Theory of giving

We often think we need the billionaires of the world to solve the really big problems, right? But imagine millions of us giving just $1/month to solve humanity’s biggest challenges. $1 puts almost no financial strain on any one individual, but all together it’s a massive sum. Collectively, we can become our own billionaire super-philanthropist (cue superhero music, lightning flash, and biodegradable confetti).

We call this effect Network Unity. When enough individuals in the network give a tiny amount, the total amount is enormous, but puts no strain on any one individual. Rad. 🤘🏼 Targeted, mass micro-giving has the power to change the world, and it shifts funding power to the people!

No matter what our differences may be, we can all agree that there are things in the world that we can all benefit from.

• We all benefit from thriving and biodiverse ecosystems.
• We all benefit from uplifting the poorest and the hungriest.
• We all benefit from clean rivers and oceans.
• We all benefit from clean drinking water and air.
• We all benefit from protecting endangered species.
• And there’s lots more.

In fact the United Nations has created a list of 17 goals that we can unite to solve. Let’s crush ‘em and make them a boring chapter of history.

We have the solutions to many of our biggest challenges, but our approach to philanthropy is fragmented.

As a society, we are slow-dripping donations in many different directions, to millions of disparate organizations. The result is often that no one issue ever gets fully solved. Time for a new approach...

What if we focused on hyper-funding acupuncture points of change that could make a massive impact for minimal resources, while triggering a cascade of additional positive benefits?

When we focus on acupuncture points of change, we solve multiple problems at the same time, and we make the cost of solving additional challenges lower. But this requires a deeper look into the systems that create problems.

It’s no longer enough to just give from the heart, we also need to learn how to give intelligently. Magatte Wade from our Solutionary Team calls this “smart-philanthropy.”

Collective-giving is not only for individuals. All the companies, family offices and wealthy individuals of the world can donate their version of “$1/month”— an amount that doesn’t cause a significant strain, but contributes to the glorious collective network effect.

Let’s shift away from “how much can I give?” to “how many people can I inspire to give a little with me?” It’s about the power of a unified, distributed network.

We are on a mission to unify 1 billion people giving $1/month to solve humanity’s biggest challenges, together.

Is there really any good reason not to?

And it’s all possible with two simple actions:

1. Give something small consistently — at least $1/month.
2. Inspire others to give with you (and track your ripples of impact).

In fact, if we all committed to getting 3 others to give just $1/month, we would have 1 billion members in 19 levels.

1. Make changing the world fun.
2. Make changing the world community-driven.
3. Make changing the world accessible to everyone.
4. Make massive & measurable impact per dollar.
5. Think bigger.

We’re so glad you asked, because we have a lot to share about this!

We believe the philanthropic space is too focused on “overhead ratios.” If an organization has managed to keep their overhead to only 5% but it’s not an effective solution, who cares? On the other hand, if an organization has 50% overhead, but can create far more impact per dollar than the organization with 5% overhead, would you choose the one with 5% overhead at the expense of creating more impact?

As Dan Pallotta says--when giving food to a hungry person, focusing too much on overhead is like saying that the bowl and spoon don’t matter, only the food. This also conveys a subtle disrespect to the people working hard to make an impact being casually labeled as “overhead.

Instead of focusing heavily on overhead, we identify solutions that have discovered how to be extremely effective at creating measurable impact per dollar. In the same way an investment firm finds the biggest Return on Investment (ROI), we are looking for the biggest Return on Donation (RoD) for our members.

Let’s focus a little less on “overhead ratios” and more on the total, holistic positive result per dollar.

• Solve root-causes rather than symptoms wherever possible.
• Consider their impact 100 years into the future.
• Produce massive, measurable benefits with minimal resources.
• Care for people and planet holistically.
• Leverage nature’s and humanity's best technologies.
• Are radically transparent----financially and operationally.
• Are resilient against threats of reversal.
• Result in self-reliance, rather than dependence.
• Clearly understand total costs to achieve outcomes.

We couldn’t find anyone reliably measuring these criteria, so we developed our own score--the Integrated Impact Score. We co-created it with some epic humans, including a co-founder of Google-X. This vetting process helps us identify the very best solutions humanity has to offer.

Now we’ve unleashed an army of benevolent squirrels who are scouring the planet for the best solutions using this criteria. You can also become one of these magical squirrels yourself by suggesting a solution below!

We love social impact. We think it should be more fun, easy, transparent and accessible so that everyone can participate in making a massive impact, not just the billionaires and politicians (that last one might be an oxymoron).

When you buy a product you know exactly what you’re going to get. You pay $2 and you get a drink. You pay $15 and you get a book. But when we donate to social impact it’s usually a mystery box. Not the fun kind. The creepy kind that winds up and then never opens.

We created Dollar Donation Club as a result of a lifelong dissatisfaction with the process of giving to causes. Here’s some things we previously complained about before the flying pig came along...

1. It’s hard to know who to give to. There are so many options that it’s overwhelming to do the necessary research to figure out where to give to have the biggest impact.



Solution: We created our Solutionary Team and Integrated Impact Score to quantifiably identify the most effective and measurable impact solutions. It’s like an MRI scan for the most effective solutions on the planet.



2. It’s hard to know if money went where they said it would go. Donating often feels like dropping money into a black hole with no visibility on what happened.



Solution: We created the Donation Tracker to bring transparency, showing you where your donation went and what measurable impact it actually accomplished.



3. It’s hard to know if donations actually made a difference. Most causes don’t make it measurable. This is not always easy, but we like to focus on solutions that are very measurable.



Solution: We always analyze what $1 quantifiably accomplishes. We call this the “Return on Donation.”



4. Philanthropy is too focused on billionaires. We’re incredibly grateful for the big givers and invite them to keep giving, but often this leaves small donors feeling unable to make a big difference.



Solution: When we all give something tiny to a targeted goal, the total amount raised can be much bigger than what a billionaire can give, without putting strain on any one individual. Think of it like a giant school of fish that is bigger than any whale.



5. Shame-based philanthropy. We often feel shamed into giving. Let’s not downplay the seriousness of the world’s challenges, but what if we focused on celebrating solutions instead of just harping on the problems?



Solution: We bring joy to the process of giving as we celebrate making measurable progress toward solving the world’s biggest challenges together.



6. Giving can be impersonal. We now have opportunities to help incredible causes around the world and positively change the lives of those in the worst situations, but we don’t often have any idea who received those benefits. Ya know, that whole human connection thing.



Solution: We are re-connecting donors and the specific people, animals and ecosystems who benefit from those donations through stories delivered to your Donation Tracker.

Our mission is to enable everyone to become an effective philanthropist by micro-giving along with millions of others.

We unify collective micro-donations into laser beams of pure good

As humanity, we have a lot of challenges to solve. But we can solve them through the power of collaboration, unity and focus.

It is possible.