$50,000 in 6 hours last #givingtuesday: web3, charity, and community

Today is #GivingTuesday and I can’t help but reflect on where I was this time last year—running a social audio room that raised $50,000 in 6 hours to benefit foster youth. How we got there is kind of an amazing story, so I hope you’ll join me on this walk down memory lane.

A year ago, I was President and COO of Breakfast With Champions. If you’re unfamiliar, Glenn Lundy dreamed up and founded a Clubhouse room that dominated mornings on the social audio app during its heyday. His vision that “everyone gets a seat at the table perfectly aligned with the premise and potential of social audio. 

Glenn had brought me in as a partner to professionalize the endeavor, transforming it from a group of dedicated volunteers and listeners into a media brand. Late November 2021 was right in the middle of the 8 weeks after Glenn retired his first signature morning show. While he took time to consider what would be next for him in content creation, I was—as my friends lovingly would say—the entire C-suite of an emerging media brand. (10/10 do not recommend, but an invaluable experience nonetheless.)

This means I was dreaming up an executing strategies for everything: from room titles which I started writing like editorial headlines, to programmatic planning, which we pulled into an editorial calendar. In the week or so before #GivingTuesday, I’d written a room title called: “Does Success Bring Happiness, or Does Happiness Bring Success?”

Tiffany Haddish, on break from a movie set, and known to “pop into” clubhouse jumped in the room to listen. As was the culture in most rooms, she was immediately invited to stage. I took the opportunity to ask directly what brings her happiness, and she started talking about her foundation: She Ready Foundation for foster youth.

She and I immediately began messaging through the app and within a day I was on calls with her team to discuss a #GivingTuesday room for She Ready Foundation. 

It was a perfect fit: Glenn’s media initiatives have always involved a charitable component; my first career was in non-profit work, and the potential we saw in our brand at that time was to build community through interactive live audio experiences. The idea was that people could tune in from the grocery store, or the playground with their kids, or the gym, or a walk with their dog, or on their commute to work, and would not just learn something but make a tangible difference somewhere in real life.

Our Tuesday morning line up was rock solid: It included powerhouses such as Columbia Law Professor and one of the world’s top negotiators Alexandra Carter, CEO of Carter Myers Automotive Liza Borges, real estate broker and influencer Joy Farley and more. Every single “segment” as we called them—in a schedule that was outlined by 30-minute increments for coverage and continuity—included an ask for the audience to donate to the She Ready Foundation. The link was pinned at the top of the room; we had a special landing page; and every 15-30 minutes listeners were asked to give. (At the time, our rooms could have up to 10,000 people cycle through over 6 hours—which again, if you consider an in-person conference or fundraising event, are extraordinary daily numbers.)

We raised the money so quickly because we leaned into the best that our brand—and web3—was at the time. The segments were led by vetted thought leaders (a differentiator I’m proud to have required); each 30 minute segment allowed time for audience participation—it was live, after all. Grant Cardone (love or hate him) jumped in and offered to match every dollar donated over a certain number of minutes, and the countdown was on. There was content, celebrity, engagement, expected and unexpected moments. 

And there was impact. 

We knew we were impacting the lives of foster youth directly through the work of the She Ready foundation we were supporting.

A week later, we used Clubhouse’s still new (at the time) pinned link to feature once again for charity. We pinned a zoom link to the top of the room, and listeners could listen or watch as we walked through an orphanage in Uganda. We provided the orphans with beds and bedding through a gofundme, and later that month walked through over audio and pinned zoom once more. I’ll never forget people crying in their cars, at the grocery store, at the gym, at home—live—watching these children with their new beds, because social audio (or, participatory content as they call it on fireside) makes it possible to engage live with little more than your phone.

My vision, at the time, was hybrid audio experiences and the impact we could all make through the convergence of tech, social media, charity, community, and influence. 

I’m still donating this #GivingTuesday, and I encourage you to do the same. But the inspiration for this piece is the realization that it’s even more meaningful to give in community. To be a part of coming together to raise more money than you’d imagined and touch more lives.

So give—and think big how you can give even more.