New local launch - DreamBank.org

Published by Danny Robinson on July 10, 2008 06:48 pm under Uncategorized

Today, DreamBank launched!

DreamBank connects Dreamers and supporters to help create positive change by giving dreams, not stuff.

Very cool idea. I still think the charity aspect confuses the message though. I was forced to choose one to create a dream, and I didn’t know why. Also, people will “dream” for “stuff” too. I guess the slogan is to just discourage consumption, but not restrict it.

Good luck Dawn!

61CommentsNew+local+launch+-+DreamBank.org2008-07-11+01%3A48%3A17Danny+Robinson

Darren on July 11th, 2008

Thanks for the bloggage. You’re the second person this week to be confused by the charity angle, so we obivously need to clarify the relationship on the site. I’ve logged a bug against that.

In short, as you gather money in your DreamBank account, the interest that money earns goes to the charity partner you choose at the outset.
Dawn Bowles on July 11th, 2008

Thanks for this Danny! ( and being one of our first Dreamers). Much appreciated.

Re the charity money. I’ve struggled to explain this in a simple way from the start but just thought of an example that may help.

I think a good parallel is a Law firm. In the process of doing business or moving money for clients the law firm keeps money in trust for you (the client) and then they release it to you at the appropriate time. All the clients money goes together in an account while it’s waiting to be given to you. Interest earned on that money usually goes to a law foundation of some kind and is used to fund different mostly non-profit causes-usually related to the legal profession somehow. Basically the pot of money the law firm is getting interest on is an offshoot of providing you a service they charge you for so they don’t keep it (the interest). Not really sure if they have to do it that way or it’s an altruistic thing or what, but that’s how it works.

The process for the money flow on DreamBank is the same. The difference is that Dreamers get a say on how our DreamFund interest is distributed. That’s why you have to choose a charity so we know how to carve up the funds democratically.

Anyway, suffice to say you don’t have to do anything at all( except tick the charity box that most appeals to you) and your dream funds will automatically help something or someone( as well as you).

Hope that makes some sense to you and/or some reader out there. Or maybe I just made it more complicated? Could be…
Danny Robinson on July 11th, 2008

A suggestion (from Boris and I) would be to represent those funds as “rewards” for using DreamBank that can be redeemed to the benefit of a charity of your choice, but present them with that interface after the fact. That way, you don’t have to confuse the message up front.
Aaron Hilton on July 13th, 2008

Danny, that’s a brilliant idea. To choose an altruistic reward after the work has been done.

And… (sometimes miss-reading things can lend some inspiration) Throw on a chat interface for each reward option. Might be fun to chat around a charity topic.

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New local launch - DreamBank.org

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