Philanthroper Offers a New Twist on Giving

There is an old story about an illiterate man who was walking along when he saw a rock with a perfect hole drilled right through it. Amazed, the man stopped and looked a bit closer. Upon examination he realized that every few minutes a drop of water fell from the top of a cliff far above and landed on the exact spot where the hole was. It was then that he realized what had happened. One drop of water had little impact on something as hard as the rock, but one drop of water, followed by another and then by another eventually became powerful enough to wear the hole into the rock. Upon realizing this the man thought, “If something as soft as water can bore a hole in the rock, then my head cannot be too thick for be to begin learning.” With that the man went, began to study and, eventually, became the greatest teacher of his generation.

The power of something small, like a drop of water, is limited. Multiply that small thing many fold however and the impact can be tremendous. That’s the philosophy behind Philanthroper, a new site I joined earlier today.

You know those daily deal sites? We’re another one of those. But instead of selling something, we’re sharing the story of a new 501(c)3 nonprofit every day. And if you’d like, you can give them $1. We’re trying to make doing good a habit.

Every 24 hours there is a new Philanthropy to donate to, and every day I’ll have the opportunity to make a difference for someone … or not. The most I can give each day is $1, and the least I can give is $1 … assuming I choose to give anything at all.

Philanthroper is a daily deal. But we’re not selling anything. Instead, we’re telling the story of a new nonprofit every day, and with the click of a button, you can give them $1 – no more or less – no strings attached. We never take a cut of this donation, but you can read more on that here.

Philanthroper doesn’t have to take a cut of your donation because the site accepts advertising. Why do that?

Every business-minded person advises us to do the same thing: Take a tiny piece of every donation our community makes. No one will ever notice! After all, nonprofits are already paying 3-30% to receive donations online. If we just added a percentage point to mPayy’s transaction fee…

Well, the thing is, WE noticed. So that left the simple, probably less profitable but far more honest solution. Ads. And if you’d like to advertise with us, or maybe do something insanely cool like match donations for a day, contact us.

So back to only giving $1 day; it seems like so little, but idea behind taking only $1 per day is simple:

So you can donate another $1 tomorrow. And another the next day. Use Philanthroper daily, and we guarantee, you’ll donate more over time than you would have otherwise plus it won’t sting your bank account so badly. Use Philanthroper every day and you’ll be on the right track to give more, more easily. If you’re compelled to make a larger donation, fantastic. We always link their site. So go for it.

Knowing that there are only 356 days in a year, and knowing at the most I’ll have donated through Philanthroper is no more than $356, it seems a whole lot less painful to think of giving every day. And if others are also giving every day, then suddenly what we are doing together will no longer be a small thing … it will be a beautiful thing.

Philanthroper