Meet Stephanie - Techie | Supporter

Stephanie is a young professional working in the high-tech industry. In her free time, she loves playing volleyball, watching movies and shopping.

She is also a philanthropist. Her passion is using technology to make a difference so she has given money to support the Kona Fund, the operational account of Jolkona Foundation.

She supports the Kona Fund and other projects both through Jolkona.org and through the employee payroll deduction and donation match program at work.

Stephanie knows that even though she can only contribute a little, it makes a big difference, because Jolkona is committed to using technology to make other charities more productive, has low overhead, and her employer matches her contributions. She gets updates of Jolkona’s new features and operational dollars at work through the Jolkona blog and newsletter.

Meet Taylor - Traveler | Grantmaker

Taylor is a 20-year old college student at Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA where he studies International Relations and Economics. Having spent part of his upbringing abroad, Taylor is passionate about encouraging cross cultural communication, and hopes to become fluent in at least three languages in his lifetime. In his spare time he enjoys traveling, photojournalism, eating Pho, and taking summer road trips with his friends.

He is also a philanthropist. During his travels abroad Taylor saw the complex challenges posed by the cycle of poverty and exploitation. He is dedicated to breaking this cycle through increased economic opportunity and education. Taylor has helped support financial literacy projects working with girls in Afghanistan and provided farm tools to help poor African farmers become more productive. And he tracks all his donations and proofs on Jolkona.org.

Taylor knows that, even though he can only give a little, it makes a big difference, because 100 percent of his donations through Jolkona go directly to supporting the projects he chooses. He has even given gift dedications to his friends so that they too can feel connected to the issues they are passionate about.

Meet Sasa - Student | Visionary

Sasa is a Computer Science Ph.D. Candidate at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He loves to play volleyball, especially 2-on-2 beach, on a hot sunny day. He loves it almost as much as he loves programming a solution to a really difficult problem, the kind of problem that takes days or weeks to reason about and solve. He drives a Camaro, loves chicken wings and interns in Seattle during the summer.

He is also a philanthropist. As a grad student and a TA, Sasa knows how fortunate he is to have an education. He believes that lack of education is at the root of many problems we face as a society today, including poverty, suppression, and even prevention and containment of major diseases such as HIV/AIDS. So he has helped raise money to provide education to females in Afghanistan and to provide books to middle school kids in rural China.

And he finds his projects on Jolkona.org. Sasa knows that, even though he can only give a little, it makes a big difference, because 100 percent of his donations through Jolkona go directly to supporting the causes he chooses.

Meet Cheryl - Dancer | Advocate

Cheryl is a young professional living in Seattle working as an Education Coordinator/Facilitator at the University of Washington Medical Center. She also enjoys teaching swing dancing, playing soccer, and volunteering with the local international education nonprofit Bridges to Understanding, which connects children around the world through photography. She loves movement, improvement, and people.

She is also a philanthropist. She is passionate about education, the environment, and learning about the rest of the world. She has helped to protect the environment around the world by donating to plant trees in Burundi.

And she chooses many of her charities on Jolkona.org.

Cheryl knows that, even though she can only give a little, it makes a big difference, because 100 percent of her donations through Jolkona go directly to supporting the projects she chooses. For Earth Day, she calculated her carbon footprint and then selected the number of trees to be planted in the location of her choice to offset her carbon footprint.

Cheryl has even promoted Jolkona at local dances and plans to encourage future students to share what little they have through small but impactful donations available at Jolkona.org.