The $1k Project
If you told me 10 days ago that I would be a 4x founder, I would certainly be very surprised.
But exactly 10 days ago, I posted this Twitter poll, asking how many people would be interested in directly helping another family in need, that has been impacted by the pandemic.
I was overwhelmed to see that so many people would be willing to step up and help.
Next, I went to look for a place where we can actually do it, and to my surprise I could not find anything. There are many amazing ways to help and many incredible efforts, but I could not find anything where one family could directly sponsor another.
So, I decided to build.
I tweeted another call for volunteers and 10 days later, we are a team including my amazing co-founder Minda, and more than twenty engineers, designers, operators, and product volunteers.
And we just helped fund our 25th family!
We are The $1k Project, and our mission is to help connect families in need with potential sponsors who are willing to help by giving them $1k a month for 3 months.
Please read on to learn more about how this project works and how you can help.
Who we are? We are a group of volunteers led by Alex Iskold (NYC) and Minda Brusse (Seattle) - symbolically from coast to coast, a group of over 20 volunteers came together in the last week - engineers, designers, operations, product, etc. who has been working day and night on this. We soft launched 4 days ago, and Fred Wilson posted about us 3 days ago.
What is our mission? We help the families impacted by the pandemic by connecting them directly with sponsors who are willing to gift them $1k a month for 3 months - this is a bridge until government funding comes / people can get back to work / figure out other sources of funding. We want to restore dignity and remove humiliation that families across the country are feeling right now.
Why did we start this? Surprisingly, even with all the ways there are to gift, families are still hurting and are unable to provide food, basic necessities, rent and utilities. There is no good and simple direct way for one family to directly support another.
How does this work? The key idea behind the project is to use TRUSTED CONNECTIONS, tracing back to the people known to The $1k Project. The funding network is a true network in a sense that every person who gets funded can be traced back to us through a chain of referrals.
Who can get the funds? The families have to get referred to us through friends, families and crucially, through their former employers who are pained by having to let the employees go.
Who are the sponsors? Sponsors are also families across America who are known to The $1k Project and are willing to help other families by gifting them $1k a month for 3 months.
What is your goal? We launched a few days ago, and already funded 25 families, we are well on our way to fund 100 families this week, then 1,000. Our true north is to help 1M American families before summer.
How do you select families to fund? We let families explain why they need help and to tell their story. The ultimate funding decision is always given to the sponsor.
How can we recognize The $1k Project? Every time we fund the family we show an exact chain of connections, and light up a map of the US connecting two families. Here is the map connecting me to the family I chose to sponsor in Seattle:
What if I have more questions? Please visit http://1kproject.org/faq
How can you get involved? We would love it if you did!
To Sponsor a family => http://1kproject.org/sponsor
To Nominate a family or a friend => http://1kproject.org/refer
To Nominate former employee => http://1kproject.org/employee
Share this blog post on social media of your choice.
Join us, Let’s light up our networks to help each other. The $1k Project is just getting started and the need is immense. Let’s use personal networks to directly match a family impacted by the pandemic with a family committed to giving them $1k for 3 months.
