Micro Gifting

Scope

Micro gifting is an idea, free of charge, with no acknowledgements required. It is not a charity, scholarship, nor financial support. There is no promise of future rounds, no cash gifts, no political/religious/marketing agendas.

Micro gifting involves a fundamental human-to-human connection, and as such, its size is limited by the capabilities of the real people running it. Nonetheless, micro gifting isn't a single program: it's an idea that anyone can take, modify, and implement. If you have personal connections with people from a different country or neighborhood, I encourage you to start your own micro gifting unit. Feel free to utilize any and all of the methodologies, logistics, and concepts that we present here. If you are starting your own unit and want a website, feel free to reach out to me, and I can create a subdomain for you, free of charge: https://<your_unit>.microgift.ing.

Giving a gift to a child, who doesn't want one, is not a gift—it's littering; it's equivalent to my father bringing me beef even when I don't eat beef. Micro gifting is about gifting small material wishes of children who otherwise would not have had such a wish fulfilled. Consequently, this program requires asking children about their wish, listening—truly listening—to their wish, and making it come true when possible. The logistics behind this is described in the Gift Logistics section.

This micro gifting unit is intended to be between my personal connections in the US (which is a More Economically Developed Country), and BACHA English Medium School of Bangladesh (which is a Less Economically Developed Country). The target number of children to support initially is 20 to 40 children per year, which is the approximate size of grades 7 through 10. Higher grades have less students, which is ideal for initial runs as it requires less people to fund gifts, and creates less logistical and managerial load for my Bangladeshi friends trying to see this through: they are people too! Over time, the goal is to give gifts to students of lower grades (and hence more students), and eventually children from other poorer schools. Approximately 20 to 40 gifters are needed at the MEDC, depending on the size of their donation, number of children at the LEDC, and the ratio of purchasing power between MEDC and LEDC. Some gifts may be carried over or re-donated by students, in which case, this surplus will gradually enable us to prioritize lower grade levels which have more and more students.

Throughout the entire process, the number of students gifted per year will be limited; otherwise it is no longer "micro" gifting. Similarly, gifts must not be too expensive. Different units can be formed for different schools, or multiple units can be formed for large schools with hundreds of students per batch. Either way, don't bite more than what you can chew. The people doing the most work are the friends and teachers at the LEDC: they have their own lives, and I want to ensure that my hopes and dreams don't crush theirs.

Don’t expect anything in return. No photos, testimonials, or surveys are required—ever. If a student wants to share what they’ve built, learned, or done with their gift, that’s their choice. We’ll support photos, videos, and write-ups only when initiated by the student, at the discussion page. It’s optional, moderated for safety, and ad-free.

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Monetary Logistics

Each donor in MEDC can donate however much they want to donate. In the initial pilot phase, the number of donors will be limited to slowly build up experience, expectations, and understandings of micro gifting. In general, the process is:

1. Collection at MEDC:
   • Collected by a single account via Venmo/PayPal/Zelle, etc. Collection records will be publicly available on a spreadsheet for transparency. Donors can use pseudonyms for the public spreadsheet.
   • The spreadsheet will be publicly viewable
   • No tax receipts will be issued; these are personal gifts, not charitable deductions
   • All funds have to be in by a set date, after which it gets transferred
2. Transfer to LEDC
   • Wise will be utilized to transfer the funds to LEDC. Here, the first overhead has to be paid: cost to transfer funds internationally. Wise seems to have the lowest international transfer rates. The amount of funds received will be listed on the spreadsheet
   • Funds transferred to single bank account. Mobile wallet such as bKash may be used for initial rounds
3. Use at LEDC
   • Local coordinator(s) will locally purchase items. This supports the local business.
   • All receipts and vendor details should be uploaded. Coordinator(s) are encouraged to collect as much evidence of individual items as possible.
   • If a item is not sold in person at LEDC, only then could it be purchased online; receipts should include shipping fee if any
   • Each local coordinator will be paid $t+r\times <!--\; \times \; -->s/c$ BDT, where $s$ is the number of students being gifted, $c$ is the number of local coordinators, and $t$ is intended to cover transportation. As of now, $t=1000$ BDT and $r=100$ BDT. This may be slightly shifted, but should never exceed more than 10% of the funds transferred into Bangladesh
   • Number of coordinators is determined by net amount of funds having to be handled and number of students: $$c=\max (n\_\mathrm{funds},n\_\mathrm{students})$$ where $$n\_\mathrm{students}=\max (1,\min (3,\lfloor s/25\rfloor ))$$ and $$n\_\mathrm{funds}=\max (1,\min (3,\lfloor d/33000\rfloor ))$$ where $d$ is net amount of donation in BDT
   • Example: For $d=70000$, $s=35$ we get $c=2$ and pay per coordinator becomes $2750$ BDT; $(ct+rs)/d\approx <!--\; \approx \; -->0.08$ of the BDT 70k fund, which is reasonable
   • If there will be delays in distribution, let me know. Any gifts not distributed (e.g. due to strike) will roll over
   • If there will be delays in purchases by more than 3 months (typical "summer" duration), funds must be returned to the donors
   • Take pictures of distribution to ensure things are distributed; this can be as simple as showing all the items in the classroom
   • Leftover balance rolls over to the next round

If continuation happens, this will be gradually scaled by increasing the number of local coordinators (no more than 3), allowing larger gifts, and establish separate MEDC account to separate personal and micro gifting funds.

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Gift Logistics

Let $p=(d-<!--\; -\; -->ct+rs)/s$ be the maximum price of a gift per student for a given round (this factors in coordinator overhead). Left over funds will roll over to future rounds.

Brief safety instructions will be placed where necessary. Keep in mind that we are not OSHA or some federal agency who knows all the safety procedures: we will list safety instructions to the best of our abilities based on what information is readily accessible.

Several sets of gift lists will be generated. The set selected will be based on amount of funding available and number of students. The purpose of this is to give a gift to students who are willing to accept a random gift if we can not find their gift of choice. Make a post in the discussions page for this.

Local coordinators have a lot of responsibilities, described below:

The process for determining the gifts to purchase is:

1. Give students in the beginning of school a small printed piece of paper that reads:

   "Make sure to write with neat handwriting. Write your name:"

   «Child's name»>

   "Is there something that you want in your hands that your parents can't give to you, or won't give to you, but you wish you had? If you know what it is, and where it could be found, writing that down would be very much appreciated."

   «Let child answer in space below»

   "If there isn't any, is there something you wish you could hand to someone personally? If you know what it is and where it could be found, writing that down would be very appreciated."

   «Let child answer in space below»

   "If we can not find the item, would you want a random item from us?"

   «Let child answer in space below»

2. Let them know that this paper should be filled and handed back before they leave school today, and that there is no absolutely guarantee if they will get this thing.

3. Collect the papers. Scan and upload them in the Transparency section.

Next, local coordinators have to distribute the gifts. This involves:

1. Going to the location described by the student, or finding the location to get the gift. If the latter, at least 3 potential locations of where the item might be should be explored.
2. Purchasing the gift if it is within budget; otherwise buy a random gift (see Wish List). Make sure to get a receipt to upload; if no receipt, get the name of the vendor.
3. Ensuring if the gifts work (e.g. ensuring that electronics work if it's an electronic toy).
4. Transport and store the gift until distribution day.
5. Schedule a distribution day, ideally when there's an exam or test.
6. Distribute the gifts to the children personally. If a student is absent, announce in front of the class that the student is absent and that they should collect it from the teacher.
7. Record evidence of distribution. This could be a picture of all the items before being handed out.
8. Send recap: the receipts, vendor details, quantity, and, quite importantly, about any difficulties or ways to improve.

After each round, we reflect: what worked, what didn’t, vendor reliability, student engagement, teacher workload. We adjust questions, budgets, and timelines accordingly.

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Scale up

There is no expectation of continuation. If we do continue, there will be no more than two rounds per year, near semester ends. If a semester round isn’t feasible (school closures, funding gaps, logistics), we simply skip it—no make-up or obligation. We may pause or stop at any time without obligation. If funds remain after a canceled round, they will roll forward or be refunded during pilots.

As described in the Scope, the size of this micro gifting will be limited to people I personally know. I expect others may want to recreate micro gifting—and I welcome it. Some may choose a centralized model, may earn profits, or may attach political or religious agendas. Others may run versions that uplift people more, reduce poverty, or simply do it better. That’s all fine. Micro gifting is an idea—free of charge, with no acknowledgements required—that anyone can use, centralize, modify, monetize, or improve. To me, the concept itself is a gift; I expect nothing in return.

Even when I say “I expect nothing in return,” a kind of inherent expectation can be felt. The simple act of foreigners giving a gift with nothing in exchange can spark urges to showcase student work, send thank-you notes, or offer to help. I fully expect that some students (not all) may figure out who donated, reach out, and share gratitude—or ask how they can contribute. I can’t stop those feelings of expectation, and I wouldn’t want to stop the desire to give back. So I’ll point you to the Purpose of micro gifting: look at the gift in your hands. I’m sure you’ll see that, in your hands, it’s more than just a gift.

CATALYST

I do want to give people a chance—the choice to learn things they otherwise wouldn't learn, the opportunity to do good, and the sliver of hope to unlearn learned helplessness—and I'm sure you'd want to do it too. That's why I'm attempting to make a separate initiative:

Community for Accelerating Teaching, Advocacy & Leadership through Youth & Science Training.

As of 2026-01-16, it is still in progress, and is expected to take longer than Micro Gifting to be setup and running. Please let me know if you're interested or just curious!

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