a few months ago...
three friends were talking about how they could use the web to effect social change in a highly leveraged way.

We didn't want to build a traditional nonprofit infrastructure. We were dubious about our ability to raise large sums of money- either from foundations or from individual users.

How then to really make a difference?

Aha! Start a zero-profit corporation. No revenue, no expenses, no employees. Use the magic of file systems, together with a wide network of talented people eager to contribute their time and energy ... aworthycause.org was born.

the idea
It's a 100% fundraising event in which $0 goes to overhead. People start or join a team and donate $10 to a charity towards a $50,000 goal.

The team that gets the most points by fundraising before the end of the promotion wins $10,000 in cash. $5,000 goes to the team captain and the team members share the remaining $5,000.*

Anyone who joins a team is encouraged by us to also start his or her own team.

All email addresses are 100% protected. The only time people hear from us is when we confirm donations, give game updates and notify winners. In the last piece of email, we also invite players to join the next event, probably for a different charity.

*If the fund raising goal is not reached within 3 months, the prize money - 100% of it- will go instead to the charity.

three promises
1. Every penny we raise goes straight to charity. In fact, the players pay the charities directly ... we never touch the money.
2. Privacy is 100% guaranteed. No one gets the email addresses of our members. Even the charities and the sponsors don't get the lists.
3. We're professional and fun to work with. Just because we don't make a profit doesn't mean we don't take this seriously.

about the team
Red Maxwell. Red is president and founder on onramp Branding, a web development and marketing boutique. Red has served on the board of directors for the Mental Health Association and the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Arts, and he actively serves on national committees for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and volunteers for Families for Early Autism Treatment.

Eve Yohalem. Eve was co-founder of StudentCenter.com, a career-related website, that was sold to the Monster.com division of TMP Worldwide in 1998. A former opera singer, Eve is on the board of directors of Young Concert Artists.

Seth Godin. Seth is a long-time entrepreneur and agent of change. He founded Yoyodyne, which was sold to Yahoo! in 1998, and is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Permission Marketing. He speaks around the world about marketing and the spread of ideas and is a columnist for Fast Company magazine. Seth is an advisor to several nonprofit organizations.