Working on the Holidailies Charity Project

As I've mentioned before, Holidailies has expanded in incredible ways from the unnamed project in 2000 where a half-dozen online journallers agreed to post every day in December as a kind of gift to their readers. People are still signing up for Holidailies at Home 2007 so I don't have a final count of this year's participants, but it's well over 300 at this point. It's amazing to see the long lists of sites, and to visit these sites and find the Holidailies logo displayed on so many pages. Not to mention all of the great stories being told!

So Chip and I were wondering, how could we harness the power of Holidailies to do something positive? December is often called "the giving season," and while we're giving everyone what we half-jokingly called "the gift of our prose" back in 2000, I was wondering if we could find a way for other types of giving through Holidailies. In past years, we've offered banner-ad space to a few charities and non-profits, but could we do more?

That's what led Chip and I to create the Holidailies Charity Project, which is a temporary name for whatever helpful work we decide to do. And when I say "we" in that sentence, I am including anyone who is participating in Holidailies and/or reading this entry. Chip and I are asking for your help with ideas for the best way to make a giving project like this workable. If you're on the Holidailies portal, you can write an entry about what you'd like and post it; you also can email us or post a comment right here with your suggestions.

Please read Chip's entry about the Holidailies Charity Project -- he explains our goals perfectly, so you know exactly what kind of feedback we'd like to have. We aren't the best at coming up with catchy names for things, and we'd prefer hearing about other people's choices for giving instead of just picking a charity we like. I'm hoping the suggestions we receive include some organizations that assist with literacy in some way, because we're all involved in a project that involves writing and reading skills.

I know I'm an idealist sometimes, but I imagine 300 Holidailies participants each giving $10, or persuading a reader or two to do so, and the effect that could have ... that's even more amazing than seeing the Holidailies penguin everywhere.

Posted at December 6, 2007 10:48 AM