$5 For Philly
Live CarePhilly officially became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit on March 6, 2025. The effective date of exemption is February 13.
That means donations to Live CarePhilly are now tax-deductible. We can apply for grants. We have a federal EIN, a board of directors, and a green light from the IRS. But honestly, that’s just the paperwork.
The truth is, this has been in the works for nearly 30 years.
Circa ’96, my best friend and I were teenagers trying to understand the world through the sudden, growing flood of data, commentary and statistics. We saw how billions of dollars were spent on lottery tickets, dollar by dollar, quietly and habitually, while local problems went unsolved for the price of what people spent on gum or soda.
.:We Wondered:.
What if we could get just $5 a month from a community of people?
And what if those people got to vote on where that money went locally, transparently, directly?
Changing not one life, but the life of a city.
That seed became what is now called The Money Across Communities Fund or, The M.A.C. Vote. That’s the core.
That’s the idea. That is the dream that’s been building itself since I was a kid.
The dream wanted to reach the places that brick and mortar couldn’t.
That’s when Live CarePhilly started to form—not as a nonprofit for its own sake, but as a platform to host the M.A.C. Vote, and to model a new way forward: one that’s transparent, community-centered, and built around giving people a voice in how we care for our city.
The plan was always to launch with The Vote.
The plan was never to start with a book.
But as we all know,
Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.
–John Lennon
What Happened On Patreon?
Jai & I decided to launch a trial run of The Money Across Communities Fund & Vote on Patreon (see other blog posts for more on that). The first month something like 10 people joined. 3 Philly headquartered nonprofits were communally nominated, discussed and then voted on. Ringo (owner of The Bagel Place, champion of all rad things and a dear friend) nominated Sunday LOVE Project which ended up getting the vote.
That first month was nuts on many levels, especially with all the Chuck content. I mean honestly, there’s no better mascot but perhaps we leaned in a bit too heavy that first month.
Anywhoozle.
Being that Margaux Murphy is the founder of Sunday LOVE Project, we of course got to know her. Almost immediately we (as most anyone who meets Margaux is) were blown away but the unique quality of her dedication to serving the most heavily marginalized of our city. Despite being ridiculously over committed already, she became involved with our project and honestly, still has no idea just how impactful she has been. Having Margaux not only believe in what we were building, but then also trust us with her memoir —it all changed everything. Margaux graciously even agreed to become part of our founding board. And in offering us her book, she gave us the first step on this new path.
Suddenly, we weren’t just preparing to raise funds, we were partnering with an author / nonprofit founder on a project that will save lives and restore hope to countless.
This is a beginning, rough around the edges as it may be, that speaks to everything we believe.
So yes, this dream is now a realized nonprofit. But more importantly, Live CarePhilly has a real starting point.
Live CarePhilly exists to connect nonprofits, artists, neighbors, storytellers, and donors in a living, breathing cycle of mutual benefit. We want to create revenue through creativity—creators working with us to generate support for nonprofits they care about, and communities investing $5 a month to decide where the M.A.C. Fund goes next.
We’re aiming to re-launch the fund & vote in April. It will look barebones at first. It might even look clunky. But every month, we’ll improve. Every month, we’ll show our work. Every month, we’ll let the community decide where the money goes—and we’ll make sure they can see how it got there.
That’s what being a nonprofit means to us: not just compliance, but commitment. Not just transparency, but trust.
We’ve come a long way from the back table of a teenager’s imagination. And we’re just getting started.
Thank you for reading.
Thank you for considering.
Thank you—genuinely—for being here.
