Back when the internet was actually a fun place to be, I spent a number of years building large online communities of people who wanted to work with me to change the world.
I knew how naive that sounded, but I thought that if enough of us consistently worked together to make small, positive impacts in the lives of the people in our own worlds, then we could start to make a dent everywhere else. Or, at the very least, we could work on being better humans ourselves.
I got burned out after a while and took a few years off to rest and recuperate, but when I was thinking about it recently, I realized a few things:
My projects for social good have attracted over 20,000 participants in 150 countries.
The missions we’ve completed, the love bombs we’ve dropped, and the funds we’ve donated have touched millions of lives so far.
I’d like to keep going.
I’ve decided to put all my philanthropic work here, under the Love Bomb brand. We’ll reboot the system by starting up the weekly missions again, along with dropping livestream love bombs on Twitch.
After that, who knows – I’ll be listening to and learning from the community as it grows, so maybe someone will bring the next great idea. Or maybe I’ll incorporate some of my other past/current projects into the framework.
No matter how it happens, my primary goal is to help as many people as possible to consistently take small actions that make a positive impact in the lives of the people around them. I want us to change the world . . . in ten minutes a week.
Past/Current/Potential Projects
Giving Cards — a product that creates micro activations for employee engagement and social good, piloted in 2017 and officially launched in 2022. It excels at building community and connectedness by bringing a shared experience to both onsite and remote team members, while providing the client company with dozens of authentic, organic stories to tell.
Love Drop — a year-long philanthropy project that raised over $90,000 through micro-giving to help 12 different families across the country (and filmed à la Extreme Home Makeover). Created in 2011 and composed of 1,0000 members across 10 different countries, it made the act of giving individually meaningful where even a dollar “could change a life.”
I Met You Today — a tiny personal project that lets Nate and Jay give a little bit back to the interesting and impactful people they meet in their lives. They each carry a card for the site, and whenever they meet someone who makes an impact on them, they leave a card with that person, and then they have 24 hours to update the site with a thoughtful post on why the encounter was meaningful.
ItStartsWith.us — a social activation project where members spent 15 minutes a week to make a difference in the lives of others. With over 10,000 participants in 100 countries, it collectively touched millions of lives from 2009-2011.
Love Bomb — a project that gave people the opportunity to literally change or save a life in just 5 minutes of their time. Its 5,000 members across 50 countries directed their collective love toward one struggling person each week, and left each person with dozens of new friends who stayed connected long after the bomb.
