I love great ideas. Even better is seeing them come to life. Such is the case with a new charity called DollarPerMonth.org. A little over a month ago, our creative director Jonathan Harris brought in a friend to discuss having our firm ShowPony come on board to help them with their creative and marketing. At the time I had no idea that we were actually meeting with Doug Clerget who just finished a little gig called The Bachleroette. Doug’s got a great story period, and the fact that he has the time and drive to have started a charity organization in addition to a normal job and being a single dad is pretty amazing.
DPM is simply a great idea and it’s worth you taking a few minutes to check out. DPM makes giving fun by adding a layer of social integration combined with gamification. You earn points not only by committing to as little as a dollar every month, but also by spreading the word of DPM through your networks. DPM calls this your social impact score. Over time through the combination of giving, referring and driving awareness of DPM, you’re score increases and such your notoriety on the site. Of course the simple fact of giving to a good cause should be enough, but it can’t hurt to add a layer of vanity and competition right? It works.
In addition, every month, you have the ability to vote on one of 3 pre-screened charities to have the money distributed to every month. Votes also go towards your social impact score encouraging folks to stay connected to the site.
I’m really excited to have the opportunity to help grow DPM, but more importantly I’m motivated to see such a great cause and great idea reach critical mass.
Who doesn’t have at least a dollar every month? I encourage you to visit DPM, and more importantly make the commitment to joining and becoming a part of the charitable movement. It’s fun, social and for a great cause.
Jason – since you guys are helping them sort things out – you really got to do something about the domain name because dollarpermonth.com takes you somewhere that is, um, problematic.
I strongly recommend changing the domain name – yesterday. Or buying out dollarpermonth.com – outright.
The concept seems worthwhile, but I checked DPM’s website out and I had some issues that kept me from signing up.
1. Sign up wasn’t free.
2. I didn’t know if anyone I know on Twitter or Facebook is a member.
3. I didn’t get any sense of how big the DPM network is or how it’s doing – if there are less than 10k active users and less than 1k new members per month, this is not going to fly and I would rather not join something that is not going to stay in flight
4. I didn’t get any sense of DPM informing my friends about how I’m advancing the cause – social impact work therefore becomes meaningless if it doesn’t build actual social capital
5. I didn’t see how much money was donated to past “winning” charities – transparency is really key to success
6. I didn’t see how my profile will look in the DPM network and I didn’t get to see/search the profiles of existing members
7. I didn’t see any kind of social collateral – beyond a basic pic, do i get to add more pics, do i get a bio, favorite links, list of interests, friend’s list, way to add new friends in the DPM network, etc.
I hope this list helps you guys advance DPM’s online strategy.