Hello and welcome to the 9dollarclub. My name is Toby Holles and I would like to share a story of how a cow in South America became the inspiration for the 9dollarclub! 

Several years ago, my family instituted a $9 gift exchange for our holiday gatherings during Christmas. One year, instead of shopping for individual gifts, my wife Jami decided to do something different. She pooled together the money she would have spent and set out to find a charitable cause to make a meaningful donation on behalf of everyone in the family.

She came across an international organization that made it possible to “buy a cow” that would be given to a village in South America. Even though the donation was modest, Jami felt like this was a chance to make a real impact. So, she donated a cow! We learned how important livestock could be to an impoverished village. After telling our family about the donation, the reactions were even more wonderful than expected. The entire family shared a feeling that we had all been a part of something very positive.

$9 by itself isn’t enough money to significantly change many lives. But when combined together and put into the right hands, we were able to turn a small amount of money into something very valuable for others. But what inspired me the most was how much impact it had on us. It created something I call “giving joy”.   

I told the story to my good friend (and 9dollarclub co-founder) Dan Zipper about this experience. He loved the story and said, “We should be able to feel like that all the time.”

What an amazing concept! Let's find a way to experience and spread the feeling of “giving joy” - all the time… and the 9dollarclub was born.

Several years ago, we learned first-hand what a simple collection of $9 contributions can do for a village in South America. We also learned what it could do for us. It has inspired us to launch the 9dollarclub, a non-profit organization dedicated to creating and sharing the incredible energy of giving joy – all the time.

That was a pretty amazing cow.  

Toby Holles

9dollarclub Executive Director