Any thoughts on when we should focus our pledges?
Last year we focused on the first two hours -- midnight to 2 AM. It worked well for us. We should probably try for that again with a slight change. We can donate once each hour in order to get our names in the hourly drawings.
Remember the rules are different this year. There is no automatic prize for having the most donors in a 2-hour block. It's just a series of 24 random drawings, one each hour. However, we can greatly improve our chances of having one of our names picked if all of us donate together in the same 1-hour period when there are very few other people donating. This would be in the very early hours of December 11.
So donate a dollar at midnight. Then stay awake for another hour or set your alarm for 1 AM to donate another buck. If you're a real die-hard, try again at 2, 3, and 4 AM!