GRANTED: Anonymous art, pop up youth clubs, homemade currys & more
Here's a little run through of the 15 ideas we've funded these past 7 days.
Every week we sit down as a team and review all the ideas that get sent our way. We smile, laugh and sometimes cry. There’s curiosity, creativity and impending courage in every one. We curate the ones to give grants to based on their originality (at least in relation to what we’ve funded before), their potential to grow into something bigger, and the extent to which they shift our understanding on giving or the cause they seek to tackle. For a full list of every idea we’ve ever granted go here. For a summary of what we’ve granted this week - keep reading. Lots of love, Tom.
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Dorothy is giving 70 santa sacks
Dorothy is giving Christmas joy to orphanage homes in Ghana. She leads a small foundation that brings Christmas kindness to orphanage homes across Ghana, making sure children who’ve lost parents or come from vulnerable backgrounds feel remembered during the holidays. Since 2020, her team has visited homes from Mankessim to Kasoa, delivering food, toiletries, clothes and love. With $500, Dorothy will pack sacks of rice, drinks, toiletries, groceries and clothes for an orphanage of 50–70 children. She describes the magic when the truck arrives - kids rushing out with bright smiles, music playing, volunteers unloading boxes, and each child receiving something that feels truly theirs. A simple act ensuring they feel seen, valued and cared for this Christmas.
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Tefari is giving christmas trees
Tefari is delivering Christmas trees to single-parent families and vulnerable households in London. His mission is to help people reconnect with the land, and he sees the festive season as the perfect moment to offer something warm, grounding and joyful to those who need it most. With $500, he’ll source trees and deliver them directly to homes that would otherwise go without. A simple act, bringing nature, celebration and a sense of togetherness back into spaces that deserve it.
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Daisy is giving an elders mixer
Daisy is bringing her creative community together with an elderly group in North London. To spark connection between two groups who both experience loneliness in different ways and after self-funding a first event, she’s now partnering with sustainable fashion guru, Lydia Bolton, to host another hands-on DIY workshop designed to bridge generations, create conversation and make community feel real. With $500, Daisy will hire assistants to support the sewing activities - especially important for older attendees with arthritis - and provide snacks to keep the session warm, fun and welcoming. A simple, crafted way to turn digital connections into real-world belonging.
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Emma is giving anonymous art
Emma is creating an anonymous art auction raising funds for Dignity for Palestine. As a sculptor and filmmaker, she’s watched the world’s attention fade despite the ceasefire not being upheld and the people of Gaza continuing to face unimaginable suffering. Her goal is to use creativity as a collective act of solidarity and hope. With $500, Emma will coordinate an auction where all participating creatives recreate the same painting by a Gazan artist - a piece chosen specifically for its message of hope. Every artwork will be sold anonymously, with identities revealed only after bidding closes, allowing high-profile contributors to drive up donations without overshadowing the cause. It’s a simple idea with powerful symbolism: artists standing together, amplifying a message of unity, dignity and support for Gaza.
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Nehemie is giving recycled art
Nehemie is hosting a full day of recycled-art workshops for displaced children in Delmas, Haiti. With gang violence closing nearly 90% of schools, many young people have lost not just access to education, but the chance to feel safe, playful and imaginative. As an art professional, Nehemie has gathered a group of volunteer artists who believe creativity can offer comfort, dignity and hope. With $500, they will run REKREYASYON (Haitian for “free time”, a simple gift children in Haiti rarely recieve. This will be a day where 25 children can turn paper and plastic waste into meaningful artwork, escape stress and experience joy. The funding will cover essential art materials and the cost of a safe venue, while Nehemie will personally cover any remaining transport fees. All the artists will volunteer their time, creating a rare moment of healing, imagination and fun for kids who deserve the simple gift of a break.
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Luke is giving 65 bunson burners
Luke is giving science kits to rural schools in Sierra Leone. While studying international development at Sussex and working night shifts to get by, he volunteers with Village Schools Sierra Leone — a small charity building schools and improving access to learning in remote communities. With $500, Luke will provide science kits and simple apparatus to help students engage with hands-on experiments for the first time. From basic circuitry to biology materials, the equipment will make science feel exciting, accessible and real for young learners who rarely have the resources to explore it. A small investment, opening big futures.
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Rhi is giving pop up youth clubs
Rhi is creating pop-up youth club sessions for teens in the UK facing food insecurity and stress. Having grown up around deep inequality herself, she knows how isolating it can be for young people who need help but fear shame or unwanted intervention. With $500, Rhi will run three pop-up evenings in small venues, each offering a hot meal, a safe indoor space and life-skill workshops tailored to the local community - like first aid or practical problem-solving. She’ll also set up a calm “chill-out cove” where teens can relax, socialise and be themselves without pressure. After the sessions, she’ll gather data to secure partnerships with local food shops willing to donate food nearing its best-before date, helping the club become self-sustaining rather than reliant on council funding. Part of the budget will also create the club’s identity such as a logo, website and accessible online hub - so even young people who can’t attend still have somewhere safe and teen-friendly to turn for guidance.
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Maisie is giving 150 currys
Maisie is cooking and delivering homemade currys to disabled queer adults in her city. She’s part of a 150-person mutual-aid group chat where members share advice, signpost services and step in for each other when mobility, chronic pain or illness make daily life difficult. As winter sets in, more people are struggling to feed themselves—both due to rising food costs and the inaccessibility of leaving the house. With $500, Maisie will batch-cook rich, comforting vegan and gluten-free meals like massaman curry and korma, delivering them to community members who are housebound, immunocompromised or simply exhausted. She hopes to pair the meals with a weekly video call, so everyone can eat together (even through a screen) sharing nourishment, connection and the feeling of being held by community care at its most delicious.
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Patricia is giving graphic novels
Patricia is creating grief support for adults with disabilities living in Texas. Patricia is creating compassionate grief support for adults with disabilities living in group homes and residential centres. Having spent her career building safety, connection and dignity for this community, she’s seen how often they’re excluded from conversations about death and left without the emotional support others take for granted. With $500, Patricia will partner with organisations in Houston and Austin to train direct-support staff on how to help residents navigate grief and loss - ensuring staff are compensated for attending training, something many agencies can’t otherwise fund. She’ll also purchase accessible bibliotherapy materials like picture books, graphic novels, guided activities and art supplies, giving people with disabilities developmentally appropriate tools to understand, express and process their feelings. Her goal is simple: no one should face grief alone, and everyone deserves support when someone they love dies.
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Lucie is giving death wishes
Lucie is creating a pop-up stand in France to start conversations about how we want to care for our dead. As an artist, researcher and death-care advocate in France, she’s working to change funerary legislation so people can choose more natural, regenerative options - from coffin-free burials to shallower resting depths. Alongside a collective of death-positive artists, funeral advisors and theatre groups, she wants to bring these ideas directly to communities. With $500, Lucie will build a movable stand they can take from town to town, inviting people to share what they want their cemeteries to look and feel like, and what would ease grief in their local area. It’s the first step toward a larger dream: a caravan they can eventually drive from village to village, helping people reimagine death with more care, creativity and choice.
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Philip is giving black british books
Philip is creating a community library and launch event for young people in Angell Town, Brixton. Through his organisation, upCYCLE LDN, Philip has built a hub where young people fix bikes, learn skills and feel part of a community. But many still lack spaces that reflect their identities or give them room to belong and imagine brighter futures. To mark the opening of their new Hub, Philip is hosting a Books & Beats night. A relaxed mix of music, conversation and storytelling with local authors and young voices. With $500, the youth will curate the library’s first collection themselves: books by Black British and diaspora writers, poets and graphic novelists exploring creativity, confidence, culture and joy. The library will be more than books - it will be a welcoming doorway into the Hub’s wider world of bike repair, mentoring and creative workshops.
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Jaz is giving a communal garden
Jaz is transforming a derlict garden on her university campus in East Anglia, UK. As a 3rd-year student and Environment Officer, she’s seen how UK students are struggling with anxiety, rising costs and a lack of meaningful support - and how even on a green campus, young people feel boxed into concrete rather than connected to nature. After pushing through red tape to secure student ownership of a small garden, she found it was completely derelict: overgrown, littered and unusable. With $500, Jaz and her peers will buy second-hand tools, reclaimed wood, compost bins and seeds to turn it into a vibrant community space with wildflowers, hedgehog houses, picnic spots and areas for workshops, studying and yoga. It’s a simple mission to give students somewhere to breathe and gather.
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Abdulla is giving 3 computers
Abdulla is creating a free computer lab for kids in his hometown of Dodoma, Tanzania. His idea is to open a small, free computer lab for young people in his village in Dodoma, Tanzania. In his community, many youths lack access to computers, the internet, and the basic digital tools needed to learn, apply for jobs, or explore new opportunities. With the $500, Abdulla will rent and renovate a tiny local shop, transforming it into a welcoming space equipped with 1–3 computers, depending on costs. His goal is to create a place where young people can learn resume writing, practise IT skills, explore online resources and, ultimately, build confidence in their ability to shape their futures.
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Matthew is giving 33 cloud pillow pushies
Matthew is helping a local author promote her mental health message. This is kinda cool. Matthew is from the US and recently heard about Drop Dead Generous through a friend who had herself become a grantee. Kendall (#0232) is an author who wrote an amazing book about mental health, targetted at children. Matthew’s idea is to use the $500 to buy ‘cloud pillow pushies’ - an aid and tool for Kendall to help families talk about mental health together.
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Gemma is giving fear slayers
Gemma is partnering with 4 mates to hold themselves accountable. Based in the UK, Gemma has a novel challenge for her and 4 other people. Over the month they will each pick one thing they want to do but have been scared to carry through with. They’ll each split the $500 as a budget to do their thing - whilst each playing ‘fear slayer’ for each other, helping by supporting and holding each other accountable.
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Pasco is giving mates dates
Pasco is funding mates dates for men battling with mental health. Pasco wants to show up for a friend of his as he works toward sobriety after a lifetime of hardship. This friend grew up in care, lost siblings to gang life, and has battled serious mental-health challenges despite managing to carve out a career for himself. Pasco has been a steady presence through it all and now wants to help him further - along with a few other men in their circle - build stronger, healthier connections. With $500, he’ll gift four “mates’ dates,” giving his friend and three friends $100 each to spend on quality time with another man, creating space for support, vulnerability and genuine friendship.
✌️ JOIN THE EXPERIMENT ✌️
We’re giving 1,000 people around the world $500 to spend on an act of kindness. Submit your idea below and you’ll hear back this Friday.