Jacob Stein: Every Cent Counts

Jacob is wise beyond his years, and without Dollar Donations the world would be worse off. I found Jacob after researching his nonprofit online, and I loved hearing about his journey. While the current status of DD is very impressive, I learned the most when Jacob backtracked to the start of things. He began DD as a way to collect donations for a diabetes organization that his family founded. I love how Jacob articulated the initial struggles of his project, like failing to find donors and get additional funding, because it reinforces the importance of adhering to your values even when you don’t receive immediate support. Jacob didn’t change the foundations of his organization as it grew, he simply let the compounding time he dedicated into his project be the seeds for his success. Just like any worthy idea, in order for it to come to fruition, you can’t change the vision based on external results or judgements.

The entire premise of DD is that it allows people to donate as little as $1 to causes they support. Jacob champions such small donations to encourage any involvement from people who want to donate. Philanthropy can be exclusionary, which is contradictory to its nature, so Jacob founded something that would bring together charities and communities and serve a higher purpose. Within just a couple years in the nonprofit landscape, Jacob was awarded the William R. Simms Award for Outstanding Youth in Philanthropy and was accepted to the Facebook nonprofit growth program. I took perspective from his patience and dedication to his nonprofit, because it reminds me that all good things take time and sometimes progress takes longer than the blueprint accounted for.

Listen to Jacob's episode here.