Donate to SoonerCon

SoonerCon, central Oklahoma’s longest-running pop culture convention, needs your help to put on the next convention event, June 24-26, 2022, at the Embassy Suites in Norman. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and lost revenue from missing our 2020 and 2021 conventions, the Future Society of Central Oklahoma is fundraising to make SoonerCon 30 in 2022 a reality.

Did you know that by the time the con ends each summer, it takes just over $100,000 to produce the SoonerCon experience we all love? This is made possible in several ways, but our greatest contributors are you, our members. There is no SoonerCon without you.

We will be hosting several events to help us get there, including a trivia night, online auction, garage sale, and a crowdfunding campaign. We also have several options for you to donate. Will you be a hero and save SoonerCon? See more below.

The Long Version

In 2020, the Future Society of Central Oklahoma volunteers were in the middle of planning the 29th SoonerCon convention when the COVID-19 pandemic brought everything to a halt. No business was prepared for a global pandemic, and event insurance didn’t cover it.

We were unwilling to risk the health and safety of our friends and community. FSCOK hired a contract attorney to help in negotiations with the hotel to postpone the event and not incur any financial penalties because of the unanticipated COVID-19 global disaster. The event in 2020 was then postponed. Vendors, artists, and members were able to request a refund or push their purchase out to the hoped-for 2021 event.

Of course, the negative effects of the pandemic continued into 2021. Our entirely nonprofit convention takes many months of 100% volunteer planning and significant upfront financial commitments (guest contracts, print materials, signage, advertising, shirts, badges, etc.). It was clear by late fall 2020 that there were too many unknowns around COVID-19 to safely plan a 2021 con. We again hired our contract attorney to help us cancel pursuant to our contract’s force majeure clause, which took several months.

Once 2021’s event was canceled, we knew the right thing to do was refund all remaining members and vendors who requested it, due to the uncertainty of our financial future and the ongoing pandemic. SoonerCon has always prided itself on remaining solvent as well as doing the right thing by our community. This hasn’t changed as we work to plan the contracted 2022 event.

Our year-over-year financials rely on thousands of participants attending our summer event. Meanwhile, FSCOK’s regular operating expenses continue (e.g. storage unit, web and software fees, etc.) and we need to build back to funding in order to pay the bills for our next convention. We started this process in the fall of 2020 by seeking public funding resources. In February 2021, FSCOK received our first-ever grant award via the City of Norman Small Business and Non-profit Relief Grant totaling $10,000. These funds may be used specifically for FSCOK’s operating expenses, enabling us to now look forward to SoonerCon versus being forced to shutter operations entirely.

FSCOK’s vision to build a more welcoming tomorrow by hosting SoonerCon each year is made possible by the financial contributions of our members, event sponsorships and other community support. All SoonerCon staff and FSCOK board members are 100% volunteer. All funds are directly used to support FSCOK’s operation, the annual convention, similar events and charitable giving for the community. This doesn’t happen without you.

In short, without the revenue for the 2020 event — and now 2021 — we need your help to make our 2022 event happen!