Edit 2: Checks out
Edit: changing the title from "Do NOT keep reading if your time is worth >$200/hr," which sounded a lot funnier in my head a couple hours ago.
The Crazy Good Turns podcast is making the following solicitation:
Send A Thank You
Nominate someone you know who’s done a good turn for others. We’ll send them a “Thank You” note, plus a $50 gift card, just for being an example of graciousness during extraordinarily difficult times. You can send this gift at no cost to yourself, or to the person receiving it. There are no strings attached.
It's unclear, but from context I'm guessing "gift card" means "prepaid debit," rather than something store-specific; not quite cash, but pretty close. Also - and this might be pretty important - there seems to be no explicit limit to the number of people you can "nominate" although, quite reasonably...
We do reserve the right to request more info, or reject requests if necessary. And due to logistical reasons, we have to limit the gifts to within the United States (for now).
Ok, enough context; I'm writing this because I'm hoping others will follow the instructions in such a way that a bunch of money winds up in the hands of cash-constrained charities (or maybe cash-constrained EAs).
Do what you will with this information, but here's something I encourage:
- Pick a value-aligned EA friend who lives in the US
- Propose trading nominations in exchange for each person donating the money
- Fill out the form here correspondingly
- [Hopefully] Receive prepaid debit
- Donate $50 - directly with the gift card if possible, or else however you can/like - to wherever you think it will do the most good
- Consider repeating steps 1-5 with a different person
Why $200/hour in the title? I estimate this whole thing will take you about 15 minutes.
The man behind this podcast and offer, Frank Blake, has a net worth of somewhere between $3M and $20M, so there's likely a reasonably hard cap on things (and one much below those figures). This isn't another crypto windfall. But hey, $50 is $50, and $50 can do a lot of good.
General encouragement for having done something risky (a wacky title) and then deciding against it and changing it. The first sentence of the changed post made me laugh.
Haha thanks! But be sure to only read this comment if it's a good use of your time
Also, can anyone think of a solution for gifting people outside of the US? I'm thinking it's probably not worth it to coordinate.
Person A can nominate Person B and have the card sent to her own (person A's) address to then give it in person to person B. The website is super clear that this is allowed, all on honor system. I didn't emphasize this to minimize how sus the whole thing sounded, but I am happy to act as conduit for anyone's donation this way, or mail the card, or something else. Anyone can reach out if interested!
This would be an interesting approach to generate charitable donations. I would caution though that this seems to me (a non-USA person, so take this with a grain of salt) to skirt a little close to some laws surrounding this so I'd definitely check that out first. One man's charitable fundraising could be another man's false representation!
Still though, interesting thought :)