Huh? Only $50 to provide fresh water?
Then we built a little website about our projects
Using wordpress we were able to create a simple little site called EffectiveProjects.org to document our well project, and a few other little mission trips and projects we had worked on. it didn't take too long to build, we simply focused on proving quality pictures and writing about the project we did. When we asked for donations, we asked for specific projects and we provided pictures showing exactly where the money went.
Now What?
1. Lets let small charities easily setup a simple charity page with completed and upcoming projects
2. Let people easily donate to these small projects
3. These project will show up automatically on a person's personal profile page.
3. Donors will receive clear pictures and descriptions of the specific project they helped to sponsor
So the idea is to create a website where all they have to do is sign up and immediately they will have a beautiful site to work with and they can donate to simple projects that they like. Then the results of their work will show up on their page. Another way to look at is that we want to setup a Tumblr.com or Wordpress.com type of community for charity websites.
OK, what have you got so far
We are getting closer. So far we have our own little tiny charity EffectiveProjects.org and also we have the mockup of what the homepage might look like. In additon we are using Wordpress MU to power our backend and enable people to setup their own little charity sites.
I think this will work, here's why
So we had a live example of pitching in a bit of cash through paypal and receiving pictures and a description of ways that our money was working. Then our buddy Scott who runs the amazing site CharityWater.org matched our donation right away. Feel free to read about it on the blog.
Ok I am interested, what can I do to help?
We are looking for super star wordpress coders, great graphical designers (check out our design page) and people willing to invest a little bit of money into this project to provide us with server space and the ability to grow. Or, you might just know of a person that you would like to connect to this page. Bottom line is that we would love to talk to you and hear your feedback!
FAQ
Yea, but a number of charities have a website, why another one?
Yea. We want to enable anybody to setup their own little personal profile page that will show what they are investing in. Also we want this to not just be a bunch of pages, but rather a community thing. For people to be able to share ideas. To be able to communicate back and forth. Tumblr is awesome because you can easily banter between blogs. We would like to go after this same vibe.
Don't charities have to be big , with a lot of paperwork?
A charity is simply an organization that tries to make the world a bit better. There is no reason that you can't setup your own personal charity page to help people. Setting up a 501c3 and getting all the paperwork can come down the road. The most important thing is to get the ball rolling. Mohammad Yunnis started his organization with only $27. He is now responsible for an organization that has lent out over 6 Billion dollars!
Isn't there people already doing this, why reinvent the wheel?
There are some awesome sites out there that I would really like you to chekck out. DonorsChoose and Change.org and especially Kiva.org. These sites rock and we really look up to them. We haven't found a site where you can pitch in $75 to help somebody in the developing world and get a picture of the project you invest in posted to your personal page.