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Dollar a Day

dollaraday.co

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Re: Dollar a Day

#11

Post by lotharbot »

jawns wrote: post #3

I _love_ the idea of getting a daily email that tells you about a worthy nonprofit that you might not otherwise hear about, and this system makes it dead-simple to make micro-donations to each charity. However, I _hate_ the idea of donating to a black box. True, Dollar a Day publishes its criteria for selecting nonprofits, but those criteria are highly subjective. And, according to the FAQ, there's no way to opt out…

Completely agreed. I don't want to have to opt out of a full month just because the charity featured on day 27 is objectionable. I'd much rather be able to say "send my dollar for thus-and-such charity to thus-and-such other charity instead."

A useful feature might be the ability to opt out by category or keyword. Maybe I'm not interested in animal charities, or maybe abortion is against my religion, or maybe I don't trust any charity with the word "global" in its name for some petty reason. Whatever it is, I need to be able to opt in to funding the 29 charities I'm cool with and opt out of the one I don't like.

Re: Dollar a Day

#12

Post by joshrotenberg »

jawns wrote: post #3

I _love_ the idea of getting a daily email that tells you about a worthy nonprofit that you might not otherwise hear about, and this system makes it dead-simple to make micro-donations to each charity. However, I _hate_ the idea of donating to a black box. True, Dollar a Day publishes its criteria for selecting nonprofits, but those criteria are highly subjective. And, according to the FAQ, there's no way to opt out…

A halfway point for them might be to allow donations only for the categories you select. Right now they have "Education, Health, Economic Development, Arts & Culture, Environment, and Human Rights." Opt in/out of categories and then somehow distribute your monthly contribution equally across that month's charities that match your selected categories. I'm not sure if a charity is exclusive to a category, though, so maybe it doesn't focus quite that well.

Re: Dollar a Day

#13

Post by hgsigala »

mankyd wrote: post #2

Not saying this isn't valuable, but I believe that Google did this a year or two ago: https://onetoday.google.com/ What's the differentiation?

I use this EVERY DAY. I get a notification at 9:30am (you can set your own time) telling me about a new organization. I donate about$1 a week and about every other week I will search for tech organizations (example: Helping bolivians connect to the internet) and do a "match" donation of $5. It is great.

The notifications display perfectly on my moto 360 too!

Re: Dollar a Day

#16

Post by Dewie »

My attitude towards charity is kind of the opposite. If I am to donate to charity, I want to concentrate on one or a few things, so that I'm able to actually research them and see for myself whether I think that the money will come to good use.

This kind of thing is different from people going door to door, collecting money; instead of someone actively going to you in order to convince you to give to some "good" (according to them) cause, you are the active participant. There isn't much immediate social guilt of having to say "no", in this case. People who collect for charities in the usual, door to door or through other means of confronting people probably want to play on people's feeling of social dignity and that they don't want to appear to be stingy. So then the average person ends up giving to a lot of different charities - because they all ask for a little at a time - and knowing little about each one.

But why would I deliberately want to diversify my charity, if I'm the one who is actively subscribing to it? Isn't it better to research a few good ones, and actively pursue those? Why give up that choice to some other entity, and make it practically impossible for me to keep up with all the different causes (you can't and won't feel motivated to research where every dollar you give goes to, when it all goes to different things). Another user here has it right - it's a black box. And apparently for no good reason.

Re: Dollar a Day

#17

Post by publicfig »

kenrikm wrote: post #9
jawns wrote: post #3

I _love_ the idea of getting a daily email that tells you about a worthy nonprofit that you might not otherwise hear about, and this system makes it dead-simple to make micro-donations to each charity. However, I _hate_ the idea of donating to a black box. True, Dollar a Day publishes its criteria for selecting nonprofits, but those criteria are highly subjective. And, according to the FAQ, there's no way to opt out…

Why not give the person several choices each day - but default to the main choice if they don't modify it? then rotate between the choices (yesterday's #2 is today's #1)

This seems like a great solution. It deals with the dollar that day so you don't end up with a backlog or an inconsistent amount of donations.

Re: Dollar a Day

#18

Post by IneffablePigeon »

mankyd wrote: post #2

Not saying this isn't valuable, but I believe that Google did this a year or two ago: https://onetoday.google.com/ What's the differentiation?

That one appears to not work in the UK, for some reason. Unfortunate. Anyone know any alternatives I could use that let me choose which charities I donate to?

Re: Dollar a Day

#19

Post by exacube »

I hate the whole credit processing fee bit -- Why are 2+% of all donations going towards VISA? There should be a direct deposit through your bank card or something!

Re: Dollar a Day

#20

Post by whyenot »

Really nice concept

I _DO_ wish you would display this information a little more prominently instead of burying it in the FAQ. There are many companies that fundraise for non-profits that take a cut of donations and are _not_ nonprofit themselves. You aren't doing this. Good!

Q: Is Dollar a Day a nonprofit?

A: Yes, we’re a nonprofit too! Dollar a Day was built by a team of (almost entirely) volunteers, and our minimal expenses are covered by a few direct donations. Dollar a Day makes no money, in any way, from donations on this site.

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