Our Blog

Benj and Jessica launched a nonprofit. Follow our journey as we built a 501(c)(3) and a web site, and now usher in an endless stream of worthy charity nominees and monthly grant winners!

Shortcuts: News | Winners | Nominees

Help Me!

First word, sounds like... You want my kelp?

We've been asked by some of you how you can help, and don't always know quite how to answer. Feed me coffee and chocolate from dusk 'til dawn? Don't wake me up before noon? Distract me with trivia and beer and movies once in a while? All pretty obvious stuff.

Our dear friend, Melia, has undertaken an important task: writing a guide for volunteer moderators. A large part of the activity on Charitocracy will be weighing the relative merits of different causes in a discussion forum. We'll need some moderators who can help remind donors that we're all on the same team, and to keep the discourse positive and constructive. Thank you Melia for spearheading this!! And do give us a yell if you don't mind doing some moderating once we go live.

For others who want to help without biting off such a big chunk, here are two easy ways to help today:

  1. Like us on Facebook and/or follow us on Twitter. If you already do, then please share/retweet with your friends and encourage them to follow us. If we build momentum now before the site opens, the size of the pot for month #1 will be meaningful instead of simply... cute. Might I suggest something like "My amazing and handsome friends are launching a <insert region-appropriate equivalent to wicked pissah> non-profit soon, please support them by liking their page and following along!"
  2. Ask us a question! We'll need to start fleshing out a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for the site, and could use some ideas. What do you want to know about Charitocracy? Some of it might be obvious once you can actually go in there and look around, but I want the FAQ to be useful to people who haven't signed up yet, so they'll have many of the same questions you do now! Pose questions, broad and narrow alike, here on the blog, Facebook, Twitter, wherever is convenient for you. Maybe we'll even answer your question in a blog post!

Thanks for your continued support. We're getting close!

Help! is on the way!

Glass Half Full

A glass half empty remains plenty full enough

What has become known as The Year of Benj is now half over. Let me rephrase: I'm now beginning the best half of TYOB!

I'm in a serious groove right now. It doesn't matter if I've already worked all day or if I've been out partying and get home after midnight: prime me with a couple squares of dark chocolate, tune the Apple TV on my desk to John Oliver, and next stop will be 8:30am and a half dozen items off my to-do list.  Repeat about 4 times per week, and things truly start happening!

Yesterday I worked from the beach just to prove that I could. TYOB, YOLO! It was in the mid-70s (degrees, not decade, sadly) but the wind was obnoxious. I had goose bumps the whole time. However, the equipment test mission was a success! My new beach umbrella and sand anchor didn't budge in the wind. I could see my Mac's screen just fine thanks to the dorky but effective Pixel Sunscreen. And I scoped out the beach access closest to a cell tower, which afforded me 3 bars of AT&T signal. (I'll try for 4 next time, but 3 gave me a steady 1Mbps up and down, fine for my typical needs.)

Now I just need to work out a system for accepting dark chocolate donations...

Did I mention, Charitocracy contributions are tax-deductible?