Buena, together with Momentum, a platform that lets people connect donations to almost literally anything that happens in the world or their lives, is launching a campaign today, Cancel Corona (cancelcorona.org), to inspire people to give in unexpected ways. They can calculate what they’re not spending on specific activities while hunkered down at home. They can then donate that amount to highly-vetted nonprofits fighting the effects of the coronavirus that relate to that activity. Coronavirus canceled everything. But if we donate a bit of what we don’t spend while stuck at home, we can fund the fight to cancel it back.
Cancel Corona is launching with three initiatives:
Donate Your Commute
50 million Americans are newly working from home. Donate what you save on your commute to people suddenly without work.
NPR reports that 23 million Americans have either just been laid off or had their work hours reduced because coronavirus upended their industry. At the same time, 50 million people are suddenly working from home. Momentum has built a tool to calculate exactly how much you’re saving every day by not paying for your commute, whether you drive, take a Lyft, or take the train. Set it up once and every weekday morning you’ll automatically donate to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy COVID-19 Relief Fund to help re-employ, support, and rebuild communities most affected by the decrease in work.
Donate Your Meals
Donate what you save by not eating out to kids who are in need of free school lunches.
School closings due to Coronavirus are causing 22 million children to suddenly lose access to the free school meals they rely on every day. However, because of increased social distancing and quarantines, American adults are now collectively saving over $1 billion each day by not eating out at restaurants. Momentum’s calculator helps people easily identify how much they are saving and enables them to automatically donate those savings to Feeding America, bringing food to these kids in need.
Donate Your Drinks
Donate what you save by not going to bars to a vetted collection of coronavirus nonprofits.
Americans typically spend over $200 million each day on alcohol but coronavirus has shut down almost every bar—leaving people little choice but to go with cheaper options in their fridge. Momentum invites people to calculate how much they’re saving and donate to a diverse group of some of the most impactful organizations fighting coronavirus including the Center for Disease Control (CDC) Foundation, World Health Organization (WHO), and John Hopkins Center for Health Security. The donations are made every day at happy hour.
We feel grateful that we can work on something to make things a little better for those most vulnerable right now.
Nick Fitz
Momentum CEO
“There is so much heavy news out there about coronavirus right now,” said Nick Fitz, Momentum CEO. “We feel grateful that we can work on something to make things a little better for those most vulnerable right now. It’s great that some of the challenges caused by the virus can be translated into ways to help fight the pandemic.”
Momentum passes 100% of donations on to the charities involved and even covers the transaction fees. Momentum was started two years ago when the founders were friends who worked together at Duke University’s Center for Advanced Hindsight where they started a research program in donation psychology. They found that people want to donate 2.5 times more than they already do but are held back by barriers like knowing good places to give, when or how to do it, and what their money accomplishes. 90% of donations are still made offline with out of date methods like cash and check.
People can calculate and donate their commute.
In preparation for the campaign, Momentum has created a curated list, called the COVID-19 Response Fund, of some of the most impactful organizations fighting the pandemic and its effects. “Many people asked us how and where they can donate to fight coronavirus,” said Ari Kagan, COO of Momentum, “so we started researching and found that it’s challenging to find guidance for where your money can help. We created Momentum’s COVID-19 Response Fund to help answer that question.”
People can choose to donate to the Fund to diversify their giving to each of the main categories during this pandemic: vaccine development & disease research, meals for kids with closed schools, assistance for people who are unemployed and quarantined, supporting frontline healthcare workers, and preventing disease spread.
“Coronavirus is affecting us all in many different ways,” said Ivan Dimitrov, CTO of Momentum. “But if we come together, we can flatten the curve and bring some much-needed support to those who are really struggling.”
