Many fans have many questions. Although we have many answers, if you still can't find the answer you are looking for, please do get in contact with us.

1. Have you tried to contact Michael's family members or the Michael Jackson Estate?
2. Are you a 'registered' or 'recognised' charity?
3. Can we use your logos to promote your charitable project?
4. What is "Michael Jackson Monthly Giving"?
5. Why did you set up this project?
6. Why can't we just donate to whoever we want monthly?
7. Where does the money go?
8. How do we know the donation is actually being made?
9. How much are the transaction fees?
10. How can I trust you?
11. How do I donate and vote?
12. What is Top-Up the Pot?
13. How does the voting work?
14. How do you decide where help is needed the most?
15. What are personal appeals/grants?

Michael's Family. No.
We have always believed that our initiative will continue along its lifetime in the way that it was destined to. If its future involves any family members then we would of course welcome their input.

The Michael Jackson Estate. Yes.
On the 16th December 2011 we reached out to the Michael Jackson Estate. Jeff Jampol from The MJ Online Team replied later on the same day, here is an excerpt:

"We, and the Estate, thank you for your interest in supporting Michael's charitable wishes. The Estate fully appreciates the desire of you and all of Michael’s fans to demonstrate their support for Michael’s humanitarian goals by contributing to charitable efforts, either financially or through volunteerism and are looking forward to sharing with the fans (and the world at large) the way in which they intend to implement Michael’s wishes under his will to have a certain portion of his estate benefit charities.

I realize we are asking you to accept our word for this but we can assure you that, although we are not at liberty to provide any details at the present time, the process is well underway but there are many steps that have to be taken before any announcement can be made. Bear with us, keep your faith, commitment and patience. Just know that this is an important concern and focus for the Estate.

In the meantime, we must advise you that for various reasons, including the Estate’s own plans, it is not possible for the Estate to consider endorsing or supporting outside projects, no matter how well intentioned"

We will post any other developments here.

To enable us to provide financial aid to ANYONE we feel needs it going forward (suggested by and voted for by MJFFC Members), we are not able to be recognised or registered as a charity in the United Kingdom.

The plan has always been for MJFFC to be big enough to put additional plans into place that will involve volunteers and paid staff to work for MJFFC full time and visit countries to provide technical assistance and aid directly. This of course means that at that point we WILL be aiming to register as a recognised charitable organisation in the United Kingdom. More about our future plans are here.

Yes, but please let us know!

Being notified of where our images and content is being used, helps us to work out how you are making an impact and also so that we have the opportunity to provide you with hi-resolution graphics and images to use. Please also remember to respect the trademarks of others when promoting.

Michael Jackson Monthly Giving or MJMG for short, was a previous name of our monthly giving project format. To simplify things, we no longer use this name and instead use the main name of our organisation which is Michael Jackson Fans for Change, or MJFFC for short. The format remains the same, which is an initiative aiming to get EVERY SINGLE Michael Jackson fan to donate a small amount per month. The money collected each month is then given to the beneficiary chosen by the consensus of those members for that month. All of the money after PayPal fees, if applicable, goes to the winning beneficiaries chosen by members.

This project will provide a long term solution for MJ fans to donate for as long as they want to. Members are free to nominate their own preferred beneficiaries for consideration and can cancel at any time.

We wanted to try and carry on, where Michael Jackson left off. Also, from 2009, we had a cause running on the Causes.com platform and it had many donations from fans willing to give. However, if felt like it was a continous battle to raise funds, and people are not always in a position to give larger amounts. This resulted in our mico-donation model, making it much easier for more fans to give smaller amounts more frequently. As a result it also made it much more inclusive and accessible.

Now that our tools are in place, all that is missing are millions of fans willing to give just £1 per month. With just a handful of fans on board, we can really make that change.

You can and it is possible to donate directly to our chosen beneficiary if you wished as links for direct donations are also provided. Some members give directly in addition to their monthly contributions and we give direct donation links to bypass our group altogether if you wish.

But why not be part of a group dedicated to this in tribute to MJ? The difference with doing it through MJFFC, is that our monthly donations are done in bulk, providing more of an impact to help publicise the initiative each time and results in a much larger and more recognised Michael Jackson inspired tribute. It also helps us collate the figures that make up the Global Total. We do also provide links to the beneficiaries, should fans want to contribute outside of the project directly.

All of the money rasied comes from fans and goes into our PayPal account, or directly to our bank account, depending on how members give.  The money is totalled up at the end of the month and then given to the winning beneficiary in memory of Michael Jackson for that month, which is decided by MJFFC MEMBERS. When the donation is made, it resets it back to zero and we start again.

Donations to beneficiaries are documented in detail and then added to our donations section. We also post up any feedback from the beneficiaries recieved in this section if we receive any after the initial donation is made. sometimes the beneficiaries send us "follow up" updates.

ADMIN & FUNDRAISING: We are one of very few MJ initiatives that have minimal running costs. We strive to use the latest technology available and get as much as we can for free. When this doesn't work we fund it out of our own pocket or via MJFFC Guardianship.

It is important to note that no donations from fans goes towards staff, our volunteers or on any other personal expenses, this helps us maximise the amount of money we can give to beneficiaries each month.

Since 2011 we have been documenting, screen-grabbing and reporting on the whole process, we have made almost 125 donations to date, totalling almost £30,000 so far. This is an effort to show fans that they can trust the project and hopefully give fans the confidence to spread the word further for us. Screenshots of the donation process is shown on this site at the beginning of each month, when the donation is made. Each beneficiary is also contacted by us to advise about the donation, and the beneficiaries can also be contacted by fans directly for clarification if need be.

For every monthly £1 contribution by members, 100% of this goes to the winning beneficiary thanks to our MJFFC Guardian scheme. For anything over £1, a 5%+5p PayPal fees apply. We chose the 5%+5p PayPal model instead of the usual 3.4%+20p, in order to make smaller contributions from fans go further.

Currently there are no payment providers out there that offer a regular giving service with zero transaction fees, but we are always looking.

Our key requirements are:

- Low setup fees, no monthly fees and zero transaction fees
- Instant access to donations so that beneficiaries can be donated to efficiently
- That it allows one-off donations of as low as £1 in all currencies
- That it allows monthly donations of as low as £1 in all currencies

- Must be mobile optimised
- Must be easy for fans to contribute

If you come across any that can provide all of the above, please let us know.

We really believe in this project and MJ fans to be able to team up and REALLY get things done. This isnt a fly-by-night project where we just want one donation, we want you to donate monthly for ongoing support and we are in it for the long-haul. The project is run by Steven Hodges, he attends as many MJ events as possible, so if you ever spot him, do say hi!

ALSO:

• We produce Detailed monthly reports.
• Donations are only held for one month, before they are donated to the beneficiary with the most votes. So the money is never sitting and accumulating for long periods of time.
• We have been running our project for over 10 years now.

To donate it's here.
To vote it's here.

We accept top-ups to the pot, also known as single or one-off donations.

Say you have done some additional fundraising for a partitcular month, or the currently leading beneficiary is one that is close to your heart, you can give a one-off donation too.

NOTE: due to the complexities involved with admin, only fans giving monthly, are currently able to vote for beneficiaries and are classed as MJFFC MEMBERS.

Last updated: 8th February 2024.

QUALIFYING BENEFICIARIES

Members are given 2 carefully chosen beneficiaries to vote upon each month. MJFFC decides on which beneficiaries are shortlisted for members votes each month from an inclusion list we hold which is compiled by our members and ourselves. This list includes various groups and public personal appeals that are in line with our areas of focus and our charitable objects. The voting is done privately amongst all members of our project via our free app, download it here (MJFFC membership only required to vote).

The beneficiary with the most votes at the end of the month will be the one we will raise money for during that month. eg. Members donate, fundraise and vote throughout January and then shortly after the 1st of February the votes are counted and the beneficiary is announced publicly via the donation being made. We also interact and work closely with the chosen beneficiary where possible. The runner-up beneficiaries are sometimes put back into our inclusion list for a future vote, or carry over to the following month. We try and donate to a different beneficiary every month.

Members are able to suggest their preferred beneficiaries for us to look into. We will investigate each of the beneficiaries put forward to check that they qualify and we will then add them to the list. If there is a "GLOBAL EVENT" which requires an emergency donation (see below), then this cause may be included in the vote for the following month if the members vote in favour of it.

In the event of a tie of votes, MJFFC's decision on the chosen beneficiary is final.

"GLOBAL EVENTS"

Occasionally there are unpredictable "Global Events" which are things such as earthquakes, floods, civil wars, storms, terrorist attacks etc. Basically anything that involves a large number of people or animals, be it through death, displacement or any kind of suffering. We saw many in 2016.

When this happens, a beneficiary that is either involved in providing relief or has been directly affected by this "Global Event", will be put to members for consideration immediatly in preperation for the following month.

Because our members vote a month in advance, it is possible to announce the beneficiary for a month of fundraising, during the first few days of the month starting. We would only change a beneficiary once it has been officially announced under extreme circumstances.

MONTHLY DONATION FAILURES

If you stop your monthly payments or they fail for whatever reason and we cannot make contact, you will no longer qualify to vote. You will have voting rights removed from the app when the voting finishes for the most recent monthly pot you paid into. e.g. If you pay on the 1st of June and then payment fails on the 2nd June, you will be removed on the 1st of July, as you would be entitled to a June vote.

If you are removed for any reason and a new donor comes on board, they will be given any spare donor number slots including your previous donor slot number, if you do not start your monthly donations again in time. If you come back and start a new monthly donation, you will receive a new member number, which will be the next one that is available.

These rules are likely to change as and when we receive feedback from our members, this section will be updated accordingly.

This is the most challenging part of all. The World is a complicated place. We don't often give to areas of conflicts, but when we do, we try and cover those most vulnerable.

Whilst there are ongoing conflicts all over the world, seemingly all the time, due to the lack of resources at our end we cannot possibly help everyone, all of the time. Right now for example (as of December 2021) there appear to be over 20 wars taking place at this very moment.

We cannot possibly assist everywhere, so we try and spread out our resources as much as possible and follow our CHANGE way of giving as much as we can and also ask our members as to where they feel we should focus. This is a very important part of our project. For those areas that are not reported on as much as they should be, as soon as they are bought to our attention by members, we look into the situation to try and figure out a way we can help.

Any chosen beneficiaries in situations of war, are carefully choosen to avoid ANY kind of discrimination and to make sure the money makes it to civilians instead of funding the war. Ultimately we want our funds to go to those that need it the most, and charities we shortlist are also checked for this too, ultimately it is up to the majority of members to decide who we end up supporting each month. If you have any more questions about this, please do get in contact with us.

Last updated: 20th December 2019.

Personal appeals are those appeals you find on websites like GoFundMe.com or Fundly.com or that are sent to us directly via our grant application scheme. Appeals will be sourced from those websites and from MJFFC members, when put forward and we will still only be considering those appeals that we believe via our various checks, are 1. legitimate appeals and 2. that also fall into our usual areas of focus and charitable objects.

Our members are able to vote on a mix of the following types of beneficiary:

• Internal Personal Appeals (this will be something that MJFFC and it's members have noticed needs funding themselves or via the funding sites mentioned above)
• External Personal Appeals (this is something that members of the public will be able to submit to us via a grant application)

More details will follow on this in the future whilst we develop and structure it some more, but if you have any questions at this stage please feel free to reach out to us in the usual ways!