Category: Monthly Winners

We have good news about December winner International Justice Mission, right after this quick update...

A second lap around our star

Charitocracy was incorporated on Christmas Day, 2015. I'll never understand how it received its stamp on that day. Maybe a computer woke up Christmas morning, like any other day, with our paperwork waiting in its queue of approved documents to watermark with a date and e-signature of North Carolina's Secretary of State. Anyway, here we are cranking away 2 years later, still trying to make the world a little bit better each month.

You may have noticed in the Dashboard the number of donors decreasing and the pot sizes shrinking a bit. I sure have! We only lost about 7% of donors during the first renewal cycle. That's probably better retention than we could have expected, so thanks to everyone for sticking it out! And extra thanks for the extreme generosity of many of your donation upgrades over the past few months. All of these have been matched dollar for dollar, and you'll see those matches in your Giving Trees. That's what got us, at least briefly, into $1500+ territory. Yay!

Our problem isn't retention, and it's not per-donor contributions. It's the slow growth of new donors. If every donor were able to find another donor who, after a minute long elevator pitch, also thought Charitocracy were a great idea, we'd be going gangbusters. Your Giving Trees would be out of control. So this will be my focus for 2018: anything and everything that makes it easy and fun to share Charitocracy with new prospective donors.

December 2017 winner International Justice Mission

On New Years Eve we voted in our 4th cause of Charitocracy's 2nd year. Congratulations to International Justice Mission and to donors Alistair and Rebecca for nominating it! You have 4 more days to further sweeten the pot with a special one-time donation of any amount, which we'll add straight to the check we write to International Justice Mission next week. You can find their web site here.

Make 10 minutes to watch this video and better appreciate the sort of work IJM is doing to help end slavery around the world, and feel good about your part in our collective $1515+ grant to help with this work!

One small boy. One huge lake. Foli was a slave. Immerse yourself in his story.

Thousands of children between the ages of 6 and 18 live in slavery on Lake Volta, working up to 18 hours a day in the fishing industry. For these young children, the only way out of slavery is to drown or be rescued. Children just like Foli.

Have a great January, don't forget to start writing 2018 on your checks, and log into Charitocracy to update your votes or nominate a new cause!

We have good news about November winner ALS Guardian Angels, right after this quick update...

Welcome to the Giving Season

This is a strange time of year. People are just nicer to each other for some reason. Do you truly have something warm and fuzzy burning in your heart? Or do you feel compelled by societal norms to follow suit, spending money to boost the economy? We're not here to judge. We'll accommodate your gift giving needs regardless. Even right up to the last minute before your ritualistic gift-giving deadlines!

At least you know when you give Charitocracy, all of that money is tax-deductible and will go to a good cause. 12 good causes in fact! You can give any amount, as long as it's one of the multiples of $13 we've put on the menu. Who wouldn't want to receive a donation of, say, $39 in their name, granting them a prepaid year of voting and nominating at Charitocracy?!

All you need to do is go here. If you're a donor yourself (you are, right?!), you'll want to log in to Charitocracy so the form is prefilled with your info and you get credit in your Giving Tree for the purchases. Then just choose a $ amount, as low as $13, and enter the name of your recipient. You'll instantly receive two emails: one with your donation receipt for your tax records, and the other with the gift code and beautiful PDF gift box. You can forward it to your recipient at the time of your choosing, or print it out and hand-deliver when the moment is right!

Here's a sample. You definitely don't want to try out the QR code by pointing your smartphone camera app at it. Please, no. Bad things would almost certainly happen. 😉

November 2017 winner ALS Guardian Angels

Last night we voted in our 3rd cause of Charitocracy's 2nd year. Congratulations to ALS Guardian Angels and to donor Maggie for nominating it! You have these next 7 days to further sweeten the pot with a special one-time donation of any amount, which we'll add straight to the check we write to ALS Guardian Angels next week. You can find their web site here.

I was careful not to give any preferential attention to this cause and influence the vote. Now that it's won, full disclosure: my sister, Maggie, nominated it. Our family is personally impacted by ALS. So naturally I'm thrilled that we're able to assist this unique cause that focuses on helping patients live with ALS. I'm also touched that my sister used Charitocracy as a fundraising platform. This is the last you'll hear about ALS Guardian Angels from me, since a year from now it will become eligible to receive votes again. But do know: there is something warm and fuzzy burning in my heart today.

Now watch this video about guardian angel Stu Millheiser and his special charity, and feel good about your part in our collective $1533+ grant to help his mission!

Have a great December, and log into Charitocracy to update your votes or nominate a new cause!

We have good news about October winner UNIDOS Disaster Relief Fund, right after this quick update...

First: a new video

Growth is our primary goal for this, our second year. To help out our kids recorded this new video discussing ways you can help:

Bottom line: invite your friends and family to like our Facebook page, or better yet, to join Charitocracy! Take the time to personally tell someone about Charitocracy, how low the "buy-in" is to get started ($13), and some of the cool causes that have won so far. Then follow up with an easy to generate email invitation.

October 2017 winner UNIDOS Disaster Relief Fund

Last night we voted in our 2nd cause of Charitocracy's 2nd year. Congratulations to UNIDOS Disaster Relief Fund hosted by Hispanic Federation, and to donor TdotWING for nominating it! You have these next 7 days to further sweeten the pot with a special one-time donation of any amount, which we'll add straight to the check we write to Hispanic Federation next week. You can find their web site here. (And thanks to the pot-sweeteners that have already come in today!)

Hispanic Federation has provided an update on some of the actions they've taken to help Puerto Rico rebuild and heal. Now watch this CBS News clip of Lin-Manuel Miranda discussing Hurricane Maria recovery in PR, and his new song raising money for the UNIDOS Fund, and feel good about your part in our collective $1453+ grant to help make things better there!

Have a great November, and log into Charitocracy to update your votes or nominate a new cause!