BELLINGHAM - It's the only charity of its kind, organizers say.

No donor can give more than any other, and practically everyone can afford to help, said Galen Emanuele, executive director of Pass the Hat, an online charity that went live Feb. 10.

Those who click to contribute on pass-the-hat.org pay $2 a month to help people in Whatcom County who have experienced a tragedy, such as a fire or a car crash, that creates a significant financial burden.

The novelty of the fundraising strategy is that the organization won't accept any more than $2 a month from a donor. This is part of Emanuele's dual mission: to help victims of tragedy, and to help everyone become philanthropists.

"Nobody pulls more weight than anybody else. That's empowering," he said.

"No one will miss or feel the sting of two bucks a month."

Emanuele, an actor, instructor, and sales and marketing director at the Upfront Theatre, partnered with other charities, and government officials to help people in need who can't rely on the social support system.

Consider one recent example of the community scrambling to create a financial safety net: The four members of the MacGregor family were injured in a Jan. 1 fire in their Happy Valley home. Two remain hospitalized. Fundraising is approaching $50,000, but a family spokeswoman said that amount won't compare to their hospital bills.

One thing that prompted Emanuele to start Pass the Hat was his own family's tragedy.

Emanuele's brother Keegan died in a crash on Interstate 5 in 1998. Galen Emanuele, then 18, was injured in the same crash.

It's the kind of circumstance that heaps stress upon grief.

"To experience that, to go through that loss and what it feels like ... and at the same time to be stuck with all those hospital bills," Emanuele said. "That sort of inspired this idea of wanting to help people."

A committee will select the families who will receive help. Their first meeting is March 7, and Emanuele said the committee will name a family afterward, "as long as we have enough to make a significant impact somewhere."

As of Wednesday, Feb. 22, Pass the Hat had almost 450 contributors, Emanuele said.

Pass the Hat will not accept applications from those in need. Marinda Peugh, financial development director of the Mt. Baker chapter of the American Red Cross and appropriations committee member, said families will come from among the clients of her agency or other participating groups.

Donations go into an account at Whidbey Island Bank, which waived most of its fees for the nonprofit, Emanuele said. The money will go not to family members but directly to hospitals, funeral homes and other services.

For now, Pass the Hat has virtually no overhead. There is no office, and money is taken only via the Internet from a debit or credit card. Emanuele said he and operations manger Jacob Petz will not take a salary until the charity's contributor base is more established.

That base will need to be built $2 at a time.

"If someone wanted to write us a check for $5,000, we wouldn't take it," Emanuele said.

The program director of the National Center for Charitable Statistics, based in Washington, D.C., said Pass the Hat did sound unique.

"I'm not aware of anyone limiting donations to $2 a month," Program Director Thomas Pollak said.

Then again, it's difficult to prove a negative. Pollak said there was a "proliferation of new fundraising strategies these days, so I wouldn't assume that others aren't doing something similar."

Charities are similar to for-profit businesses in that the number launched far exceeds the number of those that succeed, Pollak said.

"Mobilizing community members for the public good may fail much if not most of the time," he said, "but that doesn't mean that it can't succeed with the right mix of commitment, integrity, vision, energy and smarts."

A canvas of the community suggested Pass the Hat might have the right mix.

"I'm wishing him all the success, and I'm happy to serve him in any capacity," Bellingham Mayor Kelli Linville said of Emanuele. Linville serves on Pass the Hat's board of directors.

"It's a community-building activity that can include everyone," she said. "It gets neighbors talking to neighbors, and I just think it's a wonderful idea."