I have been blogging consistently since 2017. And one of my goals in speaking publicly was always to connect with like-minded people. I always left my email and hoped people would get in touch. Even while my blog and twitter became popular, passing 1M views and 20k followers, I basically never had people get in touch to chat or meet up.
So it felt kind of ridiculous when last November I started charging people $100 to chat. I mean, who am I? But people started showing up fairly immediately. Now granted the money did not go to me. It went to an education non-profit and I merely received the receipt.
And at this point I've met a number of interesting people, from VCs to business professors to undergraduate students to founders and everyone in between. People wanting to talk about trends in databases, about how to succeed as a programmer, about marketing for developers, and so on. Women and men thoughout North America, Europe, Africa, New Zealand, India, Nepal, and so on. And I've raised nearly $6000 for educational non-profits.
How is it that you go from giving away your time for free and getting no hits to charging and almost immediately getting results? For one, every person responded very positively to it being a fundraiser. It also helps me be entirely shameless about sharing on social media every single time someone donates; because it's such a positive thing.
But also I think that in "charging" for my time it helps people feel more comfortable about actually taking my time, especially when we have never met. It gives you a reasonable excuse to take time from an internet rando.
On the other hand, a lot of people come for advice and I think giving advice is pretty dangerous, especially since my background is not super conventional. I try to always frame things as just sharing my opinion and my perspective and that they should talk with many others and not take my suggestions without consideration.
And there's also the problem that by charging everyone for my time now, I'm no longer available to people who could maybe use it the most. I do mention on my page that I will still take calls from people who don't donate, as my schedule allows. But to be honest I feel less incentivized to spend time when people do not donate. So I guess this is an issue with the program.
But I mitigated even this slightly, and significantly jump-started the program, during my 30th birthday when I took calls with any person who donated at least $30.
Anyway, I picked this path because I have wanted to get involved with helping students figure out their lives and careers. But without a degree I am literally unqualified for many volunteering programs. And I always found the time commitments for non-profits painful.
So until starting this I figured it wouldn't be until I retire that I find some way to make a difference. But ultimately I kept meeting people who were starting their own non-profits now or donated significantly to help students. Peer pressure. I wanted to do my part now. And 30 minutes of my time in return for a donation receipt has been an easy trade.
While only raising a humble $6,000 to date, the Chat for Education program has been more successful than I imagined. I've met many amazing people through it. And it's something that should be easy to keep up indefinitely.
I hope to meet you through it too!
I wrote about trying to meet like-minded people and fundraising for educational non-profits. pic.twitter.com/UJ9U6DIHGU
— Phil Eaton (@eatonphil) June 28, 2025