When You Wish Upon a Blog

Entrepreneur wants sponsors to donate $1 for every wish posted to his blog. 

It doesn't make much sense to me, but other bloggers seem to be taken by it.  A Canadian named Austin Hill has started a blog called Gifter that encourages people to report their wishes for improving the world.  The site will donate $1 for each wish, up to $1 million.

But the catch is that Mr. Hill isn't paying—he's looking for sponsors to pay.  I guess the point is that as more people post wishes, more sponsors will be encouraged to put up the cash.  This is simply an Internet version of the common idea that people with some selling skills often come up with:  a start-up charity whose only purpose is to raise money for other charities. 

So far, though, there is more on the sponsor side than on the wish side.  As of 10 PM on December 21, there is over $4,000 in sponsor money, but only 270 wishes.  At the current rate since the initial post of December 18, the million should be reached sometime in the 2040s.   

This holiday season, I wish people would just volunteer at their local hospital or help out an elderly person in their neighborhood rather than a posting on a blog site.

Comments

[Austin Hill]

Hi there,

You bring up a good point, about the need for people to actually get out and volunteer. We don't want to suggest leaving a wish on a website or even sponsoring wishes as an alternative to good old volunteer service.

Part of the experiment we are documenting, are the social elements of generosity within a community.

Social giving requires a 'witnessing' event that encourages reciprocity. Blogs and social media tools facilitate interesting new ways of expressing generosity.

We will be releasing our findings back to the Gifter.org community in a case study on how social media and communities can be formed for collective acts of kindness.

We are behind our initial week's goal for wishes, but not by much. Our modeling shows a very different date for breaking a million wishes.

Growth in network models rarely occurs at a constant rate, which is good. I really have other plans for 2040 and don't want to be writing the case study then :)

We look forward to your comments on the experiment as it evolves.