Power Against Poverty – Donation Update

When I started writing Putanumonit six months ago I didn’t think I would stick at it for very long. Surprisingly, I found myself supremely motivated to keep blogging and improving, I can’t imagine living without the blog now. The reason for that is that I suddenly felt that I have an actual readership, people I’ve connected with and am accountable to, and that deserve my effort.

Until last week, though, I didn’t know if that feeling was just in my head. I had a vague idea of the number of people reading Putanumonit but I didn’t really know who you are and if you pay attention or even care. Now I know: you’re awesome, you pay attention and you care. My readers have donated $4,364 to GiveDirectly’s basic income pilot (+ $6000 since this post was published). To assure everyone that each one of your dollars increased my donation on the margin I decided to match 50% of that and give $2,182 of my own. According to GiveDirectly’s numbers, our total donations equal to almost 40 person years of poverty reduction.

Edit 5/4/2016: I just got an email by a reader expressing surprise at the low number of donors so far, which I think stems from vastly overestimating the current reach of Putanumonit. My post on GiveDirectly was only read by about 200 people, 14 of whom donated at least $50. I think that 7% is a very impressive conversion rate in making people give so much. I would also of course like this blog to be enjoyed by thousands of people!

I have not spent any effort promoting the blog outside my own circle of friends and, outside of this paragraph, have not asked my readers to share Putanumonit on social media etc. I like to think that I’m still learning and improving as a blogger and that when Putanumonit becomes really high quality it will be noticed for being high quality. Of course, if you already think that some of my posts are good enough to share, I would be extremely grateful if you did. Tell your friends, tell your mom, tell Facebook and Reddit and Twitter. Tell them about Chinese soccer, about Nice Guys, about bad charts and good OkCupid advice. As for me, my current readership already offers enough motivation to blog the best blog I can. End edit.

Everyone is of course encouraged to keep donating to basic income, if you email me your donation receipt I will acknowledge your contribution below (but will probably not match any more of my own money in 2016).

Here are the commendable contributors to the crucial cause:

Anonymous Aussie – $1,000, and then another $3,500 in 2017.

Adam Casey – $1,000

Brian Raszap Skorbiansky – $1,000

Gregory Conen – $1,000

Kevin Fischer – $1,000

Gregory Lopez – $360

“Ace” and Max Bolingbroke – $280 each

Inspired by my post and by the desire to complete the trifecta of Gregorys, my dad Gregory – $250.

triinu – $20 monthly.

Daniel Benamy, Artyom Kazak and another Daniel – $100 each.

Benjamin A. Schwab – $70.

Dmitriy Khripkov, Rich Kuzsma and an anonymous donor – $50 each.

Please let me know if I misspelled your name, misstated your donation or otherwise messed up.