Artist and entrepreneur Tasha Wahl had a fledgling idea: She wanted to start a micro-philanthropy movement that combined Mahatma Gandhi’s popular concept, “Be the change you want to see in the world” with Edward Lorenz’s “Butterfly Effect” theory that even the softest flutter of a wing can affect the molecules around it, setting off a chain reaction that produces major change.

The result was The Butterfly Effect, founded in 2013 with the mission to promote contagious generosity through interactive art in communities all over the world.

The Butterfly Effect movement’s first giving activity, Butterfly Drops, began inspiring people to give in ways that were both unexpected and fun. In 2016, Tasha innovated this idea to produce Social Butterfly art installations in public spaces, which took inspiration to a whole new level, fanning waves of social media giving campaigns for a wide variety of causes.

Today, the Butterfly Effect, through its  thousands of Butterfly Drops and hundreds of Social Butterflies around the world, has raised nearly $300,000 for over 500 charitable organizations throughout the United States and globally, and has empowered countless individuals to make a difference.