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!
We have good news about March winner NPR, right after this quick update...
Update on the monthly pot size
The March pot was up from February's. One dollar. $1072 to $1073. It's moving in the right direction, and a perfect reminder that every dollar counts. "It's all about the Washingtons, baby."
I sound like a TV commercial for Save The Children or Save The Animals or something. "For less than the price of a cup of coffee..." But that's really what we're talking about: a small but regular contribution that pales in comparison to most coffee budgets, yet delivers way more. And there's also the network effect. The more donors, the bigger the pot, the more fun it is for all of us, and the bigger impact we have. (Scary thought: if you all donated coffee instead. Zzingg!)
See this blog post for ways you can help. Bottom line: convince a friend to join us!
March 2018 winner: NPR
Last night night we voted in our 7th cause of Charitocracy's 2nd year. Congratulations to NPR and to donor Maurice for nominating it! You have 1 week 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 NPR next week. You can find their web site here.
The NPR Mission
The mission of NPR is to work in partnership with Member Stations to create a more informed public — one challenged and invigorated by a deeper understanding and appreciation of events, ideas and cultures.
To accomplish our mission, we produce, acquire, and distribute programming that meets the highest standards of public service in journalism and cultural expression; we represent our members in matters of their mutual interest; and we provide satellite interconnection for the entire public radio system.
Check out this NPR Tiny Desk Concert, and feel good about your part in our collective $1073+ grant to help with their work!
Have a great April and log into Charitocracy to update your votes or nominate a new cause!
Facebook informed me today about an anniversary. Exactly one year ago I posted about earning GuideStar's gold seal of transparency. Well guess what? Today I'm here to announce that for 2018 Charitocracy has earned their platinum seal. That's GuideStar's highest level of transparency.
Indulge me for a moment while I pretend it's been a major endeavor. Wait for it... okay... The jig is up. Achieving this status is pretty much just a matter of sharing data that already exists. No sweat. We share details about our organizational structure, finances, mission and programs. GuideStar makes it super easy, so with a few hours effort, any 501(c)(3) could progressively qualify for silver, then gold, then platinum levels.
Another one to note in passing: we've dotted the i's and crossed the t's for credit card data handling.
We've always used Stripe for all our donations. They offer the best nonprofit discount we've found in the industry. Fees are 2.2% + 0.30 per transaction, with no fees on the first $15,000. That saved us hundreds of dollars last year. I'm grateful for that. But they've also offered the easiest and most attractive credit card entry UI in my opinion. (Maybe I need to rethink my life choices that have led me to blogging about the sexiness of credit card UIs.)
Stripe is also a breeze to setup and maintain on the backend. And one of their features is easy filing of PCI compliance documentation. This should be easy, since Charitocracy never touches your credit card data. It's stored only in Stripe's data vault, which I picture to exist deep in a mountain cavern guarded by Velociraptors. When you enter your credit card number on what appears to be Charitocracy's web site, really it's going into a separate browser "iframe" talking directly to Stripe's servers. Charitocracy simply gets a transaction reference token we can use to confirm that the donation went through okay.
All of that is to say: Stripe makes it easy for us to file our PCI SAQ A, attesting that they've taken on all the risk and corresponding security requirements themselves. We simply need to ensure Charitocracy uses encrypted protocols. And we do, via our free TLS certificates from Let's Encrypt.
We're doing everything we can think of to put you at ease, safely making your donations at Charitocracy! Let us know if there's anything else you can think of that will give you peace of mind or answer burning questions you have about Charitocracy.
Next in our series of posts about new Charitocracy nominees, we have Because We Can - 2018, a fundraiser hosted at nominee Together We Rise. It was recently nominated by donor SuZQ. So let's welcome Together We Rise to our charity of the month club! You can find their web site here.
A few words on Charitocracy
Firstly, for newcomers: the cause with the most votes each month wins the pot. No matter how much or how little you contribute, each donor at Charitocracy gets one vote. This is where charity meets democracy. So share this post and ask your friends to vote! That's how we spread the word and, as a result, grow the monthly pot. Yay!
Until a donor changes their vote, votes carry over from month to month. So do the nominated causes. So part of the fun of Charitocracy is the cumulative aspect, watching a charity's support grow over time as it breaks into the Top 10, the Top 3, and hopefully eventually #1. It's unusual for a cause to go straight from nomination to winner in the same month, though it has happened. Most recently: Hurricane Harvey relief for Houston and Hurricane Maria relief for Puerto Rico. But in most cases, it's a slow steady rise to the top over many months.
In this case, SuZQ has nominated a limited-time fundraiser at Together We Rise. More details below, but if Together We Rise wins the pot after this fundraiser's May 1 deadline, that's fine. We'll either earmark another similar fundraiser at TWR or let TWR choose how to use the funds. All good!
About Because We Can - 2018
Last March while Molly was still in foster care with us she decided she wanted to help find a way we could help other foster kids like herself. She remembered what it was like for her to leave her home and come to move in with us.
Initially entering foster care is probably one of the scariest days any kid could ever face. At a moments notice they are told to pack whatever they can fit into a trash bag. Told that they can no longer live at they only home they've ever known. That they are going to have to live with strangers now. That can be pretty terrifying for any child. Sadly throughout a child's time in foster care they may be bounced between foster homes time and time again for a number of reasons.
With that thought in mind Molly wanted to raise money to create Sweet Cases, a type of care package, in the form of a decorated duffel bags filled with a stuffed animal bear and some basic necessities to help these kids with their move into foster care. These duffel bags also serve as permanent piece of luggage these children can call their own to use over and over if needed. For every $25 raised we can put together one bag for a child. If we can add a small ray of light to the process, give it a little more dignity, perhaps even make that day even a little less scary for these kids then why wouldn't we try?
About nominee Together We Rise
Every day, 1200 kids enter foster care in the United States. We are a non-profit that changes the way they experience the system.
Together We Rise is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization comprised of motivated young adults and former foster youth. Our vision is to improve the lives of foster children in America, who often find themselves forgotten and neglected by the public. We collaborate with community partners to bring resources to foster youth and use service-learning activities to educate volunteers on issues surrounding the foster care system.
TWR works with hundreds of foster agencies, social workers, CASA advocates, and other partners to bring our programs to foster youth across the nation. Our foundation has allowed us to provide thousands of foster youth across the country with new bicycles, college supplies, and suitcases so that children do not have to travel from home to home with their belongings in a trash bag.
So visit the page of nominee Together We Rise on Charitocracy to vote for, like, or discuss this cause! And finally, check out this touching video about Together We Rise's mission:
