Karmanaut is a work in progress. The app isn't built yet and no money is being collected. Where we're up to
karmanaut

Money can't buy this leaderboard.

Everyone pledges the same US$2 a month. You choose which schools, clinics and relief efforts around the world your pledge helps fund. Choose well and you earn karma. Choose badly and you don't.

Tell me when it launches See how it works
$2

a month, from every Karmanaut. Nobody can pledge more.

$1.95

of that is yours to allocate to the projects you pick.

$0

is the price of a single karma point. They can't be bought.

A peek at the app we're planning

Your feed, full of projects asking for your trust

Picture a social feed where every post is a project vying for funding. Karmanauts ask hard questions in the comments, then decide whether it deserves a slice of their pledge.

Sample only: invented project and people
Tumaini Hill Schools TrustRural primary school · East Africa

Six classrooms for 240 children who walk 9 km to school

We have the land title and a signed contractor. We're asking Karmanauts to fund the build in four stages, each released only when the last is verified.

$31,240 of $50,00018,204 Karmanauts backing
Allocate from my $1.95 Ask a question
PriyaRaoWho pays the teachers once the building is done? Are there enough qualified ones in that district?
Tumaini Hill Schools TrustThe district education office has committed four salaried posts. The letter is attached to this project.
JoOnTheRoadWhat happens if the contractor bails halfway? Do you have completion insurance?

The whole point

A billionaire and a student get the same $2

Most ways of doing good reward whoever gives the most. Karmanaut rewards whoever thinks the best. A badge here can't be bought, gifted or inherited. It only says one thing about you: you've made sound decisions about helping people, over and over.

The sharpest mind on the leaderboard could be a retired builder, a nurse, or a teenager on a borrowed phone. We call that the democratization of benevolence.

Read the full idea
A failed project pays no karmaHowever big the promises were, however moving the video was.
A flourishing project pays more than you put inWhen a school is still full of children years later, its early believers get the credit.
Good questions protect everyoneEvery public question makes it harder for a careless or dishonest project to get funded.

The kinds of projects you could back

Schools

Classrooms, teachers' housing, books and the road that gets children there.

Hospitals and clinics

From a rural birthing room to solar power for a vaccine fridge.

Clean water

Wells, tanks and, just as important, the people trained to repair them.

Emergency response

Helping fund emergency services and supplies after a recent flood or disaster.

Think you'd be good at this?

The app isn't built yet. Tell us you're interested, or tell us what's wrong with the idea. Both are genuinely useful right now.

Tell me when it launches Pick holes in the idea