Writing your first post — small goals, real impact

What this step is for

Your first post is how Givers see your work in action. Not your About page. Not your annual report. A specific thing you need, with a specific dollar goal, that finishes when the goal is met.

Why it matters

Xerish is built around a doctrine: small achievable goals create more Giving than big abstract asks.

A $50 goal that buys 50 meals at $1 each closes in hours and creates a victory Giver remembers. A $50,000 goal to "support our mission" sits open for months, fatigues followers, and creates no closure moment. The platform is engineered for the first shape, not the second.

How to complete it

A post on Xerish has six required parts (per the posts_non_victory_must_be_complete schema rule):

1. Title. 4-8 words. Active. Specific. "Stock the food pantry for May" beats "Help us out!"
2. Body. 100-300 words. Tell one story. One family, one situation, one need. Resist the urge to summarize all your programs.
3. Media. A real photo from your work. Stock photos read as fake.
4. Goal amount. Pick a number you can hit in days, not months. $50, $100, $250 are good starter sizes.
5. End date. A genuine deadline. Two weeks out is a healthy default.
6. Impact metric. Name and unit cost. "Meals provided" at $1/meal. "School supply kits" at $12/kit. Goal divided by unit cost = number of units the Gift produces.

What to expect after

• Your post appears in the feed of every Giver who follows you, plus on Discover for Givers filtering by your tags.
• Givers can Give one-tap micro-amounts (defaults: 1¢, 2¢, 25¢, $1) or open the full Give sheet for any amount.
• When cumulative Giving reaches the goal, the post auto-closes and prompts you to publish a victory post showing what happened.

Common mistakes

• Goal too big. A $5,000 first goal will sit. Start at $50-$250.
• No deadline or a 90-day deadline. Urgency drives Giving. Two weeks is a strong default.
• Generic ask. "Please support us" creates nothing concrete. Tell a specific story.
• No photo. Posts without media get a fraction of the engagement of posts with one good real photo.