Daniel Jacobs was happy to be alive. Make that ecstatic.
As a young man, the Santa Monica native battled epilepsy and hypoglycemia and diabetes, and — against the odds — lived to tell about it.
But the last thing Jacobs wanted to do was talk about himself. What he really wanted was to chat up everyone else — about life, relationships and the pursuit of making the planet a better one.
So in September 2004, he embarked on a series of post-college road trips throughout the United States and Canada, pursuing answers to his inquiries in small towns, big cities and everywhere in between
“What I learned is that people love to talk all day long about all the wonderful things they can do [for charity]… or what people are doing wrong,” Jacobs says. “But if you ask them to take action, you get a small percentage who have the time or money.”
Jacobs, now 27 and living in Palo Alto, came up with a solution to the all-talk-little-action problem last August. He would create a “socially conscious business,” one where the savvy Web surfers and Internet neophytes could both feel at home and donate to their favorite causes without dropping a dime.
Would it work? You bet.
He officially launched Everywun in March, and has since accrued more than 9,000 registered users, roughly 15,000 followers on Twitter and some 1,300 fans on Facebook.
The site, everywun.com, also received 500,000 hits — in May alone.
“Everything’s going really well,” says Jacobs, whose father, Rabbi Bob Jacobs, leads High Holy Day services for celebrities at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood. “We continue to grow in a really nice way while inspiring people to think about philanthropy and get involved.”
Everywun’s Web site is a venerable playground for the environmentally conscious, providing a slew of ways to give back without, well, giving anything besides a little time.
For example, by taking a series of quizzes on food fundraising, the giant panda or water conservation, users can earn credits to plant trees, feed animals through the Humane Society, send books to children in Africa and provide malaria nets for families in impoverished countries.
Virtually affix a “badge” on a Facebook page and each click will help raise money toward a favorite cause. Or simply sign up for the Everywun newsletter and earn 100 credits — enough to plant a tree.
Major corporate sponsors such as the North Face, Better World Books and Peanut Labs make donations for every click. As for the money raised, Jacobs prefers to measure Everywun’s progress in terms of impact, rather than dollars and cents.
“If we can give back more than we’ve taken, that’s something beautiful,” he says.
After graduating from Williams College in Massachusetts, Jacobs surrounded himself with a team of advisers — some doubled as mentors — who would go on to provide the start-up capital for Everywun, a little more than $250,000.
The advisory board includes fellow Jews Jeffrey Bader, executive vice president of planning, scheduling and distribution with ABC Entertainment Group, and Sam Bronfman, whose family provides major grants and funding through the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies.
Jacobs admits he never took his Jewish roots into consideration when plotting the launch of Everywun.
But he’s managed to interact with quite a few Jews along the way.
“The Jewish community is so supportive of these initiatives, and that’s really been neat,” Jacobs says.
While he says it’s difficult for a start-up like Everywun to forecast growth, Jacobs has set a goal to place 100,000 badges on Web pages and social networking sites. So far, 5,000 are out there.
“I don’t think in terms of where I want to be month by month,” Jacobs says. “We’ve got a great start. Is it where I want it to be? While we’re a long way from that, we have an opportunity to get there.”