Total Raised So Far: $1,323

Update: Through the generous gift from one of the MVPs and a fellow Microsoft employee I can sweeten this offer.  We now have a copy of Windows XP Professional, Office Professional Edition 2003 and Visual Studio 2003 to raffle in addition to Visual Studio 2005.  Instead of one lucky winner we will have four.

Ed Bott, Newsgator, Thomas Hawk, Microsoft and a great discussion during our team lunch today made me want to do *something* to help in the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

The result: I'm going to raffle off a single copy of Visual Studio 2005.

Here is how you enter...

1) Visit https://give.redcross.org/.

2) Donate a minimum of US $100 (One Hundred US Dollars) towards 'Hurricane 2005 Relief'.

3) Forward to me the email confirmation you receive from the American Red Cross.

FAQ

• The email confirmation from the American Red Cross does not contain any credit card information -- it's only your name, address, donation amount, time stamp and two tracking numbers.
• Unless you state otherwise when you forward the email confirmation I will post your first and last name in updates to this post to recognize your contribution.
• The email confirmation from the American Red Cross includes a link which can help you identify whether or not your company has a matching gifts program, and give you some details on how to leverage.
• Raffle entries will be accepted through September 30, 2005 11:59 PM.
• I don't know the ship schedule for Visual Studio 2005.  The software will be delivered to you sometime the first week of October or when it becomes available in the retail / reseller channel, whichever comes last.

Contributors

• Greg Duncan http://coolthingoftheday.blogspot.com
• Brian Lakstins http://www.balconsulting.net/DasBlog/default.aspx
• Steven Ackerman http://spaces.msn.com/members/sjackerman
• Paolo Hutchison
• Stephen Carroll

• Robert Jordan