how this started
chipin.me started as one guy, one race, and one singlet covered in squares. This is the whole story, in order.
the singlet. 26.2 miles of names
A donation page is a link. A singlet with your name on it is a reason to show up at mile 20.
Every square on the grid is a real person who chipped in. That is the entire product. The gear is the receipt, the thank-you, and the thing people actually want to share.
in order
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A marathon bib and a blank singlet
Eddie got into the NYC Marathon running for Red Door Community, a nonprofit where families impacted by cancer find free support. The fundraising page was a link and a thermometer. Nobody felt like they were part of the run.
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What if the singlet was the fundraiser?
He drew a grid on the singlet. Every square was ten dollars. Your name, your photo, your message, printed on the shirt he would carry through all five boroughs. Squares that touched merged into one big spot.
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The squares sold out
Friends bought squares for their parents. A run club took a whole row. Strangers found it and wanted one. The singlet filled up, and the donations went straight to Red Door's own link the entire time.
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chipin.me
Then other people asked for their own. A hoodie for a school team. A mug for a shelter. So the singlet became a platform: any fundraiser, any nonprofit, any team gets a grid, a product, and a page, free.
the first one
for the whole team
for the office