The Robinhood Fund is delighted to announce that we have received our first direct donation to a wish! b5media’s CEO, Jeremy Wright, has donated towards the fulfillment of a wish to build an orphanage in Mozambique.

When we launched the Robinhood Fund we knew we were changing the way people share their desires and help one another online, putting the power to grant wishes back in the hands of the community. Now you, the community, are truly starting to grasp just how powerful you can be. It’s amazing to witness. Not only can you vote to support the wishes that catch your imagination — whether they amuse, inspire sympathy or just surprise — but you can take direct action to ensure the wish comes true by clicking the “Donate to wish” link found on any wish page.

The man who made the wish was surprised and touched to receive the support.

I have to say that I am impressed with your fund. I would never have thought of something like this, it really is awesome. I like the idea of posting wishes and by doing so donating to the fund and that people can vote on them, not just a committee. Thanks for doing all of this.

I’m interested in world issues, especially those to do with the injustices to children. It is my life goal to be involved full time with helping children. I love kids and want to devote my life to them.

My wife, Carole, and I have two wonderful daughters of our own, Lia is almost 6 and Naomi is almost 2. They are so special to me they make me want to go out to work with kids that are less fortunate than they are.

As to my likes, I love to watch movies, read books, the last book I read was Shake Hands With the Devil. I like to spend time with my kids, volunteer in my church and hang out with my mentor friends.

Thanks for your time,
Jeffrey Way

We are committed to continuously improving the Robinhood Fund experience for both the wishers and for the users who come here as citizen philanthropists. As we move forward into the new year we will be adding features to help connect the community more deeply. As always, you are invited to contact us with any suggestions or requests. After all, Robinhood Fund is both for and about you.

It seems the chance at our $20,000 pot has inspired the community to turn it up and produce some truly outstanding videos in support of their wishes. If you haven’t had a chance to see some of the entries, here are a few noteworthy wishes for you to enjoy.

If you haven’t entered your own wish, don’t despair, there’s still time! As you can see, making a video makes all the difference and really helps your wish stand out. If you need help making a video to support your wish, just contact us and we can give you a hand.

From Idealogue

From Day

From Lola

From Slorrin

Digg this story

Red Herring, a prominent business and technology publication, has recognized the unique role of Robinhood Fund as a community-driven, disruptive charity.

Part charity, part lottery, part pleading venue, it’s here that you’ll find a video featuring a woman explaining to the world why she simply must have new breasts for Christmas. Or someone asking for $75.00 to buy a Degrassi Junior High DVD box set – for nostalgia’s sake. Or an infertile couple that would love $1,200 towards the adoption of a new daughter.

And it’s a place where, in contrast to the dry art of grant writing – creativity often wins.

“You have to know how to market yourself,” said Jasmine Antonick. “You can come to us and ask us for anything, and if you know how to market yourself well enough it just might come true.”

Jasmine’s suggestion is good advice for people making a wish. Remember, it isn’t just about how interesting the actual wish is, a huge factor in whether or not the community will choose you is how you present the wish. Take the time to explain why you deserve it, make a video to catch people’s attention, make your wish fun so that people will share it with their friends.

If you want to make a wish but you’re not sure exactly how to make it creative and catchy, get in touch with us - we want to help!

As if $20,000 available to be won wasn’t exciting enough, there are some changes underway here at Robinhood Fund (RHF) designed to improve the experience for you. While you’re at work making videos to support your wishes, or voting for the wishes you support, we’re busy brainstorming ways to tweak the design and make RHF more fun and rewarding.

This site is all about you - what you want and which wishes you think deserve to come true - and we would love to hear any suggestions you may have. Let us know if you’ve made a wish, or if not why not. Drop us a line about some of your other favourite websites, and what you like about them.

But don’t get so caught up offering feedback that you forget to make a wish for the $20,000 pot!

Well, you asked for it, you got it!.

We’ve had many requests to postpone the pot so people can get their wishes in tip-top form. I guess I understand it is pretty difficult to make a video while your in-laws are staying with you, you have a million Holiday parties to attend and all those Christmas cookies to eat.

Party to your hearts content, cause now you have time to do that, then get your wish ready!

Good luck and may the best wish get the most votes!
Maid Marian

Well, much has been made of this story in the news this week. 85% of all fund raising for Mother Against Drunk Driving goes to the professional fund raisers.

I know there will be an internal audit on MADD. I don’t want to say anything about this situation as we don’t know much about it over here in the Sherwood Forest. I do know that fund raising is a pretty competitive field these days. When I heard this story, all I could think of was: “Is it better to raise $200 and have 85% of it go directly to charity or raise $20,000 and have 15% of it go directly to charity?” Just a thought. Whatever the answer is, they should always be upfront about how the money is divided.

Have a great weekend wishers,
Maid Marian

Big news here in the Sherwood Forest. We are having a $20,000 Christmas Wish pot. Get your wish in today.

There will be two categories, the Nice list and the Naughty list. If you want to use your Christmas Spirit to wish on wonderful things for the less fortunate, you belong on the nice list. If you want to finally realize that dream of taking your entire Frat House to Mexico for Spring Break so you can hit on hot girls, you belong on the naughty list. The wish with the most votes on each list will receive $10,000! A great way to make your Christmas a little more enjoyable, don’t you think?

The wishes have already started to come in and let me tell you, they are pretty spectacular! With $10,000 on the line, people are really spending time on making a video, asking for really creative things and making sure everything is perfect before their wish goes up for voting. I’m really excited to see what interesting wish you will put in.

Signing off from the Sherwood Forest for the evening. The Merry Men and I have been working non-stop to make this exciting event happen.
Maid Marian

Today is Wednesday and we all know what that means….more wishes granted. How exciting!

We have a great batch of wishes:

Me, Myself and I
lorip wants to pay off her washer and dryer. Clean dry clothes for lorip! You will be getting the fund to help you out.

Twist of Fate
Tami had the most votes this round for twist of fate. Her story of her hardworking and generous husband is something we can all relate to. Let us know what you get your husband for Christmas with the money!

Health and Wellness
neta wished for a very unselfish wish for her sister. Her sister has Parkinson’s disease and is struggling to pay for her medicine. She got the most votes and gets the fund to give to her sister. Isn’t that great?

Weekly Wish
The weekly wish is gifts for friends and family. The wisher with the most votes, Santa, wished for a new scratching post for her cat. We can’t wait to see the Christmas video of Ragdoll using her new scratching post! Hope you have a great holiday.

As the scratching post will only cost $200, cdg will be getting $50.88 towards Christmas clothes for her 2-year-old son. Hope you get some cute stuff for him!

Help Me, Help Others
jdcb42 is making a documentary and would like a little help in paying for his travel costs. We love the clip he uploaded onto the site, so we can’t wait to see his new documentary! PS jdcb42: if you need an idea for your next documentary, might I suggest us!

Thanks for voting,
Maid Marian

Well Wishers, people are starting to raise the bar on the quality of wishes being submitted. It is getting to the point where if you don’t have a video, or at least a picture, people are gonna think you just don’t want it bad enough. So show ‘em what you’ve got and keep those fabulous wishes coming in. Today, I’m profiling a pretty incredible wish. Check out the video!

Travel funding for a documentary to be made in Kyoto

Pretty cool! I can’t wait to see Keizo on film.
Thanks for sharing with us,
Maid Marian