Some good news and some bad news... which do you want first? Good news first? Okay, you got it!

We shipped off all but 3 of our state-by-state solicitation registration or exemption applications this week. That's 38 different forms, fees, and combinations of certificates, founding documents, IRS letters of determination, budget estimates, and/or first-born children. Only 3 left to go, the ones where we're dragging our heals to pay the $100/year for registered agents: DC, MI, and ND. We'll get there!

Helping get all that paperwork done sucked all the time out of my August so far. And that means I couldn't code up the new weekly Charitocracy touch points before heading off on vacation. You may have noticed the distinct lack of email after week 1 summarizing the new nominations. And you'll notice today the deafening silence of no email highlighting the top 10 causes yet. We'll get there, too!

But for now, "Life moves pretty fast." If I don't stop and look around once in a while, I could miss it. (Back in action circa August 25. Feel free to continue testing out Charitocracy in the meantime!)

This week has been brought to us by the letters, F, U, and the number 41. That's not just my age, it's also how many states and jurisdictions (read: Washington, D.C.) with whom we need to register before we can solicit donations nationwide.

Jessica and I would be nowhere on this task yet if it weren't for the week-long tireless effort of none other... than my mother! She paved the way by pre-filling every PDF from every state that requires a paper form, each one a unique snowflake of pure charitable bureaucracy. Might one say: a charitocracy?

We still need to fill in some blanks where Ma left us sticky notes to flag the tricky bits. We still need to hire "registered agents" with in-state addresses at nearly $100/year to do nothing more than wait around and answer the door if we get served with a lawsuit. (Speaking of which, if you reside in CA, CO, MI, ND, OR, or DC you could possibly save us $100/year by letting us list your name and address instead of a for-profit company's!) And then we need to get most of the forms notarized. Only then can I get back to the fun work, putting the finishing touches on the web site.

Speaking of which, we're only 2 days from the end of Week 1 in the new 4-phase monthly routine. That means 2 days left to nominate a new cause if you're so inclined! There haven't been any new nominations yet this month, so have at it, please! Motivate us to get this paperwork done so we can turn on actual donations in September!

Okay, beta testers new and old, we're at the end of another month.

I recently added the end-of-month code that actually does something at the end of the month. At the stroke of midnight (NYC time) it counts votes, records a winner, cancels all votes donors had cast for it, makes voting for the cause impossible for the next 11 months, adds it to the Celebrate page of past winners, and emails everyone about the winner (unless you've opted-out in your notification preferences).

So let's test it, shall we?!  Usual fake credit card: 4242 4242 4242 4242

Jessica and I have discovered a bit of an administrative obstacle to going live, accepting real donations: the requirement to register for solicitation of donations with nearly every state in This Great Nation of Ours, each with its own set of forms, fee, renewal cycle, etc. So what this means is we have one more month to do a full test of the new (not yet coded!) monthly cycle:

• At midnight, start of new month: name last month's winner, open up for new nominations, voting begins on full field of nominees
• At midnight end of week 1: end new nominations, email out digest of newly nominated causes, voting continues
• At midnight end of week 2: narrow down the field to top 10 causes, email donors the list and encourage re-vote
• At midnight end of week 3: narrow down to top 3 causes, email donors the list and encourage re-vote
• Name winner, lather, rinse, repeat!

This new cycle, led by your recent Facebook poll responses, is intended to make Charitocracy more fun and engaging by providing several "touch points" during the month: news updates on progress and motivation to get back on there and take action. A donor can continue to take a hands-off approach and let Charitocracy be their crowd-curated charity-of-the-month club. But I like having something to actually go on there and do more than once a month. I hope you agree?

So let's close July out with a new winner under the old "anything goes" approach, and meanwhile I'll code up the new world order and have it ready for August 1! Feedback appreciated, as always. (You'll find us slaving over the mimeograph machine in the back office, filling out our TPS reports solicitation registration forms.)