(Courtesy of Daily Giving) In January 2019, Dr. Jonathan Donath, a White Plains, New York chiropractor, wanted to figure out a way to give individuals the ability to automatically donate $1 per day, every day, to a charitable cause. The concept of Daily Giving was born and through the power of crowdfunding, Donath built a community of daily $1 givers. Since its inception, Daily Giving, a 501(c)3 organization, has raised over $1,000,000 in $1 micro-donations, distributed to 42 charitable organizations around the world.
As the number of donors grew, and continues to grow daily, the amount of each daily donation to the 42 charities in rotation continues to grow too, while each individual’s $1 daily donation remains the same. At first, each organization received a few hundred dollars every 42 days; as the initiative continues to draw new $1 donors, the amount sent to each charity rises steadily to several thousand dollars. Daily Giving has the approbation of Rabbis Hershel Schachter, Shmuel Greenberg, Paysach Krohn and Moshe Tuvia Lieff, who make up the initiative’s rabbinic council which must vet and approve each charitable organization.
Beginning on May 14 through Shavuot, Daily Giving will be hosting its first Global Unity Campaign, to grow the number of daily $1 givers to increase the initiative’s impact for the 42 organizations. The volunteer leadership of Daily Giving has set its sights on an ambitious goal of recruiting 18,000 givers. Reaching this goal would allow Daily Giving to distribute $18,000 to each of the charities every 42 days or roughly $156,000 per year per organization and a total of over $6.5 million.
According to Donath, “People are unable to attend shul due to corona restrictions and can’t drop a dollar into the pushka-collection box. But this does not mean that our daily requirement to give tzedaka goes away. Daily Giving gives people the ability to continue their daily charitable giving and to make an impact on the 42 charities in the Daily Giving initiative.”
Becoming a Daily Giving $1 daily giver takes less than a minute to enroll at DailyGiving.org. The initiative gives 100% of the day’s donations to the organizations and charges a nominal credit card transaction fee to ensure that the full $1 is donated to each charity.
For more information about Daily Giving, potential givers are directed to www.DailyGiving.org.
