Dan Smith to Organise a Charity Drive For COVID-19 Outbreak

High stakes tournament star Dan Smith is throwing his weight behind a COVID-19 charity drive. The American currently sits fifth on the all-time winners list and is using his profile to help those who are suffering during the current lockdown.

Always Ready to Help

Charity organisation isn’t something new for Dan Smith. The 31-year-old American hooked up with his fellow poker stars as well as daily fantasy sports aficionados and raised millions of dollars for those less fortunate than ourselves.

The collaboration put together in 2018 became known as the Double Up Drive. This time around Donors such as  Stephen Chidwick, Dan “Jungleman” Cates, and an anonymous contributor have pledged $250,000.

“I decided to reach out to some people and it kind of got snowballing pretty quickly until now we have $250,000 ready to go to a bunch of families who are really in need in these dark times.”

The idea is they match up to $500 of any donations from the public, up to the value of $250,000.

Smith said:

“This COVID-19 pandemic is really unprecedented and horrific. There’s really nothing we can do other than sit and wait while everyone’s in crisis. I tend to be someone who really likes to be proactive about doing things. So, having to sit and wait is really not good for my mental health. I kind of felt like I was waking up without a purpose. There’s only so much of the Sopranos I could watch each day.”

Double Up Drive has partnered with GiveDirectly to organise the money. GiveDirectly is a charity organisation that specialises in getting the money directly to those who need it the most.

They have conducted many studies that show that hard cash helps those in need more than any variation of goods that have been donated. They have also perfected their organisation to the point where more than 90 cents of each dollar donated reaches the target.