Here’s the second finish line…sort of… in two weeks. I’ve alluded to some pending announcements a couple of times now. Let me lay out the news for you, and then I’ll talk about what it means for me and my little piece of this industry. Bombs away.
- I’m no longer an independent consultant. RapidRed will keep functioning, but I’ll pass leads to others I trust.
- I’m working as CTO of a new company called WellGood. We want to build a dream team of Rails developers, and we should have the financial resources to do so very shortly.
- We launched a major new web site today in beta mode. The site is called ChangingThePresent.
Why?
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The first question that I get is…why now? I’ve taken a few rotten tomatoes to the skull for my ideas in Beyond Java, and later for my continued support of Ruby on Rails. Most of them have come from the Java crowd. Truth be told, I turned my back on a pretty strong consulting base in Java application development to bet my business on Ruby, because I thought it was the right thing for me, and for many of my customers. Now that it looks like Rails is going to be commercially successful, you’d think that RapidRed is in a pretty good position to grow and prosper. And that’s turned out to be true. This year was by far the best financial year I’ve ever had, and I see more of the same in many different places. This year could have been much, much better. Good Rails gigs are springing up, and if you’ve got some experience and a good marketing engine, you can make some good coin.
But sometimes, it’s not all about money. Enter Frank Zimmerman, and Robert Tolmach. Frank brought me in as a contractor to work for Robert, my new boss. Robert had this idea that has turned out to be too compelling to ignore. Nonprofits need donors, and donors need knowledge and accountability. They both need a marketplace—a 21st century marketplace where buyers and sellers could come together to do business to do good.
But that won’t happen unless there’s a strong commercial motivation. So Robert’s vision is to build a company that can do good while the developers, artists, evangelists, managers, and other professionals can do well. So we put a nonprofit company and a for-profit company together with some cutting edge technologies and blew out the initial parts of a web site. I signed on with the team as a lead developer and contractor.
And a funny thing happened. Working with this team, in this social problem space, and with this technology stack, felt good. Very good. I fell in love with the project, and want to do this for a good, long while. Frank Zimmerman graciously let me out of contractual obligations to become CTO of WellGood, LLC. Joining the team made sense for Robert, because with a CTO on board, he could stand a better chance of securing the commitments and team that we’re going to need to succeed. (We take only credit card transaction fees from nonprofits.) We finished blowing out the first part of the site, with Arvato Systems providing the core support and TheEdgeCase as core programmers on the team.
But we’ve come further faster than I’ve ever come before, and the feeling is intoxicating. We’ll have problems as we scale and learn to develop with some sane velocity, but we’ve got the talent to solve the problems. We always do. And I strongly believe we’re going to change the world.
What?
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It’s time to talk a little bit about the site. ChangingThePresent.org is like Heifer Project meets Ebay. (If you’ve never heard of Heifer, you should check it out .) We have a board of advisors including the heads of Amnesty International, senators, past presidents of Ivy league schools, and the heads of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, Ashoka, the Global AIDS Alliance, Grameen Foundation USA, the Rainforest Alliance, Refugees International, Save the Children, Sesame Workshop, Sierra Club, the United States Fund for UNICEF…basically a who’s who in the nonprofit world. They recommended thirty three causes, from cancer to world hunger. They then identified nonprofits to feature from each cause. We’ve invited the initial 400 or so nonprofits, and have gifts already live for around 250.
We also provide a channel for any nonprofit to join the site, or for users to donate to any nonprofit that interests them. We have web services to a database of nonprofits so that you can give donations to any nonprofit with a tax number. Any nonprofit will be able to add their site, and enhance their listing with individual gifts. And we have another service to a just in time printer, who can print a custom card to announce a donation in someone else’s name.
So here’s the first bit of promise of this whole enterprise. If you make a great charity portal and make it easier to give, then you’ll just get the same people giving, and maybe a few more. But if you tap a new community, and change the way and circumstances that people give… now, you’re making a bigger difference. We let you shop for gifts that mean something, and rather than getting Dad yet another ugly necktie or Mom another fruit cake that gets passed down through the generations, or flowers that wilt or balloons that sag, you can give a gift that will really change the world. We’ll send a card in your honor. Now, I know that gift giving is important. But how many pen and pencil sets can you really use? If we tap just a tiny part of that 100 billion that people spend on gifts…that’s billion with a B…we will make a huge difference. All we need is a marketplace.
Here’s the second part. We’ll provide a social experience around the whole thing. You can make your own wish lists or wedding registry. You can make memorials or event registries, and for special events in your life, you can elect to have dollars go to the charities that you choose, and do what you want to do with those dollars. You can see what others give, if they are willing to share. If you’re not sure what kind of gift you want to give, you can see what other celebrities like, or what some of the foremost experts in the world think is important.
And here’s the third part. With good technology and good management, the possibilities are endless. We’ve identified three years of work at this course and speed. The site you see now is just the beginning.
If you’re into this kind of thing, you can easily understand why this project is so interesting to me. I get a chance to do well and more importantly, do good. I get a chance to change the present by changing the present.
What’s next?
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It’s a great idea, and working with Robert has been a humbling experience. I’m fortunate to work with a handful of great programmers and dedicated staff I can call my peers. The thing is… this is only the beginning. Think of those nonprofits that do nothing but pass money through, and charge you 5-55% for the privilege. We will charge only a credit card transaction fee. Think of the ways that you would give if you had the chance. And we’ll open up a whole new world. These are some of the ideas under development:
- I had a marathon. Wouldn’t it be nice to have people sign up for a dollar a mile?
- Wouldn’t it be nice to have a vehicle to say “I like this charity, and especially this concrete project at this charity?”
- Would you give more if the nonprofits would leave you alone, and refrain from spamming you or calling you when you gave?
- Would it be easier to do taxes if you could get a report of your giving?
It’s an awesome thought. We are just beginning.
What can you do?
If you want to help, we have a huge number of potential ways for you to do so. Here are a few for starters.
- Do you like to play? Go ahead. Use the site. Tell us with the feedback form if you’re seeing bugs.
- Do you like to code? I can coordinate volunteer coders beginning mid January.
- Do you want to give? Go to the site. Click Support This Site. Or, just use the site.
- Do you think this idea is compelling? Tell your friends. All you have to do is go to the site and we have some ready made emails for your accountant, friends, family, and others that you can customize.
- Did you ever see a stupid gift? Tell someone about it. You could win 50 pints of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.
- Do you know some big donors who might be able to donate servers, or money, to help us do more faster? Drop me an email. I’ll arrange a meeting with Robert.
- Do you know celebrities that might be interested? Let me know. We’ll hook them up. Big time geeks are fine. Celeb part of the site opens next month, after we’ve collected critical mass.
Most of all, get the word out. We want to humble the site. Because when the site is glowing a dull red, somewhere in Africa, a kid with AIDS is saying “Thank you”. A villager will have access to clean water. A grandmother can get new glasses. A researcher gets one more shot at curing cancer. You get the picture. Little gifts add up.
Mostly, we just want to change the world. One gift at a time. What do you say? Do you want a piece of the action?