How's this for an investment. . . I'm pledging to donate $1 to the Families of the Wounded Fund Inc. for EACH person who clicks on this link and votes for my ChangeThis.com proposal, "Time To Get Naked" (up to $1,000 total).

What's ChangeThis.com? It's a website created by best-selling author Seth Godin, who had a desire to spread ideas designed to make the world a better place. Godin's idea was to create a website where people could submit proposals to write e-books sharing those great ideas. Each month a new batch of proposals would be listed on ChangeThis.com, and voters would "cast their online ballot" for the ones they liked best. Those highest vote-getting proposals would be turned into professionally crafted e-book manifestos for wide distribution through social media.

Since the creation of ChangeThis.com in 2004, many manifestos have been written that resulted in best-selling books. People like Tom Peters, Chris Anderson, David Meerman Scott, and Guy Kawaski have all written manifestos as a result of Godin's website. And this month, my proposal, Time To Get Naked, is being considered along with 19 other proposals. In a nutshell, my proposed manifesto argues that each year investors spend hundreds of millions of dollars in mutual fund fees for investments that perform below the market averages. There's no reason to continue to pay for subpar performance. By using rules-based methodologies, a.k.a. "naked strategies," investors can systematically improve their results and reduce their costs.

So how do we get $20,000 for charity? I'm challenging the other 19 people who submitted a proposal to pick a charity and donate $1 for every vote they get just like I am. If everyone does this, we will raise $20,000 for some wonderfully worthy charities and also spread some great ideas through e-book manifestos and social media.

My chosen charity, Families of the Wounded Fund, Inc. (FOTWF), was created to help the men and women who sustain the most serious injuries while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of these returning soldiers are treated at McGuire Veterans Hospital in Richmond, Virginia, where I live. They come from all over the country and very much need their families to be with them during their long and difficult road to recovery. While the federal government provides for their medical expenses, many of the costs of traveling from their homes to be with their injured family members are paid for by the families themselves. And many times, this places a severe financial hardship on them. FOTWF provides funds directly to those that need it most. Village Bank absorbs most of the administrative costs of running the fund so almost 100% of the money donated to FOTWF goes directly to help the families.

To vote for my proposal, go here and click "Yes, please write this manifesto" in favor of "Time to Get Naked." Also, please share the link to this blog post on your Facebook page or profile and/or send an email with this link to your friends who have had the privilege to serve our nation in the United States military.

To get updates on this project and the "Time To Get Naked" manifesto, you can subscribe to my blog by entering your email in the window at the top right.