Why Trust Us

If you are suspicious of 5 for Fairness,  good.  Anytime someone you don't know asks you for money, especially on the internet, you should be suspicious. 

Here are a few questions (and answers) to get you started...

Is it legal?
5 for Fairness is a non-profit California 501 (c) (3) corporation.  Our EIN is 26-4433368.  You can confirm our tax status on the IRS Publication 78 web site.  Enter only 5 for Fairness as the name and California for the state and we will pop right up!

What happens to my $5 membership donation?
With the exception of Paypal's processing fee, your membership donation goes straight into the 5 for Fairness Grant Account. The sole purpose of that account is to fund our $5000 grants.

Is it an efficient organization?
As of March, 2010, 5 for Fairness has no paid staff.  Everyone who works on it is a volunteer.  At the moment, we are taking full advantage of Ning's hospitality and are paying $14.95 a month ($4.95 to point our domain name here and $10 to get premium customer service) to have our site here.  We are looking for Sponsors to support our work and help defray the costs of Paypal's large cut of each donation (currently 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction.  Hopefully, this will be less when we either a)get more than $3000 per month in donations or b)someone  - you? - tells us of a more cost effective place to accept our donations.)  If you know of anyone who believes the world should be fair for girls and might want to be a 5 for Fairness sponsor, please tell them we will put up a badge or banner in their honor in the space currently occupied by Google Ads on the right hand side of every page.

How transparent is the organization?
Our policy is to be as transparent as possible, whenever possible.  For example, as soon as someone more technically savvy than me joins and figures out how to do it, I hope to post a widget that will reflect the current balance in our Paypal account.  In the meantime, I'll be sending out weekly newsletters to keep you up to date on the status of our Grant account.

But the number one reason you can trust us is...
You. 
And your friends. 
And your friends' friends.
You will all be part of "Us".

5 for Fairness is an experiment in what happens when you value what everyone - not just the rich - can bring to a cause.  If it works, it will because you have joined, brought your friends and family with you, and teamed up with the rest of us.  So consider this: every question you ask of us to determine whether or not we are worthy of your time and energy (not to mention your 5 bucks) will probably be a good question to ask of any projects that are proposed for funding here.

We have a lot of work to do and look forward to your being part of the team.