The 1% Initiative - Phase 2-3+
This project’s a little different to most of my other ones.
It’s both highly personal and simultaneously connected to the worldwide community as a whole. It’s also able to take place in several stages of its evolution by operating differently depending on which phase it’s in.
Although it’s technically a phase 2 & 3 project, it’s currently taking place in phase 1 as well. But perhaps I should actually explain what the project is.
Phase 1
I recently took it upon myself to start an annual project I’m calling the 1% Initiative. It has many components but the barebones version is quite simple. Every year, I will give out 1% of my annual salary to the community that has entertained me, informed me and helped me throughout the year.
So far, I have 400$ allocated for the 2021 fund. I will be splitting it amongst individuals, groups and organizations.
Each category has its own traits, specificities and sub tier systems. These will determine how much each recipient receives.
Although subject to change, the rough way I’ve broken it down is as follows.
Individuals
Tier 1 - Entertainment Class (1$)
Tier 2 - Inspiration/Insight Class (2-4$)
Tier 3 - Support Class (5$)
Groups
Here the payout is split between 5 categories. Activism, Education, Awareness, News and Entertainment. Each category can have a payout of 0-3$ for a total of 15. Depending on their actions, their valid categories and a level of quality/quantity/value I choose the payout appropriate for each group.
Organizations
Once all Individuals and Groups have been allocated their shares, the remaining funds are to be split between a list of Organizations. They are primarily (but not exclusively) charitable aid organizations that work with various populations on a multitude of continents to bring assistance to humankind. This is the setup I’m proceeding under.
Here’s what I’ve got so far.
2021: $400 (+ $150 in donations) = Payment Pending
2022: Ongoing
As the years go by, and my income grows, so will my payout. The way I see it, if I can’t spare 1% of my salary, I’ve either
Severely mismanaged my money.
Am one of those in need of the assistance the 1% Initiative seeks to alleviate.
Or, I’m not the person I thought I was.
This only applies to me, and I have no expectations or judgement towards those who wouldn’t take this on, it’s quite unconventional after all, and frankly it’s a lot of work. Between the design of the system, keeping track of worthy recipients, actually spending that money on something that doesn’t directly benefit you, not to mention actually doing dozens upon dozens of individual transactions… it’s inconvenient to say the least. That said, giving back is a pretty important value for me. I take great pride in wanting to help and give when I can, hence this annual pledge.
But, the inconvenience of the system is in part what actually motivated the desire to upgrade this Initiative! Here’s where the 2nd and 3rd phase roll outs come in.
I would love to see this grow into a sort of Patreon like crowd funding source for independent creators. People could donate as little or a much as they’d like with a simple interface allowing microdonations to go towards their favourite creators. This would become a legitimate payment processing platform, but it would also become more than that.
Through this platform, 1% of all donations would be diverted into a special fund that is equally spread amongst a list of approved charitable and aid organizations around the world. It would also make the payout of each creator public allowing you to see whether or not you’d like to help support smaller creators as well, and given the size of potential microdonations (1-3$ yearly) your allocated funds could support a wide range of creators. In turn, these creators could gain more support from a wider audience given the smaller financial “requirements” that often turn people away from donating.
As with all of my projects, I can’t make this article quite literally several thousand words long, it’s too much. Just know, I literally have a binder dedicated to this project and many thousands words written on the subject spread across half a dozen notebooks and folders. Whatever you read here, there will always be more, there has to be for it to grow!
As previously mentioned, this will be a Phase 2-3 project.
If you’re unfamiliar with what that means, may I suggest you take a look at my explanation of all the phases and what each means in the menu tab up above.
For those lacking the time, interest or motivation, here’s the TL;DR.
Phase 2 is focused on bringing about my projects and ambitions to reality, while phase 3 is defined by being able to pursue my projects as a full time career, supported by the community at large!
During these phases, I will be attempting to develop a financial transaction platform and building a movement supporting it (the 1% Initiative). That’s all currently beyond me given that as of writing this I’m still in Phase 1.
Phase 1 is about discovery, testing and the growth of my potential. I spend my weeks working a full time job, and between the time it takes to sleep and recover I’m also testing and developing methods to improve my ability to operate on this level. In that sense, Phase 1 is literally building me up so that I will be capable of entering future phases and see my plans through!
This project will also be quite the time commitment given the extensive development and testing required, not to mention the financial aspect of creating and hosting this platform.
So all that being said, thanks for the read and I’m looking forward to presenting this in the years to come!
