Several years ago, when I launched the idea of doing good as a way to feel good and grounded in difficult times, I noticed that many people who did not have a lot of money felt they couldn’t participate.

I rarely got donations or contributions smaller than $50.

In part, I think this was because I was raising a lot of money for things that were not always inexpensive.  And I got a stream of messages from people who said they wished they could contribute, but didn’t see how.

They didn’t think $5 or $10 donations would add up to much. But they do.

From the first, my idea for funding these projects was not that people would send large amounts of money,  but that they large numbers of people would send small amounts of money.

That’s the true promise of crowdsourcing, a new way to raise funds for good causes. For all of its shortcomings, the Internet does give power to ordinary people.

And I’m not sure I pushed that small donation idea enough.

Without the larger occasional donors, I would not have been able to accomplish the many good things we did accomplish. And that is still true.

But in recent months, I have regained the original focus and reminded myself we needed to stay small. We are not about raising enormous amounts of money or asking people to send large amounts.

We don’t work miracles, we can’t alter the reality of hard lives. We just help where we can.

We can fill the holes in people’s life, stimulate their imaginations, promote their creativity. We can make certain they have the small things that are important in life – clothes, stamps, shoes, music, jackets, scarves, books and letters, stuffed animals, underwear socks, comfort dolls.

So I began re-emphasizing that small donations, matter, they are important. My favorite letters are from people thanking me for the opportunity to join in these projects, doing good often seems very daunting to people. These messages always shock me and lift my heart at the same time.

I am always looking for ways to bring ordinary people into this process, as well as relying on generous larger donors. I think this is really beginning to work.

Every day this week, I got letters with a $5 or $10 bill folded inside. Or mailed checks for $20 or $30. I can’t tell you what those crumpled $5 mean to me.

The messages are much like James from Louisville Kentucky today. “Please accept my small donation to the Mansion or any of your projects. I am grateful that you are scouting these projects for me, and also grateful that you are permitting me to do good these days and feel good about it.”

Or from Jane in Modesto, Calif. “As little as we may have,” she wrote, “we can help each other. Thank you for making this possible for me. I had no idea how to do it. This work has kept me sane and positive.”

These past few weeks, I’ve been supporting Community Radio Station WBTN, hosts of my weekly radio broadcast “Speaking To Animals.” People have been sending donations and supporting the Amazon WBTN Wish List I suggested.

They are trying to help the station re- build, but the things the stations needs are not cheap. How to do this and stay within our boundaries?

A $159 monitor has been sitting on the list for a few days – we cleaned out two wish lists already. I told the station my suggestion was to add some Amazon Gift Card options – $5,$10, $20, $50 gift cards – to the site, so that small donors could participate and also could pool their resources.

If $15 people contributed $5 or $10, they could buy the monitor without too much sacrifice or pain. This should be a joyful process, not a painful one.

The station – in desperate need of everything – was very  happy to hear this plan and will offer the gift cards shortly. This is the idea, really: small acts of great kindness, mostly funded by ordinary people making small donations. There are lots of them out there.

This week, I asked for help raising $400 so that the Mansion residents could afford to buy small gifts for aides and friends. I said small donations ought to do it, and small donations are what I received,  lots of $5 Paypal donations and letters with crumpled $5 and $10 bills from all over the country.

These are people who very much want to contribute but weren’t  sure their small donations would matter. They can matter, and do help. Your small donations (and yes, one for $150) gave me the $400 I need to make this idea work.

Thanks to these people for joining in, those $5 and $10 bills make me want to cry. And they will bring much joy to the Mansion residents at Christmas.

All of your contributions are welcome, large or small. They all matter, especially during the holidays when people are moved to celebrate and give to others.

If you wish to contribute in any amount, you can do the “Support the Army Of Good” button on the bottom of each post, or send a contribution to Jon Katz. P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y. 12816, or via Paypal, [email protected].

We are on a roll, doing good at a steady pace, committing small acts of kindness. It is so much better to do good than to argue about what good is.

Staying small and focused is at the heart is at the heart of it. People  love to do good when they are given the chance. Here, everyone gets a chance.