You've no doubt heard of Klout (maybe even here). One thing they've introduced recently is Perks, where your Klout-ness can get you free shit. Because who doesn't love free shit?
Well today myself and my Klout score of 64 got some free shit in the form of wine. Normally I'd be jumping up and down in delight. Free wine! But, alas, I have no address, so it's really hard for me to get free wine. But, hey, that doesn't mean you can't benefit from my Klout. And there's no reason this can't be a win-win.
So here's what we're going to do. Call it a PayPal raffle, if you want. For a $5 donation to A Year Without Rent, you get a raffle ticket. $10 gets you 3 tickets. $20 gets you 6. Etc. Saturday at noon Pacific Time, we'll draw a winner and that person will get a $25 virtual gift card to One Hope Wine's online store.
Is this allowed? I dunno. Maybe? Nothing on the Klout webpage says we can't do this.
I'm going to go with the assumption that it's kosher, but to play it safe, we'll do two things: 1) a disclaimer: we don't know if we can do this, 2) talk about One Hope, which you can read more about here.
From their webpage:
Americans are as a people enormously generous, particularly when a good cause is involved. We all would love to help, but the truth is, writing a check or giving out your personal information to donate to charities can be intimidating and unfulfilling at times. HOPE is all about making the world better, and giving people an easy way to make a difference. Wine is a living, breathing commodity that has always helped bring people together in common purpose. We can't think of a better vehicle for change. We come to work every day inspired to do more. As we grow our brand and the ONEHOPE mindset we know we're helping improve the human condition. We have yet to find a better reason to get up in the morning.
We hope what we're doing will catch on in a big way as others start directing more energy toward improving society and the world at large. Now when people gather and drink wine, they can talk about vintage, appellation and the cause on the label. Putting ONEHOPE Wines on shelves and in restaurants across the country keeps causes in front of consumers year round. Moving forward, the ONEHOPE brand will grow to include other causes, and eventually other products. We've been laughed at, and called crazy for giving away half of our profits, but why wait until we're old to do it? Why not make money and give at the same time? It makes perfect sense to us. It's true that we're young, and idealistic. Some even suggest we're naive, but the positive impact on people's lives and results don't lie. To put it into perspective, if just one in four, out of the estimated 19.5 million women who are or will be diagnosed with breast cancer in the U.S. received one bottle of our ONEHOPE Chardonnay every month for one year, ONEHOPE Wine could raise $70 million dollars for breast cancer research.
Short version: They sell wine. 50% of that money goes toward non-profit causes like AIDS, Autism, Supporting the Troops, and so on. It's a very cool thing and they're to be commended for such. So get yourself a raffle ticket. Get wine for cheap and help people at the same time.
Oh, you might have to be in the U.S. to actually get the wine.
Filmmaker Lucas McNelly is spending a year on the road, volunteering on indie film projects around the country, documenting the process and the exploring the idea of a mobile creative professional. You can see more from A Year Without Rent at the webpage. His feature-length debut is now available to rent on VOD. Follow him on Twitter: @lmcnelly.
