Today we are announcing that we will donate 10% of our advertising revenue receipts in 2014 to non-profits chosen by the reddit community. Whether it’s a large ad campaign or a $5 sponsored headline on reddit, we intend for all ad revenue this year to benefit not only reddit as a platform but also to support the goals and causes of the entire community.

At the end of this year, after closing our books, we will solicit nominations from all of you for non-profits and then hold an election based off of eligible nominees for where we should donate the funds. Funds will be disbursed proportionally based on percentage of votes amongst the top 10 non-profits.

We want to show that advertising doesn’t just support the reddit platform, it also directly supports the causes and goals of reddit as a whole.

FAQ:

Q: How will you keep this from going awry due to trolling and vote-stuffing?

A: My goodness, this is the internet, isn’t it? That does make this plan a little complicated. Nevertheless, we will try:

First, I want to say right now (and will say again at year-end when we do the nominations and voting) that this isn’t a game. It will be real money going to real causes doing real things in the world. You can make a real difference. That’s a good reason to put aside the game-playing and be serious.

Secondly, we reserve the right to control the entire process and intervene if we believe there are shenanigans. For example, non-profit nominees will be limited to verified 501(c)(3) organizations, and we will filter out suggestions that seem to be clearly trolling. We’ll also apply our usual anti-vote-manipulation code to ensure integrity in voting. Lobbying and campaigning for one non-profit or another will be fine (e.g. explaining why one is better than the other) but trying to cheat with votes will not be allowed.

Ultimately, it will be up to all of you what happens – if things go well, the community will be responsible for disbursing a very real amount of money to a set of causes of your choice. If it doesn’t go well – then we’ll simply just pick by ourselves. We hope you’ll help us make this successful!

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