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Benj and Jessica launched a nonprofit. Follow our journey as we built a 501(c)(3) and a web site, and now usher in an endless stream of worthy charity nominees and monthly grant winners!

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September 2017 winner Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund

Charitocracy's 13th check to September winner Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund @ GHCF for $2571

We have good news about September winner Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund, right after this quick update...

My How You've Grown

Our two ongoing campaigns to grow Charitocracy have so far been successful. First, we placed an extra dollar in the pot for every new Facebook like and Twitter follow. We received 140, putting an extra $140 in the September pot and also putting us over 500 likes on Facebook! Second, we matched every new donor's initial annual donation as well as current donors' donation upgrades, dollar for dollar. This program has been running for only 6 days, but has already led to 16 new donors and 5 donation upgrades, for a total of $107 added to the September pot (and each of the next 11 pots, too!).

This flurry of donation and matching activity is responsible for the pot reaching over $1500 for the first time. But then this morning we received a super generous "pot sweetener" one-time donation of $1000. The donors, moved by recent natural disasters, hope not only to help Harvey victims. They wish to inspire other donors to dig deep, now and in coming months, to help those in desperate need. Whether a dollar a month or a thousand (!?!), you guys really fill us with hope, displaying so much generosity over and over.

Did I mention that we ended September with 203 donors? That's more than double the 100 donors we had at the end of September last year! And the pot has more than tripled from the $500 in that very first monthly pot.

September 2017 winner Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund

Last night we voted in our 1st cause of Charitocracy's 2nd year. Congratulations to Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund hosted by Greater Houston Community Foundation, and to donor brun064 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 GHCF next week. You can find their web site here.

Now watch this video showing the extent of the flooding in Houston, and feel good about your part in our collective $2571+ grant to help make things better there!

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

I Double Dare You To Double Our Donors

Double Dare Charitocracy Edition

You've proven that you can accept a challenge and deliver results. We had 384 Facebook Likes, we asked you to invite your friends to like us, and 4 days later we had 500. That number continues to grow, and as a result September's winning cause will get an extra $132... or more!

Double the Donors

This week we have a new challenge: bring our donor count from 186 to 200. That's a net of 14 donors in the next 5 days. Doable, right? After all, last year we signed up 59 new donors in the last 5 days of September! You just need to pick a few of your raddest friends and invite them to join Charitocracy. Or if you haven't already joined yet yourself, then you qualify to be the raddest: simply click here, and for as little as $13/year you'll become Charitocracy's newest donor!

Hitting an even 200 would effectively double our donors from September 30, 2016 to September 30, 2017. 100% growth in a year. That's all we need. If we double in size each year, the monthly pot will exceed $1 million just 10 years from now! Think about it, that means each donor has to simply convince one friend to join each year. Not so far-fetched! Especially considering the busy bees going over quota. You know who you are. <3

Double the Fun

We know extra incentives help motivate prospective donors to seal the deal. That's why we're matching all new donor sign-ups, dollar for dollar. When a new donor donates $13, we'll double that by throwing an extra $1 into the coming year's monthly pots. A $130 donation will go twice as far when we throw an extra $10 into the monthly pots. If you give Charitocracy to a friend, that same doubling will apply.

And because we not only want to increase the donor base, but also the $ per donor ratio, we're matching the new donation amount for all donation increases as well! Let's say you were giving $5/month and you double your donation to $10/month. We'll throw in an extra $10/month just as if you were a new donor!

By my calculations, if we hit this goal and end up with at least 200 donors come October 1st, the September pot could break $1500!

Accept Benj's double dare... or take the physical challenge! I do not recommend taking the physical challenge.

How do I love thee? Let me count the Likes.

They Like Me

You've heard the news that we've been up and running for a whole year now, right? We have things pretty well dialed in at this point. Deserving causes, nominated and voted in by you guys, win ever-increasing pots of cash each month. Now we need to turn our attention to growth of our donor base. And for starters, that means we need more Likes... from the likes of you and your friends.

The Plan: $1 added to the pot per Like

We have some great ideas on how to attract more donors, but we need to get the word out to as many people as we can. We're primarily "preaching to the converted" at the moment: those of you reading this are by and large our friends and family. You're already donors, or if not, you at least get what we're trying to do and are patiently waiting for the perfect day to join us. (We're ready when you are.) But to reach those other deadbeats out there who've never heard of us, we need lots and lots of Likes!

Instead of paying Facebook/Twitter/Google for advertisements drumming up more followers, we're going to pay ourselves. We received some large matching donations earlier this year, not yet tied to any monthly pots. We'd like to use those funds to catalyze growth at Charitocracy. Before we roll out other incentives, we'd like to grow the audience who'll hear about them. So the first incentive: $1 added to the pot for every new Like.

Right now we're at 384 Likes on Facebook, and 31 Followers on Twitter.  So on the night of September 30, we'll take the current Like count, subtract 384, and add that many dollars to September's pot. If our Like count is up to 500, we'd throw an extra $116 in. Same goes for Twitter and Instagram followers. Now that's what I call sweetening the pot! And we'd repeat with our new baselines in October.

The Ask: Invite all your friends to Like us

Here's what we'd... like... you to do:

  1. On Facebook, go to Charitocracy's page.
    How to Invite Friends' Likes - Charitocracy Page
  2. Click on the ... button, then on Invite Friends:
    How to Invite Friends' Likes - Invite Friends
  3. Click the little blue page icon and write a one-liner personal note like this:
    How to Invite Friends' Likes - Personal invitation
  4. Most important step: Click every Invite button in your list of friends!
  5. Head on over to our Twitter page and Follow us!
    How to Invite Friends' Likes - Twitter Follow
  6. I don't know if there's a way to invite Twitter followers to follow Charitocracy, but let me know if there is and I'll pass it along!

Remember, you and your friends Like us, but we LOVE you.  <3

  • For a limited time, while supplies last, void where prohibited, batteries not included. We should have more than enough matching funds to cover us through 1000 Likes and well beyond, so please get busy!