT TAX ADVICE: you are donating directly to the charity with no intermediary involved. The auction you win is a nonbinding agreement between you and creator, because though we strongly encourage completion, we cannot guarantee it. Neither the fest mods nor the creator receives any money from you or the charities in this process.

We hope that helps clarify it a little bit. If nothing else, we're assuming none of you are reporting to a Fortune 500 company their matching donation is also getting you a 20k omegaverse fanfic (as an example). Do with that information what you will 🕴️

[teamliftfest]

Another good question from a bidder!

Can I donate more than I bid?

Yes! You can absolutely donate more than you bid. On the donation proof form, you will be able to report how much (more) you donated, if you donated more than your winning bid amount. This number will be recorded in our final totals.

Donation questions

Happy Friday everyone 🎉 As we near the end of bidding tomorrow night, your mods are starting to get more questions about donations as people start thinking about what they want to bid on. We're starting an FAQ post here.

Many of these questions will have further instructions in an email you will receive if you win an auction, but we'll try to answer them as thoroughly as we can here too.

Keep those questions coming - we'd rather spend 15 minutes updating this post than have you be confused for the next day and a half!

Donation FAQ:

Can I split my donation between multiple charities?

Absolutely! When you submit your proof of donation (usually in the form of a screenshot of your donation receipt), we will ask you to submit individual proof from each charity you donate to so that we know that you did donate the total amount of your winning bid.

Do you accept employer matching for donations?

Yes!! We love employer matching. When you receive an email notifying you that you've won an auction, we'll include further information about reporting the match amount - we include it in our final totals. We do not ask for proof from you or your employer.

Can I include donations as charitable donations on my taxes (in the USA)?

HUGE CAVEAT THAT WE ARE NOT FINANCIAL CONSULTANTS, THIS IS NOT TAX ADVICE: you are donating directly to the charity with no intermediary involved. The auction you win is a nonbinding agreement between you and creator, because though we strongly encourage completion, we cannot guarantee it. Neither the fest mods nor the creator receives any money from you or the charities in this process.

We hope that helps clarify it a little bit. If nothing else, we're assuming none of you are reporting to a Fortune 500 company their matching donation is also getting you a 20k omegaverse fanfic (as an example). Do with that information what you will 🕴️

[teamliftfest]

All winning bidders have been contacted

Hello everyone! As of right now, all winning bidders have been contacted. Please check the email you bid under.

The deadline to provide proof of donation is 11/2 at 9PM UTC-8 (Pacific Time). [what time is that for me?] All instructions are in the email you received today.

These emails were not automated and your mods are coming off a couple of marathon weeks, personally and with the auction, so human error is likely. If you see anything that doesn't look right (incorrect bid amounts, for example), please reach out to us as soon as possible. There is no such thing as a stupid question and we are here to help! We'd rather spend 15 minutes sorting out an email mistake than have you be confused.

Contributors - some of you received emails from the mods with a question about your auction(s). Please check your emails and respond within the next 48 hours. If you as a creator did not receive an email from us, you have nothing to worry about!

THANK YOU ALL 🎉🎉 We're not going to share the total amount raised until we have all donations in and accounted for, but the preliminary math has us hyped.