The $5 community fund: a pooled kindness fund anyone can join

How the fund is built

There is no monthly subscription and no minimum. One $5 membership adds $3.55 to the pool. Members who want to add more can fund extra grants at any amount, one-time or monthly, and 100% of that goes to the pool with no platform fee.

Every $5 membership splits the same way, published in the open: $3.55 to the grant pool, $1.00 to keep the platform running, and roughly $0.45 to card processing.

How grants go out

• Anyone can apply through the grant request form — no organisation, no paperwork, no referral required.
• Requests are reviewed by a human. Approved ones are issued as $5 grants.
• Every issued grant is published to the public ledger with amount, date, and purpose.
• Each month the Ripple Report totals the pool, the grants issued, and fees, reconciled against payment records.

Why five dollars

Five dollars is roughly a coffee. It is small enough that nobody has to weigh it against rent, and large enough that a hundred of them do real work. It also keeps the fund honest: nobody joins expecting a return, so the money can simply move.

There are no payouts for recruiting people. Sharing your link grows the pool, not your balance.

What a $5 grant actually covers

• A bus or train fare to a job interview or clinic appointment
• A school lunch or a week of a child's snacks
• Art or craft supplies for someone making something
• The gap on a prescription, a phone top-up, or a laundry load