Category: General News

We have $230 in September's pot, and on Friday night at midnight we'll name our first recipient cause! And if after 9 months -- the gestation period for a web charity -- and 33 blog posts you don't fully grasp Charitocracy yet, I don't blame you! I've only just taken the time to really explain it here. (Existing donors need to log out first to see it, since it's geared toward new recruits.)

To be honest, 6 months ago when I took a guess at how many donors we'd attract in our first month, I guessed higher. I figured we might get 100 donors, since there were plenty more than that who liked our Facebook page. Currently there are 220 likes, but only 47 donors. Some of that discrepancy is due to households creating one account whereas multiple family members like Charitocracy. But I'm hopeful there are still a lot of friends and family members out there who simply need our persistent yammering here before they'll climb aboard. At $13/year and 2 minutes to enter your name and credit card info, it's not a steep climb!

At the same time, I totally underestimated the generosity of our donors. I imagined we'd average maybe $2/month from each donor, but instead we're seeing closer to $5/month! This is great, since it tells me our monthly pot will be somewhere in the vicinity of $500 once we cross that 100 donor mark. If you're reading this, you've probably already signed up, but if not, let me know what it's going to take. I will suffer a bucket of ice water. I will eat a lime. I will sing karaoke (or not sing karaoke if you prefer). Tell me what I can do that I'm not already doing to earn your $13! Operators are standing by.

Remember when we voted in Charitocracy's Top 10 for September? If it feels like forever ago, that's because it's been almost a whole week. I'm happy to say there's no crisis that needs your attention. Everything is running smoothly. If you take no action, we'll narrow the field down to the Top 3 tomorrow night, and the world will keep spinning.

But if you feel restless, I encourage you to do  5  3 things to calm yourself at <redacted>:

1. Reconsider your vote, especially if it's still set to a non-Top-10 cause. This way your vote will still count when we tally the Top 3 tomorrow. You can set it right back to your favorite cause on October 1 when the full field opens back up. Or if it's looking like your favorite Top 10 cause isn't going to get the votes, now would be a good time to try to boost another cause into the Top 3!
2. Write a comment on the discussion thread of your vote recipient to let others know why you're picking it, in case it helps them decide. It can be short and sweet. Maybe you volunteer for this cause, or have been personally touched by it somehow. Maybe you're choosing it in honor of a friend or family member. Your testimonial could persuade others! Even if your favorite cause isn't still a contender for September, your messages will help attract voters next month!
3. Supply an avatar if you haven't so discussion thread readers can put a face (even a fake face) to your name (even if it's a fake name). Just click on the default avatar an it will bring you to the profile photo upload page.

For once I'm not coding things up to the last minute, since it turns out that narrowing down to the Top 3 causes is a lot like narrowing down to the Top 10. Instead I'm focusing on important details, like having your email notifications call you Steven & Maggie instead of Steven &amp; Maggie. This is important stuff. The bugs I'm killing off have nasty, big, pointy teeth!

Things are going pretty great. We've hit a few milestones since last post:

• We crossed the 40 donor mark.
• The September pot crossed the $200 mark.
• Total donations crossed the $2000 mark.
• We crossed the 2 week mark, and selected our first Top 10!

Some new things you'll notice on Charitocracy when you next log in:

• The donor map has a lot more pins, including our first mid-western (Colorado) donors! <3
• The Dashboard tells us when the next phase will commence (e.g. Top 3 selection in 6 days).
• Only Top 10 causes can receive votes this week, and only Top 3 starting next Thursday. If a cause you voted for (including one you nominated) didn't make the cut, you're free to revote at any time now.
• There are handy icons next to the cause names to make it easy to eyeball causes that you've nominated, voted for, liked, and commented on, as well as ones that have been updated since you last checked, and ones that didn't make the cut and so can't receive votes at this time.

But the most important thing I'd like to draw attention to right now is your profile pictures, or the lack thereof. I'd like to see some discussion pick up in the forum, with nominators and other supporters of causes cheerleading and trying to attract more votes. I think this is more likely to happen if we can "see" each other, instead of a sea of generic avatars. To this end, I've turned your profile pictures into animated GIFs that gently nag you to click them and upload a photo. This is super easy to do from your phone, whether you want to take a fresh selfie, upload a screenshot you took of something on the web, or whatever avatar reflects your mood.

We narrow down to the Top 3 in less than a week, so nominators, start your hype machines! And maybe we can push that pot up to $250?!