There’s Plenty of Money, So Start Some Good.

“Money is a limited resource. We can’t fund everyone.”

Those few words encompass the most insidious assumption at the heart of competitive grant-making and competitive fundraising. The “reality” created by that assumption is the source of all the fear and the overwhelming sense of scarcity that undergird this work, everywhere around the world.

For years at this blog, I have shared evidence that this assumption is just that – an assumption. (Check posts here and here.)  And in The Pollyanna Principles, the case studies not only show the step-by-step of how funders can indeed fund everyone – they show how funding everyone dramatically improves the results of those funded projects, in the short term AND the long term!

A New Case Study
These days, Creating the Future finds itself in the middle of another case study, as we have been honored to be included in the launch of a new funding mechanism that is fully intended to fund everyone.

The effort is called Start Some Good.

Start Some Good is built on the assumption that resources are absolutely abundant. The effort’s founders – Tom Dawkins and Alex Budak – prove that each and every one of us (yes, that includes you) has two resources:

1) A powerful desire for the world to be healthy, peaceful, joyful for all of us.

2) A smidge of money to give (whether that smidge is $1 or $100 – smidge is in the eye of the beholder).

With those two assumptions at its core, Start Some Good is a “Crowdfunding Platform” – a central location where social change initiatives can post their information, and where people who want to “start some good” can find and invest in those initiatives.

Donors are encouraged to give to more than one effort – to spread their gifts around. Even if you only have $5, you might give it all to one effort, or you could give $1 apiece to five efforts. Those dollars add up (hence the term “Crowdfunding”) and voila – everyone can win.

Tapping into the assumptions of abundant resources and abundant passion, Tom and Alex began this initiative with their own blood, sweat and tears, just the way so many of us started our own efforts. And we have been honored that they included one of our projects in their launch.

Next week I’ll share a bit about the project we started there. For now, though, as a way of showing our immense gratitude to Tom and Alex for offering this site to the world, we are hoping you will pitch in to make Start Some Good be the best it can be – just as you have done with so many of the projects we have done here at Creating the Future.

Please take a moment and do the following:

1) Use this link to head to Start Some Good

2) Look around the site, to see the projects people have posted, and to get a sense of the site.

3) Please give a small amount to everything that is appealing to you, even if all you can afford is $1 or $2. And see how those small amounts are honored at the site, underscoring the spirit of abundance that says, “We all have gifts to share, and those gifts are all honored.”

4) Please then answer the following questions:
• What do you find interesting / exciting about Start Some Good?
• What has been your experience with similar programs?
• If you have a project you’d like to post at Start Some Good, what questions would you want answered before you would consider doing so?
• As a donor, what would you want to know before you would consider giving at this site?
• On the mechanical side, the site is still in the Beta version. As you move about the site and as you donate, are there things that could make the site more usable?

And lastly, if you have a project you would like Tom and Alex to consider, please submit it at the site. We very much want them to succeed, to prove that there are so many ways to build cooperation rather than competition.

We wish them both tremendous luck. Please help them by helping others to Start Some Good!