GRANTED: Death puppets, librarian breakfasts, plastic for food & more
Here's a little run through of the 7 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.
#0234
Josie is giving a wrap party
Josie is hosting a Christmas party for Hackney Foodbank. In collaboration with her community club, We Are Bad at Sports, she wants to support the Foodbank this upcoming Christmas - an organisation that feeds people experiencing homelessness and helps families in severe poverty enjoy the holidays with meals, toys and gift cards. What began as a run club “for people who are crap at running but want to anyway” has grown into a social group that carries out regular community service, from canal litter-picks to local clean-ups. With $500, Josie will host a festive “wrap party” - a donation drive and raffle with pizzazz - sourcing toys and funds for local families.
#0233
Ato is giving black plastic for food
Ato is tackling two major challenges in Ghana - plastic pollution and hunger, by running “plastic for food” events, where community members exchange 20 plastic bottles or 30 water sachets for a hot, nutritious meal. In small farming communities like Dwabor and Abeyee, families often live on less than $4 a day, making it difficult to afford proper food, and waste is frequently burned or dumped into rivers and the sea. With $500, Ato will run an extra plastic-for-meal event, feeding around 270 people while collecting and upcycling plastic waste. A simple, powerful idea that’s win-win by design.
#0232
Kendall is giving librarians breakfast
Kendall is celebrating librarians who have become a second family to her children. As a children’s author and work-from-home supermum, her local library branches are where her kids learn, play, and feel at home - thanks to staff who champion literacy, inclusion, and community despite modest pay. With $500, Kendall will organise surprise breakfast deliveries across multiple libraries in her system, teaming up with fellow authors and friends to make sure each branch is included. She’ll also collect letters from local kids sharing why they love their librarians, giving these everyday heroes a damn cute and heartwarming start to the day.
#0231
Lindsey is giving a death puppet
Lindsey is creating a “death puppet” to help people talk about grief. Together they run DEAD GOOD CIC, a neurodivergent-led organisation bringing imaginative, accessible death education to the UK. Knowing how scary and overwhelming conversations about death can be - especially for young people - they want to build a gentle, mysterious creature (possibly a moth) that families can meet, interact with and remember. With $500, Lindsey will collaborate with a coffin-weaver to craft its head while she designs its body and costume. A weird, wonderful puppet offering comfort, curiosity and a new way to approach loss. It you want to get a sense of Lindsey’s vibe for this whole thing then check out this video (it’s the BEST).
#0230
Noor is giving 120 sanitary pads
Noor is supplying a girls football team in Tanzania with the menstrual products. While volunteering across Zanzibar and mainland Tanzania, Noor has met a group of incredible girls using sport as a way to avoid early marriage and build safer futures. But many miss a week of school and training every month due to lack of period products. With $500, Noor will buy 120 reusable pads made by women in Zanzibar, giving each girl 2–3 washable pads so they no longer have to sit out of school or football because of their periods. What’s more, she’s sourcing these products from local women who make them. Another win-win idea fuelled by another amazing human.
#0229
Nadia is giving gym passes
Nadia is gifting gym passes to a women who simply made her feel special. Recently whilst at the gym and feeling a little low, she met a stranger whose zest for life totally inspired her. She explained that she has 3 children and that her husband passed away during Covid, so there was no funeral and on top of that now she cares full time for her mum who lives with her and gives her 24/7 end of life palliative care. To be able to create such a connection and to be able to show up to the gym and be so open and vulnerable with a stranger whilst with a huge smile on her face really blew Nadia away. So she’s finding a way to say thank you - by using the $500 to fund gym classes and treatments as a way to acknowledge the power of human connection.
#0228
Erica is giving gratitude journaling
Erica is unlocking gratitude in others in Texas, US. As a lifelong “gratitude journaler”, Erica is creating an event where she’ll share the science and skills needed to step into gratitude journaling whilst gently pushing people to share within the group to get people more connected. She’ll use the $500 to buy and gift journals, and encourage others to inspire those around them to carry out this simple yet profound practice.
Got in idea brewing? Keen to join this crazy experiment? Just submit your idea here.