For the next three months, Mycena Cave is raising money for a charity called RAICES. They work to provide free and low-cost legal help to immigrant children, families, and refugees in the United States, who are often thrust into untenable conditions without a clear way forward.

As mentioned in the July news, this coat is called Summer Sweet and was created by Hush!

Summer Sweet will be sold for $15.76 for a 3-month period, ending on October 8th 23:59 Server Time. At the end of this time, all proceeds from the sale of this coat will be donated to RAICES, and a mushroom for the coat will be placed permanently in Fungimental Magic where it will be available for purchase for 54,000 nuggets.

The reason for this somewhat unusual price is in order to cover payment processor transaction fees. When we charge $15.76, our payment processor takes $0.76, and we receive $15.00. That way, each of these purchases will result in raising $15 for RAICES. Mycena Cave is covering the cost of the coat creation and is not deducting it from the proceeds.

Thank you to those who filled our the feedback form! It helped us determine the price of the Coats for a Cause and will also help guide us in determining the types of charities and frequency of charity drives in the future! Below are some statistics from the feedback:

• 61 players filled out the form
• 32% of respondents thought $20 would be an ideal price for Coats for a Cause, 29% said $15, 29% said $10, 7% said $25, and 3% said $30.
• 87% of respondents said they were very likely (rated 4 or 5) to buy the coat if priced within their budget. 12% were in the middle, and 2% were unlikely (rated 1 or 2) to buy the coat.
• 74% of respondents said they would buy 1 coat if it was set at their ideal price, 18% said 2 coats, 5% said more than 2 coats, and 3% said 0 coats.
• If set well below the respondent’s ideal price, 39% said they would buy 1 coat, 39% said they would buy 2 coats, 18% said they would buy more than 2 coats, and 3% said they would buy 0 coats.
• Top 5 categories of non-profit organizations that respondents would like Mycena Cave to promote/support:
  • Animals (90% of respondents selected this)
  • Environment (77%)
  • Human and Civil Rights (74%)
  • Education (64%)
  • Human Services (53%)
• 93% of respondents would like us to promote non-profits in the future by releasing more Coats for a Cause, 77% would like us to release items, 64% would like us to have charity auctions for pre-made unique coats, and 39% would like us to have certain months where we donate half our our gem profits.
• 41% of respondents would like us to promote/fund raise for a new charity every three months, 26% would like it as often as possible, 12% would like it once every four months, 12% would like it once a year, and 10% once every six months.

Here are a few comments that were either repeated or we wanted to address!

Will there be a place to suggest specific charities or categories (e.g. LGBTQIA+-related charities which was our most requested in the “other” category)?

We will likely take suggestions, and we’ll let everyone know where they can submit charities they’d like to see us support. Doing a Dory to select charities with a lot of player interest might be something worth trying too!

Will players be able to see total amount that will be donated?

Yes, we have a tracker on the Coats for a Cause donation page that updates automatically as players buy the coat.

What will the rarity of the coats/items be?

Summer Sweet will be sold for USD for three months and then “retired” to Fungimental magic where players can purchase the mushroom for nuggets, so we imagine it won’t be super rare! Anything else we do in the future will likely be similar to this unless we need to make adjustments.

How will we know if the charity being promoted is using the money in the most effective way possible?

As another player pointed out in a different comment, there are sites like CharityWatch and Charity Navigator that look at how money within charities flows. When selecting a charities, we will be sure to do our research to make sure we’re donating to a charity that is fiscally responsible and follow best practices. Here is the Charity Navigator page for RAICES, for example!

Will we be able to use Paypal?

We recommend using a credit or debit card if possible. That being said, if Paypal is your only option, please reach out to glitch who will get a Paypal invoice out to you. Note that Paypal processing fees can be variable, depending on various factors including your location, and so may result in a smaller net donation to RAICES.

If I’m in the EU, can I use a credit card?

Yes! European law only limits our ability to accept European credit card transactions for gem purchases in the Cave Exchange. You can use credit cards in all other shops on Mycena Cave, including this one.

Cien beat me by a few seconds lol.

Hooray!

I absolutely love this idea and I might’ve already bought a coat! I’m incredibly excited for Coats for a Cause, and Hush’s design is just so cute. Between Burnt Sugar and this coat, it sure is a sweet summer so far!

edit: haha, sorry Jacq! I jumped as soon as I saw them. :D

...groans!  It is your site, and of course you can do as you like, but I feel horrible about this!  I come to pet sites to escape real world issues.  You are bursting my illusion bubble. 

If it had been something like ‘oh we went to donate to our local cat/dog/horse’ charity, I would have been happy as that is neutral, and animals are in alignment with the Ineki on here.  It adds to the safe illusion. 

Of course it is my choice to ignore, no matter how cute the coat is.  I can only hope this will be a one off.  Please! keep the Cave free of real world influences!!!

(and if course if you dislike the charity but like the coat, you can get one that you can know was not connected to a donation) glitch

Thank you for giving us options.  It was a rude shock to my pet site/safe zone bubble, but I’m glad you give us options.

Hey for anyone who can’t pay USD right now, I’m selling slots to buy the coat for nuggets! Link to sales thread

The coat isn’t terribly up my alley, but I definitely want to send some money RAICES’ way. They’re doing good work in hard times. (I’ve done my own research on immigration charities and RAICES is old, established, and has the ability to put donations to use in an effective way)

Thank you so much for doing this. While income has been exceptionally tight for me locally, so much as having a pet like this will help me feel like I’m doing more than I normally can afford to.

Given the current climate, I think your charity choice is exceptional and I would love to see more opportunities to support the disenfranchised, even if I only have digital currency to spare, haha!

~I

Edit:

THESE ARE SO CUTE AND I LOVE THEM

I just wanna reiterate how amazing this is and how much respect I have for y’all to even think of this, not to mention following through and being so thorough!!!!!! I’m so hype to contribute and to see what comes next!

Seriously, Chimerical / Dove / whoever bought Ishy&Sapphy’s / etc. you guys rock :)

Also, it’s worth noting that while the version of this coat that will become available via mushroom is identical in every way, those that are actually attached to a donation are denoted as “Charity Cat Ineki” on the profile pages, whereas those that aren’t attached to a donation (e.g. bought from Fungimental Magic) are not:

Donation	No Donation

We made the differentiation as small and unobtrusive as possible to avoid creating a “limited edition” situation, while still preserving their status as representative or not representative of an actual donation after the mushroom hits Fungimental Magic and these Mycenians get gifted and traded around. That way, if you are unable to participate during this drive but manage to acquire a “Charity” version later, you can be happy to know that the Mycenian you received is representative of a donation to the charity (and if course if you dislike the charity but like the coat, you can get one that you can know was not connected to a donation).

I’m loving being able to see how much has been raised! RAICES is such a good charity and I couldn’t be more thrilled that MC chose it for its first ever Coats for a Cause. It just… it fills my heart with joy. Ahh. I also think it’s really neat that charity donation pets will be identifiable from the ones bought later on! That’s a cool detail.

And, yeah, totally in awe of everyone donating and helping others who can’t buy one get the coat! That’s so nice. ;-; Shout out to Cosmo for doing a double donation to help me get one. <333

Hi I’ve already stated that I love everything about this but I love everything about this. The charity choice is well-informed, the donation page is transparent, the pet is adorable, and we can even see how much we’ve raised! Shout out to the admins for putting this together, Hush for creating the coat, and everyone else who’s helping spread the sweet summer love! <3

I think it’s admirable that MC has chosen to host a charity drive and dedicated itself to doing more of these in the future. It’s something I’ve never seen another pet site do, but the chance to participate in a crowd fundraiser in a community like this is something that I’m incredibly grateful for. It gives me an opportunity to help both people in need and people who want the coat!

I love that MC is doing this. <3 Hoping to see many more charity coats in the future. <33

Elfe Oxton

The EU law that makes us unable to accept credit cards from people located in the EU places restrictions on sales if both of two conditions are met:

• The thing being purchased falls under a specific definition of “digital good” published by the EU
• The delivery of the goods being purchased is automatic

Taking Mycena Cave processes and procedures into account, virtual currencies are the only goods we sell that qualify as a “digital good with automatic processing” under this definition, and gems are the only thing we sell that qualifies as a virtual currency: paw prints are not a currency because they cannot be traded, but are immediately and permanently applied to a good being purchased (and thus are merely indicators of a “percent paid” marker). The reason we can accept Paypal purchases for gems from people located in the EU is because it’s a manual process and so delivery is not automatic.

Edited to clarify an over-generalization.

This is a quick reminder that there are only 8 days left for this fundraiser. If you were planning on buying a Summer Sweet while they’re still a charity coat, make sure to do it this week!

On another note, I’m floored at the response this has gotten. With about a week to go we’re only a tiny bit shy of having raised one thousand dollars for RAICES. You are all amazing <3

Thank you to everyone who came out and bought a Summer Sweet! Together we raised $1,230 for RAICES:

We will be adding the mushroom to Fungimental Magic within the next couple days. We’ll also post again with confirmation once the donation to RAICSE has been made :)

Purr

I can’t speak to when the coat will be added to fungimental magic (as I do not have the knowledge and am not involved in the process), but the only proof of donation will be what is outlined in this post. That has already been implemented.