We're sorry you missed it to. I'll have to check out Cut Off Your Hands a bit later. Don't want to disturb the guy sitting in front of me.

Wow! I would have never thought of that but paying someone to rally in your place is quite a concept. Not sure how many would put their necks on the line (and get arrested) but it could definitely raise some eyebrows.

Ian,
These are great points. I'm not trying to negate the need for true volunteering but I am trying to create small jobs for people who may be unemployed, under paid and those who have free time. In addition, the largest group I'd like to see give money is not "Mr. TooBusy", but the small and large businesses in the area that may or may not have had to lay off people.

If I make $14/hour and I work 40 hours/week my company pays around $760/week including benefits (if they offer one of the lowest Aetna Health Plans). If they had to lay off one other person and me ($1520/week savings) because times are hard, they may be willing to spend $200/week towards a non-profit that would in turn help to "employ" people who have otherwise been put out.

That $200/week from that business is chump change to them (as they just saved a whole lotta loot) but at $10/hour, that could employ someone, who is otherwise S.O.L., 20 hours per week, give them experience in a field they enjoy and assist those who are helped by the charities they are "volunteering" for.

In a perfect world, this isn't necessary but there are too many charities that go under-helped and too many people who are under-support by those charities and too many others who are unemployed.

This is just another way of looking at it.

I will definitely reach out to Jordan to find out what he's working on. I have heard small bits and pieces about it but I should get some more details.

In addition I feel like this could be setup just as a one-to-one pairing system to begin with. No man-in-the-middle service even necessary to see if there is a need and desire for it.

Reed,
You make a really valid point. My thoughts on this would be that any income you get would be as a sub-contractor with a 1099. It would be classified as income, not a gift. Any money that you give to the service (since it could be non-profit) would be able to be written off minus the administrative fees.

I know it sucks that you'd have to pay as a recipient but it is income since you are volunteering in exchange for cash. That's not true volunteerism.

Thanks a lot for the information. This is a great resource for the readers here who own a G1!

An interesting point. I didn't think of that but there are tools out there to do this as well. I'll have to keep my eye out but I'll also post about it in the Google Premier Support forum. Maybe something like this is being developed.

Hi marcos,
I don't know of his email address but I'll put my feelers out to see if I can grab it for you.

I could see people trying to make full business sites with it, which I wouldn't do, but as an intranet or collaboration tool it looks like it would be an excellent solution. Kinda makes me think of a free version of Sharepoint, kinda.