Day-Makers Wanted

An experiment in viral happiness.

A couple weeks ago over dinner, Jimmy Kittiyachavalit and I were throwing around ways we might encourage random acts of kindness in the world. We started this a while back by “paying it forward” ourselves: high-fiving strangers during my runs, buying coffee for the person behind Jimmy in line, or even just giving honest compliments to strangers. Then, we “scaled up” and started quietly funding a friend or two to do the same thing. After successes there as well, we’re ready to scale up again. We think a novel idea would be to expand our reach by funding the world’s first “kindness lottery”. Today, we’re launching our lottery.

To enter the lottery, first perform any random act of kindness. Bring snacks to the office to celebrate a milestone; bake someone cookies; give a carepack to a homeless person. Whatever inexpensive but meaningful acts of kindness best fit your means and personality.

Next, send us the story — photos, videos, text, anything. You can submit via our yet-to-be-released blog, thedaymakers.tumblr.com. In the submission, include how much money, if any, you spent.

We’ll determine your winnings at random. The reward could be just getting published on the blog to encourage others to spread happiness in the world. You could also win a dollar, the full amount you spent, or anything in between. (We’ll send your reward via Square Cash.)

This is our way of encouraging and empowering people to spread kindness, and we’d appreciate your help with this project. Let us know if you have any questions, and if you like it, please consider recommending this post or spreading the word yourself!

Believe in something bigger*
-Jonathan and Jimmy
thedaymakers.tumblr.com

* Believe in Something Bigger is the latest marketing campaign by
California’s Lottery Commission. It’s a creative campaign, but we’re sad
that it’s being used to promote a lottery.