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How Much Does it Cost to be a Nerdfighter

2024-02-16 · letter vlog · Hank · 7:40 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Nerdfighteria (also: Global development) · mode: Personal essay · tags: calendar ritual, fundraising ask, community lore, self promotion

As P4A 2024 goes live, Hank argues there is no monetary requirement to be a nerdfighter: the P4A matters beyond the money, attention and excitement do real work (as with Danaher's TB tests), and wanting to be one is enough; he then introduces Save the Children, Partners In Health (whose P4A share now goes to tuberculosis) and the perks.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — P4A 2024 begins; record matching fund over $900,000; donate ask

  • ★★★ Hank says the Project for Awesome 2024 is beginning as he uploads the video. — 00:00:00 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank says that, helped by many community donations, the matching fund is for the first time at a record over $900,000, so every dollar donated becomes $2. — 00:00:00 · Project for Awesome, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★★ Hank asks viewers to donate at projectforawesome.com/donate: a $125 donation becomes $250 for charity. — 00:00:00 · Project for Awesome

00:00:29 — No monetary requirement to be a nerdfighter: the MCOE effort, P4A slogans, perk prices, Danaher, Hank's spreadsheet, zero dollars to sign up

  • ★★★ Heading into this year (2024), Hank says there is no monetary requirement to be a member of this community. — 00:00:29 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Hank recalls that John convinced him to help raise $25 million to build the Maternal Center of Excellence in Sierra Leone with Partners In Health, which was scary and motivating. — 00:00:29 · John Green, Maternal Center of Excellence, Partners In Health, Sierra Leone
  • ★★ Hank says the goal of raising $25 million for the Maternal Center of Excellence caused many of their ideas, like the Awesome Socks Club and the Awesome Coffee Club, and many asks of individuals and the community. — 00:00:58 · Awesome Socks Club, Awesome Coffee Club, Nerdfighteria, Maternal Center of Excellence
  • ★★★ Hank says Partners In Health took a chance and they delivered, not because everyone gave but because there are many of them and those who could or wanted to did. — 00:00:58 · Partners In Health, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Hank recalls that about 12 years ago (around 2012), during a P4A, he and Ethan Newberry wrote the song Look at Hank's Face live on stream; its last words, from a P4A comment, became a P4A slogan. — 00:01:27 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank says another P4A slogan asks donors to make sound financial decisions: you are your first responsibility. — 00:01:27 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank says many people now budget for the Project for Awesome when building their yearly budget. — 00:01:56 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ Hank says the P4A is amazing because it is huge, impactful and important, but not only because of the money raised. — 00:01:56 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank says yearly comments like 'this is the first year I was able to donate' feel good not because the person can now donate but because they were always giving to and getting from the P4A. — 00:01:56 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ To simplify the P4A this year (2024) there are fewer perks, and prices of some physical perks are raised because distribution is harder and the dollar has lost value. — 00:02:26 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank feels conflicted about raising prices: he wants everyone to be able to contribute in every way, and also wants the P4A to raise the most money possible. — 00:02:26 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ Hank says dollars are only one way the work gets done: just being there raises money because it raises excitement, and excited people are more likely to give if they can. — 00:02:55
  • ★★★ Hank says the community's biggest economic impact is probably pushing Danaher to lower the cost of its TB test, which took not money but time and attention. (hedged) — 00:02:55 · tuberculosis, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Hank credits John's genius: finding the thing where no one had yet put the leverage. — 00:03:24 · John Green
  • ★★ Hank made a spreadsheet scoring his activities on about ten categories (fun, goofy, good for family); the P4A scored highest by far, above Vlogbrothers, as a measure of desire, not impact. — 00:03:24 · Project for Awesome, Vlogbrothers

  • ★★★ Hank repeats words they used to say often: wanting to be a nerdfighter makes you a nerdfighter, and signing up costs zero dollars. — 00:03:53 · nerdfighter

    “If you want to be a nerdfighter, that means you're a nerdfighter.”

  • ★★ Hank dislikes that membership sometimes doesn't feel free and wants to do things that make it feel less that way. — 00:03:53

00:04:36 — Tentpole organizations: Save the Children (Gaza, Yemen, Syria, Ukraine) and Partners In Health, whose P4A money now goes to tuberculosis

  • ★★ Hank says the P4A looks at how the world sucks and at people working to fix it, because they deserve support and because gratitude is more productive than hopelessness. — 00:04:36 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank says Save the Children focuses where children need most support, now Gaza, where it delivers aid, and also works in war- and disaster-hit places like Yemen, Syria and Ukraine. — 00:04:36 · Save the Children
  • ★★ Hank says they work with Partners In Health because it sees crises where others see the status quo and stays focused on huge problems, news or not, by strengthening health systems. — 00:05:05 · Partners In Health
  • ★★★ For the first time in a long time, P4A money will not go to the Maternal Center of Excellence, now pretty well supported, but to the global fight against tuberculosis. — 00:05:05 · Partners In Health, Maternal Center of Excellence, tuberculosis, Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank says tuberculosis is the deadliest infectious disease in the world. — 00:05:05 · tuberculosis

00:05:34 — Closing slogan and the P4A 2024 perks: bundles, Rax perk, art, zines, art exchange, physical bundle

  • ★★ Hank invites everyone to be in the room together on the livestream, celebrating this one life, each other and the helpers. — 00:05:34 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ The digital download bundle has Hank's first stand-up set, exclusive podcasts, John and Hank's TikTok drafts and the first chapters of John's new book. — 00:05:34 · TikTok, Everything Is Tuberculosis, John Green
  • ★★ Because cancer got in the way, they could not deliver last year's (2023) Hank and John's Raxcellent Adventure perk, so it is offered again; last year's (2023) buyers were emailed. — 00:06:04 · cancer, John Green
  • ★ Hank shows a lovely, non-itchy scarf perk, joking that scarves are great because they only come in one size. (playful) — 00:06:04
  • ★★ Perks not yet online include Hank's Hanklerfish and quote posters by artist Kenton Hoppas; Katherine's art and Sarah's collage art are always added during the P4A. — 00:06:33 · Hanklerfish, Katherine Green, Sarah Urist Green, Sarah Urist Green's collage poems, Project for Awesome
  • ★★ A Nerdfighter named Alys made zines adapting Vlogbrothers videos into art; after she made one on her own, Hank paid her to make more as P4A perks. — 00:06:33 · Vlogbrothers, Project for Awesome
  • ★★ The Nerdfighter art perk is a giant art exchange: people send in art that is sent on to donors, who don't know what they'll get, but it will be made by a human with love. — 00:07:02 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ The physical 'download' bundle, shipped, includes the scarf, a commemorative coin, pennies, a pin, a sticker pack Drawfee will design during the stream and a signed thank-you card from John. — 00:07:02 · John Green
  • ★★ Hank points viewers to projectforawesome.com/donate to donate, projectforawesome.com to vote on charities, and /live to join the livestream. — 00:07:31 · Project for Awesome

In the description and comments

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: nerdfighter · Project for Awesome

Also: Projects: Awesome Coffee Club · Awesome Socks Club

Works: Alice's Vlogbrothers zines · Everything Is Tuberculosis · Hanklerfish · Look at Hank's Face · Sarah Urist Green's collage poems

Organizations: Danaher Corporation · Maternal Center of Excellence · Partners In Health · Rax Restaurants (“Raxalent”) · Save the Children · TikTok

Concepts: cancer · gratitude · infectious disease · inflation · personal finance · stand-up comedy · tuberculosis

Places: Gaza Strip · Sierra Leone · Syria · Ukraine · Yemen

Only in the description or credits: Alys · Drawfee · Ethan Newberry · Katherine Green · Kenton Hoppas · Sarah Urist Green

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