So.. I Encountered Some Problems
I’ve been in the late stages of planning for my 2021 donation for a while now. Part of the reason for the delay came as a result of unexpected complications and realizations regarding giving away several hundred dollars to dozens of individuals, groups and organizations.
I still fully intend to donate the 400$, however I’ve come to understand something about my initial approach. My original plan had me categorizing individuals in three tiers, with the lowest receiving 1$, tier 2 getting between 2$ and 4$, and tier 3 capped at 5$. That works well in theory, but becomes complicated when faced with the reality of most people’s patreon pages.
You see, for larger groups and organizations, they will usually have a donation processing platform that allows any kind of donation you’d like. That means that donating a single dollar is feasible, even if somewhat time consuming to do on mass. The problem with platforms like patreon however is that they only support donation tiers set by the creators themselves. And as patreon itself says, it advises the lowest tier donations at 3$ minimum given that it takes 67 cents per transaction making small dono’s basically useless. As such, almost no one has a 1$ option.
I considered circumventing this issue by creating a cumulative payout where over the course of several years they could amass several 1$ or more donations until it reached their payout criteria but quite frankly keeping track of that for potentially hundreds of people in the years to come seems like an incredible hassle for 1-3 dollars.. I thought of perhaps putting their donations in a separate list for them to contact me in order to claim it, but first off, how would they know that they have a dollar to claim, and who would bother for such a measly sum. The idea is to show support, not create a headache for literal pennies.
As the weeks went by, yet another issue came up. I realized that although I started this initiative with an open mind and heart, simply wanting to give back to the community that I feel so rightfully deserves support, I ended up getting too distracted by the concept of what this donation initiative was to become. Years from now, I would like to see this idea morph into a legitimate platform or non-profit that helps fund all kinds of members and communities, with more built in features than 10 of these articles could reasonably cover. But that’s years from now. I don’t have these capabilities, recognition nor funding yet. I must remember that my capacity is currently far more limited than I would like, and that I must operate within the boundaries of reason.
So here’s my new plan.
I’ve noticed that in my so called “final” list of recipiants I ended up including many, many, many people that although I support and do occasionally consume their content, it’s by no means frequent enough to warrant keeping them on this years list. In a perfect world, I could support hundreds, if not actual thousands of community members but for now I must keep that circle small. Many designated recipients are already doing well on their own, and I realized that a small (yet legitimate) reason for why they showed up on my list was because I did in fact seek some small measure of recognition for my initiative. It mostly came from a desire to gain some exposure through the bigger names in order to grow my success and therefore future ability to donate and develop my projects, but it strayed from my initial purpose nonetheless.
I truly do want to help support those who need support. I also want to show my appreciation to those that I’ve found great value in. I believe that for as long as I operate under these limiting factors, I must constrain myself to these parameters.
One day, I would love to include everyone that I know holds great value, even though not necessarily having the time to personally engage with their content.
And so, here we are. I will redesign my list and publish it in the days or weeks to come, and have even gotten generous donations totaling 100$ CAD. So, this year’s payout will actually be to the tune of 500$ and I can’t thank those who donated enough with the entirety of their donations going to support various organizations acting as a force for good in this world. In the years to come, if you would like to help support this initiative feel free to send me an email or give support directly through specific links set up in years to come!
Thank you so much, and stay kind ❤️
For the curious among you, here’s the previous list for the recipients of the 2021 1% Initiative.
