The feel-good subscription
Five Bucks is functionally an auto-donation, but it feels like a subscription because you know you're contributing to something that matters.
Plus you're constantly getting actual value (beyond just the good feels from donating to good causes).
Receipts that are actually fun
Five Bucks treats an otherwise boring monthly donation receipt as a mini-newsletter that's packed with updates, stories, and information about good causes.
These touchpoints don't make you feel like a donor, they make you feel like a member.
Democratized decision making
Giving isn’t top-down. Bri invites members to participate in the process, from nominating organizations to voting on final selections.
I personally loved going through the final list, the sense of agency in voting for my favorite organization made me feel connected to the impact I'm making.
Gathering like-minded donors to build community
When it comes time to donate the collective funds, Five Bucks gathers the community together to celebrate what they were able to accomplish, together.
Taking things offline and actually bringing likeminded people together can be seen as too much effort, but it goes such a long way in retention, affinity, and just building a great community.
Design for trust
Most people stall because they don’t know which organizations to trust. Five Bucks does the hard work of vetting orgs, then hands off final decisions to members.
It’s trust and transparency baked into the model.
Digging into the final shortlist was so much easier because I knew the selections were already trustworthy (they got the Five Bucks seal of approval). That made me look more at project, stories, and overall positive aspects of the org rather than looking for their flaws.
Five Bucks works because it feels human, and it solves key problems we have with donating:
Confidence in the organizations you're donating to
Clarity of information and impact
Ownership over where your money goes
It makes the right thing easy, and fun.
If you're building something in this space, ask yourself:
Are you reducing the homework for your users?
Are you reinforcing identity and belonging?
Are you building for simplicity, not just scale?
Because in purpose-led work, trust isn't just a feature. It's the foundation.
