The Raiden Blog

Plain-language writing about giving, transparency, and the mechanics of turning attention into good.

How the Weekly Pot Works

2026-07-14

From an advertiser's payment to a charity's EIN, here is the full path a dollar takes through Raiden's weekly distribution, step by step.

Splitting Your Giving Across Five Charities

2026-07-14

Why Raiden asks for percentages instead of a single pick, how the sum-to-100 rule works, and how to choose a split you'll actually keep.

Why Raiden Has No Balances

2026-07-14

An earlier design gave every user an accruing balance. We removed it on purpose, and the reasons are the clearest window into what Raiden is for.

Your Giving Level, Explained

2026-07-14

The percentage on your Impact page measures participation, not money — here's what moves it, what it means, and what it definitely isn't.

Charity Battles, Friendly Competition That Feeds Food Banks

2026-07-07

Team A versus team B, a countdown clock, and a shared cause turn ordinary giving into something people show up for.

Choosing a Charity You'll Actually Stick With

2026-07-07

Picking a cause that already moves you beats picking the "correct" one, and switching later is completely fine.

Running a Fundraiser on Raiden

2026-07-07

How to set up a fundraiser, pick a goal and a countdown, rally people around it, and what happens when the clock runs out.

Giving When Money Is Tight

2026-07-07

You do not need spare cash to be generous, and Raiden is built around the giving you can already afford.

Groups, From Beach Trip Crews to Giving Circles

2026-07-07

Private groups on Raiden start as ordinary friend spaces and often turn into something closer to a giving circle without anyone planning it that way.

How Raiden Turns Ads Into Donations

2026-07-07

A plain-language walkthrough of the money path — from an advertiser paying for a campaign to charities receiving their share of the weekly pot, with a public ledger in between.

How to Spot a Charity Scam

2026-07-07

A practical guide to spotting look-alike names, urgency pressure, and other warning signs before you give.

What Privacy-First Means Here, Concretely

2026-07-07

Not a slogan but a list of specific defaults, from no third-party trackers to a full JSON export of your own data.

Why Small, Steady Giving Beats the Occasional Big Gift

2026-07-07

Predictable giving helps nonprofits plan and helps givers build a habit in a way that one large, occasional gift rarely does.

U.S. Tax Basics of Charitable Giving, Plainly

2026-07-07

A plain-language overview of how charitable deductions, itemizing, and nonprofit status generally work, with no dollar figures to go stale.

The 700-Year-Old Accounting Trick That Keeps Raiden Honest

2026-07-07

Double-entry bookkeeping is centuries old, and it's the same structure Raiden uses to make sure the weekly pot and charity totals can be checked, not just claimed.

Why We Built Raiden

2026-07-07

An honest account of the observation that started this project and what success actually looks like from here.

Reading Our Transparency Page Like an Auditor

2026-07-07

A walkthrough of what the weekly pot, per-charity totals, and distribution history actually mean, and how to use the page to hold us accountable.

Sparks, the Smallest Way to Do Good

2026-07-07

A Spark turns an empty like into a signal that carries real weight, lifting the giving levels of both the sparker and the person they sparked.

Raids, Flash Mobs for Good

2026-07-07

A profile raid is a group of people descending on one member's page at once to put social weight behind a cause they care about.

What Is an EIN, and Why It Matters for Giving

2026-07-07

The IRS identifier behind every legitimate US charity is also the simplest way to tell a real nonprofit from a look-alike scam.

What Makes a Social Network Healthy?

2026-07-07

Healthy feeds come from defaults, not rules, and we walk through the specific design choices Raiden makes instead of relying on a list of dos and don'ts.

Where the Ad Money Actually Comes From

2026-07-07

A plain look at who funds the ads on Raiden, how an impression contributes to the weekly pot, and an honest sense of how much money is really involved.

Why Your Scrolling Has Power

2026-07-07

The attention you spend online is worth real money to advertisers. Raiden exists to route that value to charities you choose instead of letting it disappear.

How Raiden Decides Where the Weekly Pot Goes

2026-07-07

The two things that direct Raiden's weekly giving — your activity on the network and the giving split you set — and what your giving level actually measures.