August Basic Income

Micro Crowdfunding and Saving With Some Goals in Mind

• I published two pieces in August

• Substack gained 1 more unpaid subscriber and Patreon gained 1 more patron just like last month 

• I saved most of August's crowdfunded basic income of $74.63 

• I leveraged $4 of my basic income during multiple fundraising opportunities for Humanities.org and used $2 of it to bring awareness to microdonations during a causal TikTok Live 

• I’m still trying to normalize crowdfunding basic income and helping to boost a soon-to-be nonprofit and free online educational resource

Everyone’s $5 had an impact of $90 because they worked as a collective.

Normally, I publish an update on how I spent the previous month’s crowdfunded basic income but as September wrapped up I hadn’t completely decided if I was going to make a specific purchase with what was left of the August basic income or simply save it once again.

Back in June, I saved nearly all of my crowdfunded basic income for the month. I believe this was due in part to a scarcity mindset but this month it felt different. This time I think that I saved it because a lot of my current priorities and goals include future projects.

As I plan and navigate achieving these goals I know that capital will be necessary. 

Naturally, I had to spend some money crowdfunding. I spent $6 to inspire others to donate on 5 different occasions. 

I imagine that all of the pie charts will have at least a little bit of crowdfunding.

I mentioned in July’s update on how I spent the basic income that I gave money to Humanities101.org. Once again a micro portion of my basic income went to this up-and-coming nonprofit. On 4 different occasions, I gave a dollar to encourage others to do the same. 

I’ll write more about Humanities101.org in the future as I have been onboarded for operations consulting and have a lot to say about the process and the online educational resource. 

In an attempt to show people the power of collective generosity, I also gave a dollar to two people who were talking about needing someone to buy them dinner during a casual TikTok Live. The pitch was something to the effect of “we both still need to have dinner, can one of our friends cashapp us so we can give ourselves permission to get takeout?” 

Were these two people in dire need of money for food? No. They already had the means to order takeout but were trying to be frugal.

Cashapping these two $1 initiated the conversation of micro-donations in an online space that wouldn’t have typically had the awareness of it. By initiating these conversations, not only will this help push normalizing crowdfunding basic income, but also the impact that empathy in numbers has on a situation. 

It was also nice to see that when I sent $1 to two people they were both pleasantly surprised. Simple acts of kindness go a long way.

This experience made me think of the time I saw a TikTok where someone posed the question “would you rather have a million friends or a million dollars?” This question makes no sense to me because if you have a million friends, you have a million people who could easily offer you a dollar and thus you would have a million dollars. 

People should keep this in mind the next time they are in a space that is fundraising. I can’t repeat it enough, it’s not about a few of us giving a lot, it’s about a lot of us giving very little. With empathy in numbers, we can accomplish anything. 

After more than half a year of crowdfunding a basic income, I’ve saved nearly one-third of it.