I’ve decided I’m going to donate $1 a day to things I like for a year, and started last night with a donation to the This American Life Podcast.
I have several reasons for wanting to do this. First, making a donation to things that have given me joy gives me more joy. Second, making frequent tiny little donations (selfishly) allows me to feel joy frequently. Third, there are a lot of great new micropayment services that didn’t exist just last year.
My plan is to stay as close to the plan of $1 a day as possible, meaning 365 individual donations of $1 each day for a year.
I realize I won’t stick to this plan, so I’ll allow myself the occasional weekly or biweekly payment to especially good causes if I need to catch up.
The point being that I don’t want to spend more than a double-digit amount on any one cause, but any “cause” that has given me joy (in part thanks again to services like Tipjoy) is fair game for a donation.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a charity, nonprofit, a person whose blog, tweets, or software I’ve enjoyed, a place, piece of art or architecture, musician or song, huge corporation or microbrewery.
In short, if you’ve ever provided me with joy, brace yourself to feel the wrath of my (one single) dollar.
