Give A Little

Kiwis: I commend to your attention givealittle, “New Zealand’s online giving community “. It’s pretty neat. and could do with a bit more attention than it’s getting, so consider taking a look.
How it works is: charities and project funds set up pages on the site, and people go and give ’em money or just sign up to support and watch them. This is a general fit with a big trend online in the last couple years, of using the power of social media to drive many small acts of philanthropy with good feedback systems. (Some of this was covered in CauseWired, the book I read last year; recently Jamas wrote about his experiences with a giving system called Kiva.)
It’s a neat, painless interface and a good way to make a contribution that sticks around in your life rather than disappears into a collection bucket never to be thought of again. That’s important, I think – this kind of technology allows us to connect with our actions, which is a surprisingly powerful thing in terms of creating the self that we want to be.
They’re looking for more causes right now. That’s a sensible approach – each cause they get on board means another set of people trying to bring others to the Givealittle storefront, and you get the network effect kicking in. So if anyone out there has hooks into a non-profit, a volunteer organization, a charity, etc., consider passing them this link to check out.
Do check it out. If you like how they roll things, then you might even want to sign up.