CharitableAF
Making charitable giving more accessible and impactful.
Picture 2020. The world shuts down.
You’re locked in your house. You see incredible first responders doing their part to help. You start asking yourself: What can I do?
Well, if you’re me, you might be inclined to make software. You might also lean toward supporting various non-profits based on past experiences.
So that’s exactly what we did. My friend Chai and I set out to build a donation site that we hoped could be as viral as the virus itself.
CharitableAF was a small social experiment where donors had to recruit a friend to match their donation—or else their contribution wouldn’t go through.
We crafted a landing page that was very different from most products, it made you read it. A mini-personal sales letter for good.
We built a referral system that texted you updates every time someone used your link, showering you with confetti and encouraging GIFs to celebrate your progress.
We adopted Vercel’s OG-image tool—before Vercel became Vercel. We used it to create custom Open Graph cards that announced, “David challenged you ⚔️”. We used the referrer’s name in the image to personalize the outreach & spark intrigue the moment their friend received the text.
It showed promise. About 40% of visitors who reached our homepage started a donation. People shared enthusiastically, sending it on average to five friends each.
But there was a hurdle: the average referral chain only stretched about four people deep.
Ultimately, people’s interest in donating specifically to COVID-19 relief faded faster than we had hoped. Despite its potential, CharitableAF never quite reached the critical mass we dreamed of—but there are certainly worse ways to spend your time.