Category: General News

Our new local Outer Banks site, Charitocracy OBX, is online! I've just finished coding up the last bit of nice-to-have UI tweaks to make it easy for donors to go back and forth between the two sites. So consider the "soft launch" over. And thanks to the early beta testers for their brilliant feedback!

I'll keep new OBX nominations open until midnight Tuesday, so please throw your hat in the ring if you have a favorite local cause!

The Basics

• I'll call the ch-y.org site you know and love "Charitocracy USA" for clarity here. The new one is at obx.ch-y.org and I'll call it Charitocracy OBX.
• If you have an account on Charitocracy USA, then you have an account on Charitocracy OBX version, too. Same account, two great sites!
• Switch between them at any time by clicking the ❤️OBX or ❤️USA sticker next to the Charitocracy logo at the top of every page.
• If you click the "Remember Me" checkbox during log in, you'll stay logged in on that computer/device virtually forever, or until you log out. And if you have trouble logging in, don't hesitate to get me involved! We want you and need you on there every month!! I'm happy to help get you unstuck.

New Donation UI

• Say good-bye to the old limited menu of weird donation amounts. Now you can decide exactly how much you want to feed the monthly pot(s).
• If you're new to Charitocracy and only interested in supporting Outer Banks causes, you can sign up to just feed the OBX pot. Simply set the nationwide pot contributions to $0/mo and OBX to $99/mo. 😉
• If you're already a Charitocracy USA donor, it's real easy to add a new donation stream to Charitocracy OBX. Decide how you want to divvy up your Washingtons between the two sites. And you'll only be billed the prorated "catch up" amount now.
• You can also tweak your allocation between the two pots any time you want. If it's just shifting dollars from one pot to the other but the total remains the same, you won't be billed anything.
• All new donations are billed annually, but hopefully I can bring monthly billed donations back online. If that's of interest to you, please get in touch so I know to prioritize it.

Growing the Charitocracy OBX pot

• • • The pot started at $0 on October 1st. If you're viewing this blog post on the OBX site, scroll around until you see the pot o' gold showing the current pot size.
    • Your contribution today will make a significant % boost. $1 will bump the pot multiple percent! That won't be true for long. 🤞
    • Even more important are the 5 friends you invite to help fill the pot. Charitocracy is known to be highly contagious in OBX.
    • Let's make the first OBX winner not regret the trip to the bank to cash their check. 😜 Can we get it up over $100 this month?

Okay, that's all for now. Let's pig pile on this pot. Turn it into a snowball picking up size and speed all October!

Thank you. Truly.

OBX gets its own Charitocracy spin-off!

In hopes of harnessing the impressive engagement from the Outer Banks community of North Carolina, while at the same time calming the nerves of donors everywhere else who see only OBX causes winning lately, I'm busily working on a solution. The Outer Banks will have its own Charitocracy soon. Its own nominees, its own monthly pot, its own winners.

My goal is to finish by the end of September, and make October a dry run. Only OBX charities can be nominated in the new spin-off site, whereas the original national version of Charitocracy will proceed as normal, except without the OBX-specific charities. Current donors can choose to switch over, or with a minimum donation of $1/month per pot, they can participate (nominate, discuss, vote) in both!

Other future spin-offs?

And maybe in the future there will be more than two?? Contact us if you think a local spin-off would be successful in your area. In addition to geographical spin-offs, we could also host topic-specific spin-offs. Imagine a Charitocracy of all environmental causes, or natural disaster responses, or animal rescues, or social justice initiatives? The key is to start off with a critical mass of 100+ donors contributing an average of $5/month each, so we hit the ground running with a $500+ prize every month.

Challenge: make OBX Charitocracy bigger than the original!

The OBX monthly pot will naturally start out smaller with its new donor base. But I suspect it will grow more quickly than the national donor base and monthly pot did, thanks to the enthusiasm and dedication already demonstrated by OBX donors so far this year. Big question: will it outgrow the original national pot? Consider the challenge extended, OBX. There's no speed limit here at Charitocracy.

Now I need to get back to work! Just because I'm talking about it doesn't mean it exists yet. But I've started. And I'm no stranger to all-nighters. You all have me energized. Let's do this!

Under attack from OBX

My fellow Charitocracy donors: There is a hijack in progress.

We are under attack by a local band of generous micro-philanthropists armed with dollar bills and a common goal. And that goal is to raise funds for their favorite local charities in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Those charities feed their hungry, house their homeless, and strengthen ties with their minority communities. And your monthly contributions are aiding and abetting this flagrant benevolence.

Coordinated series of ambushes

On February 4, 2020, Sea Change OBX was nominated by a fermented vegetable peddler from whom I purchased delicious kombucha and kimchi at a farmer's market 4 months prior. (That is the only direct connection Jessica and I have to these hijack attempts, believe it or not!) Then one of the founders of Sea Change, seeing the potential of our platform, conscripted friends, family, and other Sea Change supporters to join Charitocracy and vote. She even handed out flyers to spread the word. February saw Sea Change OBX slowly rise through the ranks and squeak out a victory in its first month, a check for $1262, while recruiting some 3 dozen new Charitocracy donors.

Fast forward to July 1, 2020, when a board member nominated Food for Thought. Same community, same steady rise in votes and almost 20 new Charitocracy donors. They surpassed 2nd place Feeding America, a national charity with similar mission, by a healthy margin. They took home $1447.

And now in August, OBX Room in the Inn had attracted over a dozen more new Charitocracy donors and had risen to 1st place even before the Top 10 were selected. They're only a couple votes away from beating the all-time record of 48.39 votes, set in September 2017 by Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund at GHCF. Local charities in OBX seem virtually unstoppable!

How to hijack it back

Is this a marauding gang of do-gooders? A cartel of caring? A bevy of benefaction? And will this madness never end?

That's partly up to you! Do you know how to win friends and influence people? Can you help build your own cabal of like-minded altruists?

Here's a mission outline borrowed straight from the hijackers' playbooks:

1. 1. Establish objective

Choose a charity. During the 1st week of the month you can nominate a new one. But if you can rally around one that's already nominated, go for it! No need to spread votes even thinner if the charity of your dreams is already on our list. And remember, causes that address needs at a national level may be more attractive to more voters, unless you knock this next one out of the park...

1. 1. Recruit squad

Have friends already on Charitocracy? Reach out to them with your plan, and friend each other on Charitocracy. But then go further and invite every one of your close friends and family members to join Charitocracy and vote for your cause. Inviting them to like Charitocracy on Facebook or follow us on Instragram/Twitter/LinkedIn doesn't hurt, either. We throw $1 extra in the pot for each new like/follow!

1. 1. Publish propaganda

Keep your crew informed on progress as you rise through the ranks from obscurity into the Top 10 and beyond. Push out materials promoting your Charitocracy campaign over all media: social, email, face-to-face (sorry, mask-to-mask) conversations, leaflets dropped from planes, whatever it takes! And don't let up until you're victorious.

1. 1. Call in reinforcements

If you need that extra push over the line, e.g. right before the Top 10, or Top 3, or final vote on the last day of the month, dig deeper into your intel network. Maybe one of your close friend recruits has a friend or 2 of their own they could tap. There's plenty of glory to go around. Just find a way to git 'er done!

1. 1. World Domination Victory

You won! Clearly you have what it takes. Your charity of choice will reap the spoils. Time to plan your next charitable conquest...

A message to the "enemy"

Congratulations to our neighbors in OBX. I hope you're not offended by my hijacking analogy. You've raised money for the causes dearest and nearest to your hearts. You've boosted Charitocracy's donor count to never before reached levels. And you've done it through no small amount of effort. This is how you conduct a Charitocracy campaign!

However, there is a risk here. Having OBX causes win month after month may (or, almost certainly, will) disenfranchise the majority of Charitocracy donors from all around the country who wish to support causes that help Americans nationwide. Some of them give much more than a dollar per month, and losing their interest and support would reverse Charitocracy's growth and send monthly pot sizes crashing.

So maybe space out your campaigns over time? Or target some national or more geographically diverse causes? Let me be clear: Nothing you're doing is against the rules. Frankly, I'm impressed and super pumped by your enthusiasm. But I'd hate to see the other shoe drop where all we're left with is an OBX skeleton crew competing for a $400 monthly pot.

Any brilliant ideas?

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any potential solutions to this hijacking dilemma. I have some longer term plans that will mesh nicely with this OBX phenomenon, but I'm all ears for your thoughts. And OBX folks, we could discuss in person over coffee at my "office." (Outdoors, 6' apart, with masks on in between sips?!)