A new way to give to those in need… Love Drop
A personal friend and professional colleague, J Money, has partnered with Nate from ItStartsWith.Us to start a new way to give to those in need: Love Drop (http://lovedrop.org/). I haven’t had a personal conversation with J about it, but from the site and video, it looks like it’s going to be a hit.
Here’s the deal: You subscribe via Paypal for any amount (you get billed for a yearly amount to make accounting easier on both sides). For example, give $1 a month, get billed $12, and so on. Depending on your donation level, you get different levels of access to the Love Drop community.
What happens with your donations?
Think of Love Drop as “planned random acts of kindness to strangers” (my own words). Basically, people will submit their needs, or members suggest those in need, and J and Nate do the leg work to determine both the truth in need and the best way to fulfill that need. Your donated money, of course, will be used for fulfilling those needs.
Now, the question about whether your funds are tax-deductible. No, they are not. This is not a registered non-profit, and Nate says as such in the video. The downside to not being a non-profit is that Love Drop has to pay taxes and Paypal fees on each transaction. So, after taxes and Paypal fees, Love Drop will donate 50% to immediate needs, while the other 50% helps the organization grow further. And no, that doesn’t mean the money goes into their pockets as profits. It will go to things like advertising, site maintenance and other business expenses.
My Opinion
First of all, AWESOME IDEA! Second, I hope it really takes off because not only do I love watching (and participating in) acts of kindness, but also because I personally know J Money is on a mission to give back to the community and to the world.
The only downsides I see are two: 1) It’s a daunting task to decide who gets the help (and it’s not just going to be $$. It might be $$ and manpower). Imagine getting just a handfull of requests for assistance, but you can only help one. Now multiply that by probably 1000 or more. I worry this endeavor will grow faster than Love Drop can keep up, but I have faith in them. 2) Until Love Drop can register themselves as a non-profit, a big chunk of donations is kept from helping the needy. Hopefully they can get approved as a non-profit soon!
So, consider joining as a member of Love Drop at any level. You can find enough spare change in your bank account for a starter subscription, and maybe a few will make the leap and become “VIPs”.
Good luck J and Nate!
Hey Dude, thanks for the blogger love! It’s exciting to see this idea make its way around the web. 🙂
You’re right, there’s a lot to figure out here, and our challenge is gonna be to keep up with it as it grows quickly, I think. but we’ve both had a bit of experience keeping on the horse while community flourishes around our ideas, so hopefully we’ll be able to keep up without going too crazy.
You’re also right in the sense that the monthly $$$ is a subscription, not a donation. You’re getting access to the private platform, extra content, the Love Drop community forums, and the ability to suggest someone you know who may need a boost. One clarification: Based on feedback from early members, we’ve removed the “levels” of involvement. Any subscription package brings you into the full offering of Love Drop.
Finally, as far as the non-profit status goes – we’ve given that a lot of thought for a long time, and we actually think we’ll bring in more money to help others by doing it this way. We could be wrong, but we’re going to frame this up in a pretty unique way and see what happens. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Thanks again, man!
Nate
I’m involved and definitely looking forward to helping all the people in need!
Thx for the love my man! We’re hoping to really do some good up in hurrr… 50+ members and counting so far 🙂
Sounds like a great idea! Hope you keep us posted on how Love Drop grows over the future!
Is Love Drop a micro giving site only … or will it also offer micro investing (similar to kiva.org)? Just wondering, thanks!
Hey Janet! Love Drop will be micro giving only – as far as money is concerned. But if you think of it in terms of investing in someone’s future it’s *kinda* like Kiva? haha…. great question though – first we’ve heard of that since launching 🙂
Our new site went up on Monday — LoveDrop.us
Good to know. 🙂 The site looks great!