When we were low on nominees a week ago, you came through with flying colors, resulting in 15 great causes, many of which were new to me. In 18 short days, one of them will win Charitocracy's first ever pot. But we need your help.

I don't mean to sound the alarm bells again, but our latest "crisis" is too few distinguishing votes! 2 days from now, Charitocracy will narrow the causes eligible to win this month from 15 down to the top 10. Number of votes is the top criteria, and then ties are first broken by the number of voters. For example, a cause with 5 votes from 5 donors will be ranked behind a cause that receives 10 half-votes from 10 donors, rewarding  the cause with a broader base of support. Then if there's still a tie, a cause with more likes will win.

The problem is, thanks to the urgency during this first month to nominate causes, we have many causes with a single vote -- the vote automatically cast by the nominator -- which cannot be changed until October. So we need a bunch of non-nominators to get in there and shake up the votes! Right now we have 5 causes that have nicely separated themselves from the pack, but we have no way of distinguishing the other 5 we need for the top 10.

If you've already nominated a cause this month, thank you, your work here is done until October. If you've already voted for causes nominated by others, you're welcome to revote as often as you like, and even split your vote among up to 5 causes, but you've already helped select our top 10, so thank you, too! If you haven't signed up yet, or you signed up but didn't vote yet, we need your help! By the end of the day Wednesday we need to have enough votes that we can name the top 10 without there being a 10-way tie...

We've raised $988, and you've nominated 7 causes so far.  Not bad for week 1!  Today is the last day to nominate causes for September, so if you have a pet cause (whether or not it's actually a pet cause, though we do have 2 of those in the running already) please sign up today and nominate it. The Top Ten narrowing that occurs a week from now will be a tad anticlimactic if we don't get 4 more causes...

So there's no day like today to sign up! $13/year (or more if you want). Even if you prefer not to get involved in the process, nominating or even voting, you'd still be supporting a dozen charitable causes each year without lifting another finger. And the more $ in the pot each month, the more interesting it is for everyone else, attracting more donors to give!

In other news, we just received our solicitation approvals from Michigan, New Hampshire, North Dakota, and Oregon, so we'll be able to open the front door to the site before we know it. There are only 7 states and jurisdictions (yes, I'm looking at you, DC) we're still waiting to hear from. Which reminds me, I need to decorate the front door of Charitocracy with a sales pitch so first-time visitors understand what we're trying to do and how it all works. If you have any ideas for good taglines (or bad ones) I'd love to hear them!

The Charitocracy main page remains the same poker-faced, "Coming soon!" message it's been all along. Until we're granted permission to solicit from the general public across the nation, this is how we'll keep the charitable hordes at bay: a secret back door for friends and family.

Not unlike Charitocracy, Rochambeau is a bit difficult to say and spell, so instead use this link to get in: <redacted>

Note that beta test accounts and nominated causes have been wiped from the server, so don't be surprised that your old username/password aren't recognized.

Please sign up at a donation level you're comfortable with, maybe nominate your favorite cause of broad national appeal (i.e. probably not your local school PTO!), and definitely report any problems you encounter, big or small, via this blog, Facebook, email (benj at charitocracy dot org), or text message. Screenshots welcome!

Nominations will close in 7 days, at which point you'll receive an email summary of the newly nominated causes. (I hope there's more than 10, or it'll be real hard to narrow them down to the top 10 halfway through the month!) Vote now, revote later! Your vote won't be locked in until September 30.

I'm excited that Charitocracy is ALIVE, we have real donation dollars going into the pot, and we'll be able to write a real check to some deserving cause a month from now! Let's make that check as big as possible, friends...