This isn’t the way most recent college graduates go about tracking down success, but Katie Rutherford, a 24-year-old Portlander, by way of New York, Utah, South Africa and Vermont doesn’t mind the sacrifice. In fact, if waitressing at her sister’s Falmouth restaurant is what it takes to eventually make a difference in the fight against poverty, doing a little less shopping is just fine by her.

Six months ago, Rutherford founded and incorporated a non-profit organization, Dollars for Change, in hopes of stamping out poverty. She studied anthropology in school, served an internship with TD Banknorth and was hired for a lucrative position she enjoyed. But she gave it up to travel to South Africa for a month, where she taught preschool children who spoke only Afrikaans.

While there, news channels reported that the population of the U.S. had reached 300 million. Knowing the levels of poverty suffered in the township where she was volunteering, she decided to try an experiment with that 300 million.

Through her websites (www.dollarsforchange.org & www.myspace.com/dollarsforchange), Rutherford is asking Americans to donate $1 to her cause. She’ll then invest the money in sustainable development projects around the world. After just six months, she is about to surpass the $6,000 figure and will soon be planning another visit to Kurland Township to change lives.

“People are quick to say American can’t solve everyone’s problems,” says Rutherford, who is currently applying for tax-exempt status with the IRS, “but proportionally we’re probably doing the least. Philanthropy has grown, and that’s great, but it’s still not enough.”

On her websites, Rutherford makes her points through statistics: For example, she lists the price of a round-trip plane ticket from DC to Chicago at $98, the same amount needed to provide a child in Kurland, South Africa with a school uniform, books and a backpack to last a full year. The amount the average American spends on coffee in seven months is $140. That would buy HIV/AIDS drugs for a person in India for an entire year.

“If anything’s going to change,” she says, “it has to be everyone working together.”

To promote her cause, Rutherford has sent out mass emails, enlisted friends and begun speaking to school classes. She also hopes to put on fundraisers and get businesses and other corporate groups involved.

“I’ve put a lot of money into it already but it doesn’t bother me as long as I can still eat myself,” she says.

Currently, Rutherford is immersed in paperwork but pleased that she was able to complete the 501(c)(3) by herself. A lawyer is helping her plan for the future and cover any of the organization’s costs, though she had hoped to use 100% of the donations for her good works. As soon as she’s tax-exempt, Rutherford plans to apply for grants. Should Dollars really take off, Rutherford is prepared to devote herself to it full-time.

“I’m not going on any vacations, but I’m going to Africa,” Rutherford says. “The things I’ve seen, I just think, my friends are never going to see this.”