Spare a Dime Online!

Maybe you've already heard of the phenomenon of e-panhandling - where enterprising individuals publish websites asking you to send money to finance something, like a credit card bill, plastic surgery, divorce, or house (hint hint).

The premise is that your dollar, which seems like an almost insignificant amount today when lunch can run you $20 or more, can compound with somebody else's dollar and the dollars of other generous web browsers to make something extraordinary - esssentially, you can feel a part of the success of the person you donate to.

One dollar is not a lot, but $19,900 is (to us, at least). But the population of the United States is approximately 300,000,000 or three hundred million. It's not crazy to think that 0.0663% of those people have a dollar to spare - a dollar they might like to send the way of a trio of enthusiastic kids working through their degrees in health care (hint hint).

Plus, with us you know exactly where your money is going. If you give a dollar to a large charity organization online, it's a documented fact that a large percentage of that dollar is going to administration, not the cause. And if you give a dollar to a bum on the street you might think you know where it's going (maybe to the McDonald's across the street, like he said), but then you still can't be sure.

With us, it's simple - every dollar of the money we receive through this site is going into the West Michigan economy (which is in a regrettably poor state right now) in the form of a house that otherwise might stay on the market for years, as it already has. We're proud of our community and we want to give back by improving it, but our aims are also a little bit selfish: when you rent an apartment you are essentially throwing away a large percentage of your paycheck because you will never get a return on that investment. Not so with a house.

We're tired of paying $500 a month for a bedroom in a noisy complex. We want our own house to decorate and throw parties in. I want to stop getting complaints about my dog. Kelli wants to play loud music. Annie's excited about the giant spa bathroom we're going to put in.

So if any of that sounds like a good reason to shell out a dollar or two, the Amazon and Paypal donation buttons are in the top right corner of the screen. We will postevery Friday on the running tally of donations, and Sept 14th will be the first of these updates. Look for it!