Fancy $500 to do something Drop Dead Generous?
Move over Mother Teresa
We want your kind
Flash us your lovely
Be more you
Move over Mother Teresa
We want your kind
Flash us your lovely
Be more you
IT STARTED WITH A BOOK
We fell in love with a book called ‘Infectious Generosity’ by Head of TED, Chris Anderson, and it got us thinking. We started to wonder whether creativity and also collaboration and killer content can combine to make kindness way more of a thing in our minds and in our culture. Then we thought; the world could really f*cking do with this right now.
BECAUSE HERE's THE THING
Kindness needs a bit of re-brand, don't you think? It’s not just charity cake sales and volunteering days. It’s our chance to unapologetically express ourselves in the service of literally anyone or anything. Imagine if we saw other people's everyday problems as a wink, wink, nudge, nudge to our inner most creative, bold and weirdly wonderful ideas? This would show kindness how it should be and make the world a little less shitty. Maybe a lot, actually.
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SO NOW We'RE GIVING AWAY $500,000
From November 2024 we've been giving $500 to fund people around the world who want to do something outrageously kind. Our only ask? Let us know what happens. Our hypothesis is that these 1,000 stories will lead to something way greater. What will that be? Time will tell.
WHo 'WE' ARE
We are Tom Cledwyn and John M Sweeney. But really we're a collective of creatively minded, often neurodivergent and always out-to-do-the-right-thing type people. We're brilliant and totally flawed, like everyone else. Our promise it to put our entire selves into this and bring along anyone who's up for it as we go.
Ready to Do Kind $h*t?
Faqs
(You probably have some questions. Hopefully we answer the big ones here.)
Can I volunteer?
At this stage we don't have any formal process in place for people to volunteer, but we'd love to hear from you if you're interested in doing so. Drop john@dropdeadgenerous.org an email and he'll come back to you for a chat. If you're seriously thinking about this then can we just take a moment to say thank you, even for the thought.
Wait, what?
We know. This is all a little mad. Get cash for kindness by sharing your idea with us. That's it, really. But also head to our community page to see a bunch of other ways to get involved. Some will work, some won't, probably. Oh, and please bare with us when we get things wrong. Because we will. Hell we'll even tell you every mistake we make on our socials because this is all part of the experiment.
How do I get me some of that money?
It starts with sharing your idea, silly. So click anywhere it says 'Share your idea', fill out our form and click submit. It takes about 5 minutes. If we can fund you then you'll get an email within a few weeks with a Revolut payout link for you to collect your $500 (or equivalent in your local currency). You won't need to give us your bank details directly and you also don't need a Revolut account.
Alright, there must be a catch?
Yeah there's always a catch. Ours is that if you get the $500 then we ask that you take 5 photos that capture your Drop Dead Generous act of kindness and share these as well as a voice message with us when you're ready. Your experience is a gift that could inspire so many others, so with your permission we'll pass your story onto others via our blog and socials. Why? Because kindness creates kindness, even when people hear about it.
You don't have to do this, though. So I suppose it's not a catch. But yeah, it'd be cool if you did.
What's the criteria?
Every 2 weeks we'll gather a bunch of people and spend the day reading all the new ideas shared with us. We'll fund about 20 every cycle and choose the most standout Drop Dead Generous ones.
We'd like to get to a point pretty quickly where we are not the ones choosing who gets funding and who doesn't. So once we've curated a vibe and built a community we'll probably start testing ways we can put this job into your hands.
What's the story behind this project?
We've had a stab at explaining everything on our About page. Anything that's not there will be said eventually on our Instagram, we're sure.
Are you worried people will ghost you?
Honestly, not really. We're doing this project because we think people are awesome. We'll open up on our socials about things that don't quite go to plan and who knows, maybe mass ghosting will be one of them. We don't think so though.
Are you a charity?
No, we’re not a registered charity - we’re a social enterprise registered in the UK and our funding comes from philanthropically minded individuals who believe in our mission. If we ever get to a point where we start raising money (rather than giving it away), then maybe we'll spin out a registered charity arm then.