About ChangingThePresent

At the same time that the nonprofits we're all passionate about struggle for funding, Americans, alone, spend $250 billion each year buying birthday, wedding, and holiday gifts for one another. Many of us, who just don't need any more fruitcakes, toasters, or pen & pencil sets, find this social obligation an unfulfilling way of spending our money or expressing our love.

ChangingThePresent.org, a new online nonprofit marketplace, launched right after Thanksgiving, will capture for nonprofits a small percentage of that gift money by promoting donation gifts as a social norm. That is, the best way to show you care for friends isn't by buying them something they don't want, but rather by doing something to make the world a better place, in their name.

Visitors to ChangingThePresent.org will be able to do more than select an organization to support; they will choose exactly what they want to accomplish, such as protect an acre of the rainforest, make a blind person see, fund an hour of a cancer researcher's time, or provide books for children, drugs for AIDS patients, shelter for the homeless, meals for the hungry, etc. By making giving tangible and more emotionally rewarding, these donation opportunities become better alternatives to traditional gifts. Wish lists, registries and greeting cards further promote this more meaningful way of showing we care. In the words of internet luminary Esther Dyson (disclosure -- she is the lead investor in WellGood):

"ChangingThePresent will change not only the way money is raised, but also the way nonprofits fit into people's lives!"

The deep expertise and broad support for ChangingThePresent is seen on the Board of Advisors with over 150 prominent nonprofit leaders, including the heads of: