What's a Manga Library?  Why Should I Care?

The Carolina Manga Library is a non-profit organization that sets up free libraries at conventions for all attendees to enjoy. They bring over 5000 manga, American graphic novels, webcomics, and novels for fans to enjoy. By setting up a quiet place for people to relax at conventions, the Library seeks to promote literacy through the medium that they love.

The Library was founded in 2013, debuting at Nashicon in Columbia, South Carolina. Since then, the Library has been guests at conventions all over the eastern United States and their collection becomes larger with every passing month, having expanded to all forms of graphic novels. 

This group travels all around the US to set up these libraries to provide free access to graphic novels to underprivileged areas and to foster a life-long love of reading.  They set up at schools, hospitals, conventions, public libraries, and shelters.

What's Going On?

In the wake of the COVID-19 virus pandemic, more and more large gatherings are being forbidden by various cities in the United States.  This has unfortunately shown that many large scale events like conventions are now being closed down for 2020.

Our largest spring event was scheduled to take place March 19-21 in Lancaster, PA.  That event has now been cancelled with less than a week to go.  

This event was supposed to be our largest spring fundraising event.  We usually raise about 20% of our annual budget at this show.  Without that show happening, we will not be able to pay our bills in March, April, or early May.  Our next event isn't scheduled until mid-May.  

How Can You Help?

After the massive success of our Trailer GoFundMe in 2019, we did not want to do another GoFundMe where our supporters didn't receive anything other than thanks for their generosity.  

Most of the other vendors/artists who were supposed to attend these cancelled shows have the ability to have online sales to try to generate lost revenue.  As a nonprofit, we do not have that luxury.  Instead, we've decided to utilize Indiegogo so that our supporters can have a tangible piece of our gratitude.

We need to raise $2000 to pay our bills for the months of March, April, and May.  This does not include any salaries, this is strictly to keep the vehicles, storage units, and liability insurance paid for.  Anything raised over the initial $2000 will be put away in case any other conventions cancel on us.

What Do I Get?

Below are descriptions of our tiered donation rewards!

$10: Button Set

$25: Button Set + 2 Bookmarks

If you donate at this tier you will receive our two exclusively designed bookmarks featuring our two mascots, Caro and Lina, at leisure in their own homes.  These designs are ONLY available on our bookmarks!  Each bookmark comes with a colored tassel and star charm, as well as a holographic backing that makes each bookmark 100% unique.  The bookmarks are enclosed in a durable plastic sheath.

$50: Button Set + 2 Bookmarks + Sparkle Jar (Small)

If you donate at this tier you will receive a custom-made small Sparkle Jar.  Each donor will be asked their favorite colors and our Head Librarian will create a customized, one-of-a-kind sparkle jar for you to enjoy.  All the bottles are made of durable, nearly-unbreakable plastic and are sealed shut with a combination of wood glue, Gorilla Glue, and rubber cement.  

$100:   Button Set + 2 Bookmarks + Sparkle Jar (Small) + Shelf Dedication

If you donate at this tier you will receive the opportunity to dedicate one of our bookshelves to the person or organization of your choice.  Each donor will provide their dedication and we will create a custom plaque just for you.  Each plaque will be affixed to the top of our of our shelves.  Everyone who visits our Library will forever see your contribution and dedication to our cause of improving literacy.  

$500: Trailer Dedication

If you donate at this tier your name will be added to our list of donors on the back doors of our trailer!  This can be either your personal name or the name of your company.  This can be text only, or we will create a custom vinyl sticker of your logo (must be provided by you).  This trailer travels with us to all of our events, so everyone will see how wonderful you are!

Risks & Challenges

If we fail to raise the money required, we risk the very real possibility of going out of business.  If our vehicles get taken away, the Library cannot be transported to events. If we lose our storage unit, the books risk being damaged while they sit in our Head Librarian's garage.  

All the items being given as reward tiers are hand-made except the donor plaques.  We anticipate a very quick turnaround time to get the items shipped out to donors as our creators currently do not have shows to attend due to the cancellations.  

Other Ways You Can Help

• Sharing this fundraiser is a huge help to us!  There are many forums, social media threads, and websites where creators and vendors affected by the COVID-19 shutdowns are banding together to share info and help generate lost revenue.  We are sure we don't know of all of them and we are sure that you know some that we don't!

• You can also donate directly at our website:  https://carolinamangalibrary.com/donate-funds/

Stretch Goal 3: $5000: Making it to September

Since we have 9 more days of the fundraiser, we are going to try and make it to our highest goal ever, $5000!  We've never raised this much money before, so let's give it a shot!

If we make it to this goal, our Head Librarian will start a Twitch account and start streaming her two panels "Great Graphic Novels You Should Be Reading" and "What the %#@& Did I Just Read?!" on a weekly basis.  These will also be released via Youtube.  

Funds raised to this level will enable us to stay in business to September 2020 in the event of more event cancellations.

Stretch Goal 1: $3000: Making it to July

We have to raise another $1000 because we just lost another huge event in May!  If we do this, we will be able to keep going until June!  We actually cannot change our total funding goal on Indiegogo, so we will add this Stretch Goal instead.  

We will also be extending the campaign an extra 15 days.

Stretch Goal 2: $4000: Making it to August

Since Indiegogo won't let us end the campaign early, we will have a second stretch goal of $4000.  If we reach that goal, all donors above the $25 tier will receive a Manga Library Pop Socket!   Funds raised to this level will enable us to stay in business to August 2020 in the event of more event cancellations.