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!

Spotlight on nominee Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund @ GHCF

Nominee Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund at Greater Houston Community Foundation

Next in our series of posts about new Charitocracy nominees, we have nominee Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund nominated by donor brun064. You can find their web site here.

The Greater Houston Community Foundation is a public charitable foundation focused on helping donors expand their philanthropic impact. For over 20 years we have partnered withindividuals, families, corporations, foundations, and their advisors to extend their giving in new ways, with greater results.

Throughout our history, we have been proud to support and administer disaster philanthropy when our region has needed it the most. We administered the Bush Clinton Katrina Fund, The Hurricane Ike Recovery Fund, as well asthe Storm Relief Fund of 2016. The devastation from Hurricane Harvey is being felt across the state by families and businesses who have been impacted in profound and numerous ways. The Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund is one of many vital philanthropic funds that, in conjunction with Federal and State efforts, are designed to support the relief and reconstruction efforts. The Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund, set up by Houston’s Mayor Turner and Harris County Judge Emmett, is focused on immediate and long term relief efforts in Harris County and Houston (which may include City residents in Fort Bend or Montgomery County). A fund advisory committee has been established and will ensure that there is a process to determine unmet needs in these areas. Tony Chase, Chairman & CEO of Chase Source, and Bill Jackson, Harris County Budget Officer, will co-chair the advisory committee of 10 members. The Greater Houston Community Foundation will oversee and administer the grant distribution process.

The distributions and grants will be made in support of the Fund’s charitable purposes: relief efforts to aid the victims of the flooding and other weather caused by Hurricane Harvey, including shelter and temporary housing needs, food and supplies, healthcare, transportation, child care, facility needs of child care and social service agencies, and other purposes approved by the advisory committee and consistent with the Fund’s charitable purposes. Because of the immense need in and around Houston, this Fund is dedicated to filling the gaps that are not met by other local and federal efforts. This is simply one of the many critical philanthropic efforts across Houston and Texas that will support those in affected areas, whose lives have forever been impacted by this disaster.

GHCF is committed to our community and is prepared to administer the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund without charging any fees so that 100% of donations go to immediate and long term relief efforts. We will gain support from other philanthropic partners and donors for the crucial management and grants administration we will be performing. The Greater Houston Community Foundation will share information about all grants publicly on its website and through other communications for complete transparency about the expenditure of funds.

Visit page of nominee Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund on Charitocracy to vote for, like, or discuss this cause! And check out this video about GHCF's 20 year track record of philanthropic impact: