The Beauty Reserve · How the money moves

A fund that gives like a stream.

The Beauty Reserve is a public bank account that gives grants by a simple rule taken from how groundwater feeds a stream. No one decides how big a grant should be. The rule does, and anyone can check it.

"A public bank account for everyone to prove there is enough."

A first in giving

An equation from nature, applied to money for the first time.

Hydrologists have used one simple equation for decades to describe how groundwater feeds a stream: outflow = storage ÷ time. As far as we can find, no fund, foundation or grantmaker has ever used it to decide how money moves. Endowments hold money for generations. Pass-through funds spend it the moment it lands. The Beauty Reserve is the first to give the way a healthy stream flows.

Three ways money can move

Each picture shows 30 years of grants from the same uneven donations (grey bars). Only the rule changes.

Flash stream

Give everything as it arrives. Grants surge in good years and vanish in dry ones.

Lake

A typical endowment paying 5%. Steady, but most money sits for decades.

Healthiest flow

Stream · The Beauty Reserve

Always flowing. It rises with rain, slows in drought, and never stops.

Flash streamToo much, then nothing. Grantees can't plan.
LakeSafe, but stagnant. Most money never reaches people.
StreamSteady and alive. Money keeps reaching people, in good years and bad.

The rule

1 This month's flow = reserve ÷ 24 On the 1st of each month, 1/24 of the reserve becomes available to give. This is the groundwater equation, with the reserve as the groundwater and grants as the stream. 2 Each grant ≤ half of what's left No single request can take the whole month's flow. Half always continues downstream to the next person.

Why 24 is the dial

24 is the number of months the average dollar stays in the reserve before it flows out: about two years. That one number sets the stream's character.

  • It matches nature. The shallow groundwater that keeps real streams running between rains typically holds water for months to a few years. Two years sits in that range.
  • It rides out droughts. Over time the reserve settles at about two years of donations. If giving slows for a year or even two, grants taper gently instead of stopping.
  • It keeps money moving. A dry month lowers the flow by only about 4% (1/24). A new gift raises it the same day.
12Faster and bigger grants now, less cushion. A flash stream.
24Balanced. Steady flow with a two-year cushion.
60+Very steady, but money sits for years. Drifting toward a lake.

This month, with a $25,059 reserve:

What this means

Never dryA month with no donations lowers the flow by about 4%, not to zero.
Never pooledMoney doesn't sit for decades. The reserve settles near two years of giving.
CheckableThe balance is public on HCB, so anyone can recompute this month's flow.

How a grant happens

ApplyAnyone applies at thebeautyreserve.org.
The rule checksA script reads the public balance and applies the two rules.
A person sendsA steward reviews the recommendation and sends the funds.
It's publicEvery grant appears on the open ledger.
Try it · updates as you type

Add to the watershed

Every gift responds right away. It raises this month's flow the moment it lands, then keeps flowing to people month after month. It doesn't go out all at once, and it never sits forever.

added to this month's flow
reaches people in year one
within two years

Each bar is one month of grants from your gift, over five years.

What we're looking for