Modest Needs - Spread the word

An interesting theory.

Modest Needs: Small Change. A World of Difference. Welcome to Modest Needs! However you found this site, we're glad you're here.

Modest Needs launched as one man's personal project on 21 March 2002.

His goal: to create a resource for people living paycheck to paycheck. His mission: to promote the self-sufficiency (and peace of mind) of people in this position by helping as many of them as possible with these kinds of small, unexpected, and often devastating expenses. His only source of funding: 10% of his gross monthly income as a university professor - about $350 a month. Since that time, Modest Needs has grown from a personal project into a full-fledged, tax-exempt organization. The goals and mission of the site remain the same, but the site is no longer funded or operated by a single person.

Instead, Modest Needs is now a community of the world's least likely philanthropists! Most of the people who visit and help to operate this site (including the founder of Modest Needs) live paycheck to paycheck themselves. Most of them have only a little to spare. Some of them even have requested help from the site.

But we all have one thing in common: we have come to understand that if we pool our modest resources - our time, our skills, and our pocket change - we have the power to change people's lives for the better, forever - one person's life at a time.

Operating in this fashion, and with no government or corporate funding, Modest Needs has been able to distribute $115,861.00 to 605 persons with short term financial needs and nowhere else to turn. We have been able to help these people retain their jobs, their lives, their families, and - most importantly - their sanity by helping them with short-term expenses ranging from the fee for a GED or SAT test to the expenses involved in burying a stillborn child.

And we'd like for you to become a part of this community. Whether you have a modest need of your own, or whether you would like to help the site help others, you are cordially invited to become a part of this experiment in personal philanthropy.

Thank you for visiting Modest Needs. Enjoy your stay, and please come back often!