Patrick Rothfuss is the brilliant, witty man who brought readers The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man’s Fear, which, if you haven’t read them…let’s just say you’re missing out. A lot. On life. You may have heard of him…

But more than just being an amazingly talented and evocative author, Pat is a wonderful person. Anyone who’s read his blog would probably come to the same conclusion. After hanging out with him at Gen Con a couple of years ago, my high opinion of him was further confirmed.

In addition to his just general awesomeness and being a good person, Pat also runs a charity called Worldbuilders. Worldbuilders benefits Heifer International, which is a charity that helps provide animals and clean water to impoverished families. But they don’t just drop off their products and leave; Heifer takes the time to educate families about sustainable farming, how to make cheese and milk from their animals, and how to use the products from their animals to not just feed their family, but to also to make a little money too. This lets their children stop working and go to school, which helps them learn and better themselves.

Cool enough on its own, but wait, there’s more. Every year, Pat gets authors, artists, and other companies to donate tons and tons of things as giveaway items to the people who donate. Basically, for every $10 you donate, your name goes in the hat. Then, at the end of the couple of months that Pat runs his charity, names are pulled from the hat and prizes are sent out.

I’m not just talking a book or two; I’m talking hundreds and hundreds of books. Rare books, signed books, first edition books. And not just books. One of the prizes last year was a collection of Joss Whedon films and TV shows. Some are audio books, and some are mentions in a future book by Pat himself. Oh, and there’s always the one where Pat will do you a favor, though he does have a few rules on this one.

But it’s not like Pat just sits idly by while other people donate money to his charity. Besides donating his time arranging for all the donations from authors and other companies, he also personally contributed a major portion of his own money to the charity last year, which pretty much drained his bank account.

Anyway, the point is, the charity kicked off December 2nd, and woah, does it have some good prizes in the lottery already! Just check out this list of gorgeous, some of them signed, books from Subterranean Press. So, if you feel in the giving mood this holiday season, this charity is one of the best ones to give to. Not only are you helping save the world one family or community at a time, you could also get a little something something (besides a tax break) in the mail after a couple of months. How freaking awesome is that?

And if the lottery option isn’t your cup of tea, then you can always check out the sure deals: the auctions. One grouping of these is different authors or editors will read and critique your manuscript. Awesome, right? Some are just things that are way, way cool, like super-signed books, signed first edition books, etc. Like the lottery option, all of the money donated through the auction goes to charity. If you opt for an auction, the only catch is that you can’t claim it on your taxes, because you technically bought something.

Aaaand they have stretch goals, kind of like a Kickstarter. In the first day, they’ve already hit their first $25,000 stretch goal, which is amazingly awesome. Check out all the current stretch goals:

• $25,000 – Peter V. Brett shaves Myke Cole’s head!
• $50,000 – Paul & Storm re-tool the lyrics for “Write Like the Wind” to fit another slow-writing fantasy author you may have heard of…
• $75,000 – Jim Hines does a very special, and probably very disturbing, Poser cover parody.
• $100,000 – Brandon Sanderson will live-stream writing a story, so you can see him work his magic.

The fundraiser runs until February 2, 2014 at 11:59 pm CST. Here’s the donation page, here’s the official Worldbuilders website, and here’s Pat’s blog. Both the Worldbuilders page and Pat’s blog will be updated every day or so with more information, lottery items, and stretch goals, so check it out!

Check out our other awesome holiday content as NBF celebrates the joy of being a geek during present season!