A great many of us are moved to donate to reduce the deaths and alleviate the massive suffering caused by the pandemic.

Here is a rare opportunity for you to leverage—to multiply—a few of your charitable dollars into many more dollars for thousands of hospitals, medical research labs, ambulance corps, food banks, and other nonprofits that desperately need more funding in the battle against COVID-19.

 

The Opportunity

A tremendous resource remains nearly untapped. Every day, nearly a million Americans celebrate their birthday, and Americans spend $450 billion a year on presents.

Many people would be more receptive than ever to dedicating their birthday to raise money for nonprofits fighting COVID-19. Likewise, many would rather show their love with a meaningful donation to address this crisis in lieu of buying yet more merchandise.

 

The Scale of the Opportunity

Even a small sliver of the fortune spent on presents would help those nonprofits make a tremendous impact. Each 1% of the money spent on presents is:

• more than the annual revenue of the American National Red Cross
• more than the annual revenue of Feeding America (the largest hunger nonprofit in the country)
• 74X the annual revenue of the CDC Foundation

Again, that is just 1% of the money spent on traditional presents in the U.S., alone.

 

Precedent and Proof

Heifer International proved that nonprofits can capture money normally spent on presents, but only if they make the experience of a donation, which is given in a friend's name, feel like a rewarding present.

Since Heifer, which is known for providing farm animals in the developing world captures $120 million a year in this way, imagine how much more could be channeled to nonprofits fighting COVID-19.

 

Our Role

Our nonprofit's website, ChangingThePresent.org, makes it easy and rewarding to:

• create a charitable wish list, which makes people more likely to ask for donations in lieu of presents and also makes it more likely that their friends will do so
• makes it easy to find meaningful opportunities and makes it rewarding to contribute.

We provide all of the requisite elements, which nonprofits cannot offer on their own:

• specific donation opportunities (an hour of medical research, a week of meals for an elderly couple, etc.)
• personalized printed greeting cards
• wish lists and registries
• gift cards

No wonder The New York Times called our nonprofit, “an Amazon.com of the nonprofit world” (a nice accolade for a small, bootstrapped nonprofit).

What We Need to Make it Happen

We currently have 400 leading nonprofits on the site and thousands of charitable gifts.

 

We are adding thousands of international, national, and local nonprofits battling COVID-19. That includes 5500 hospitals, 200 food banks, medical research centers, volunteer ambulance corps, and other nonprofits. We are engaging with celebrities and influencers, many of whom have made significant donations, to engage their fans.

We have a growing team of interns and volunteers, donated office space, and donated software licenses, so we are extremely cost-efficient. Still, we need a bit of funding to be able to scale up as quickly as the need demands. We seek $25,000 to cover our expenses for the next four months and let us capture many times that amount for nonprofits that are making a tremendous impact every day.

 

Your Financial Support is Leveraged

We hope that you will please help with funding and/or introductions to others who might seek an exceptionally high-impact opportunity in the midst of this crisis.

• to donate online, please use this page
• to donate in other ways or get more information, please contact Robert Tolmach at roberttolmach [AT] ChangingThePresent.org

 

Your Brainpower
In addition to funding, we are always seeking advice, introductions, and whatever other assistance you can provide. If you like the idea of moving some of that $450 billion from unwanted presents to making a difference, please drop us a note at pandemic [AT] ChangingThePresent.org, and we will keep you posted.

We would be delighted to speak and answer any questions. Thank you very much for your time and consideration!