About Us

CharityFocus is an all volunteer run 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that endeavors to leverage technology for inspiring greater volunteerism and providing meaningful volunteer opportunities for all who want them -- no matter what their skills, how much time they have to give, where they are located, and what their interests. In the process, CharityFocus volunteers provide much-needed assistance to nonprofit organizations worldwide and create inspiring local events that manifest the spirit of service.

At the center of all CharityFocus work is a steadfast commitment to its three guiding principles:

1. Stay fully volunteer-run. Don't compromise values.

   Being volunteer-run allows us to organically self-organize. Instead of hierarchies and pre-fabricated business plans, a volunteer infrastructure is dynamic, low-cost and open to radical change. Everything is based on relationships and presence, and that creates a powerful context to BE the change.

2. Serve with whatever you have. Don't ask.

   In a gift economy, goods and services are given freely, without asking for anything in return. Instead of "savings", it is the circulation of the unconditional offerings within the community that leads to increase -- increase in connections, increase in relationship strength. Our security lies in our service to the world.

3. Focus on the small. Change yourself, not the world.

   Our attempt is to do "small acts with great love". Just as every tiny bit of a hologram contains information of the whole, we feel that paying attention to the process, to the present moment, gives us plenty of information to become instruments of a larger, systemic change.

When we started in 1999, our work was to empower nonprofits with web-based technological solutions but that work soon expanded into effectively organizing and motivating hundreds of inspired volunteers. By 2003, we were also providing web-services ranging from a portal to create your own fundraising website to a banner-ad service that promotes inspiring messages to a viral acts-of-kindness game. In 2006, we launched a gift-economy print magazine. Today, the work of CharityFocus regularly touches thousands of lives in a myriad of different ways.

From its very inception, though, the focus of CharityFocus has been on the inner change that comes when people take the opportunity to act selflessly. No matter how many non-profits are served and how much excellent work is performed, our emphasis will always be on the volunteer experience. CharityFocus strives to be an incubator of compassionate action by enabling everyday heroes -- people just like you and us -- with the opportunity to serve.

And that opportunity to serve is always present. Our objective is to foster greater awareness of this potential and to assist each other in being agents of positive change. In that sense, CharityFocus is nothing more than people acting collectively to enable each other to act on instincts of compassion and altruism.

We invite you to explore this site. We hope you will draw inspiration from the ideals and stories of service. Perhaps you will want to support the charitable efforts of others. Most of all, we hope that CharityFocus can help you to find a way to be the change you wish to see in the world.

[May 2007: CharityFocus was invited to write a chapter of collaborative book by 20 visionary organizations; our first draft -- Tao of CharityFocus -- is now online and provides an anecdotal story of CharityFocus and lessons learned along the way.]