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Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999

redcross.org

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Re: Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999

#31

Post by gry »

dariusmonsef wrote: post #15

BEFORE you RT that RedCross donation message or donate any cash yourselves... please consider. Red Cross is a giant beast of a company. It is $600,000,000 in debt. It has ridiculous overhead. As fellow hackers... We're all trying to build startups/ideas because we think big companies are missing something... that we have a better way to do things... that we can build a better product. If you want to help Haiti. Give…

I admit I'm naive. I don't know how efficient the Red Cross is, nor other operational issues.

They are, however, there. I gave to the Red Cross not just for Haiti, but for something else that will happen. It saddens me I donated because of Haiti, not just for Haiti.

I wish I knew more about operations such as yours. I wish I knew more about the organizations saving lives right now in Haiti. I wish I knew more about organizations and people who take on the lasting sadness after the horror.

I just don't know.

Thank you for giving me another organization I believe will be there.

Re: Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999

#33

Post by nicpottier »

nreece wrote: post #10
patio11 wrote: post #3

Unless they're getting a deal on their payment processing for being a charity, I'd suggest taking the extra minute to go to their website. Credit card payments will cost them less than fifty cents of that $10. Cell phone providers charge much more. Also, while charities love to use current events to drive fundraising appeals, their current disaster is almost universally paid for by funds they collected months ago. If…

Cell phone providers charge much more. 100% of your $10 donation passes thru to RedCross for Haiti relief. Your cell carrier keeps nothing. http://twitter.com/RedCross/status/7720590281

Right.. for those curious why this makes sense for carriers. Just think how much carriers charge for txting. Anything that gets people using SMS is a win in their book.

Re: Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999

#34

Post by dariusmonsef »

djcapelis wrote: post #22
dariusmonsef wrote: post #15

BEFORE you RT that RedCross donation message or donate any cash yourselves... please consider. Red Cross is a giant beast of a company. It is $600,000,000 in debt. It has ridiculous overhead. As fellow hackers... We're all trying to build startups/ideas because we think big companies are missing something... that we have a better way to do things... that we can build a better product. If you want to help Haiti. Give…

I agree with some of your criticisms of the Red Cross, however given that rapid response is necessary and this is time sensitive, can you actually use the money to deploy and ramp up in a short enough time to make the donation meaningful to the current crisis? I support your aims, but the ability to move quickly is essential and it's unclear whether your organization is likely to bring support faster or slower. Could…

Yes. We are the size we are precisely so we can move quickly. There are lots of other organizations that are already on the ground. Organizations we've already worked with. We'll have people on the ground in the next few days. We're also a share the love kind of organization. We find the best way to do the most good... sometimes that means giving our money to other organizations... sometimes we lend our volunteers to other organizations.

Re: Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999

#35

Post by dariusmonsef »

teej wrote: post #28
dariusmonsef wrote: post #15

BEFORE you RT that RedCross donation message or donate any cash yourselves... please consider. Red Cross is a giant beast of a company. It is $600,000,000 in debt. It has ridiculous overhead. As fellow hackers... We're all trying to build startups/ideas because we think big companies are missing something... that we have a better way to do things... that we can build a better product. If you want to help Haiti. Give…

The fact that donations get processed on a different domain than hodr.org is a huge red flag for me. I already donated to UNICEF, but if I hadn't, I would have really thought twice before giving to HODR online.

Thanks for that feedback. I understand where you're coming from, but that's the company that processes our donations. You can check us out on the BBB site or on services like http://bit.ly/GuideStar_HODR (When we have extra $ we'll invest in our own SSL cert and payment processing. For now we'll let trusted services like Convio.com handle our donations.)

Re: Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999

#36

Post by [deleted] »

portman wrote: post #21
dariusmonsef wrote: post #15

BEFORE you RT that RedCross donation message or donate any cash yourselves... please consider. Red Cross is a giant beast of a company. It is $600,000,000 in debt. It has ridiculous overhead. As fellow hackers... We're all trying to build startups/ideas because we think big companies are missing something... that we have a better way to do things... that we can build a better product. If you want to help Haiti. Give…

I sympathize with your frustration with the American Red Cross, but please pay attention when posting financial information. The statement "It is $600,000,000 in debt" is incorrect. The American Red Cross has $613MM in debt. But it also has $3.5BB in assets. In addition to the aforementioned debt, there are $1.2BB in additional liabilities, for total net assets of: $1,672,466,000 Source: KPMG consolidated financial s…

[deleted]

Re: Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999

#37

Post by frossie »

dariusmonsef wrote: post #15

BEFORE you RT that RedCross donation message or donate any cash yourselves... please consider. Red Cross is a giant beast of a company. It is $600,000,000 in debt. It has ridiculous overhead. As fellow hackers... We're all trying to build startups/ideas because we think big companies are missing something... that we have a better way to do things... that we can build a better product. If you want to help Haiti. Give…

You can text DOB to 90999 and $5 goes to Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders). Surely we can all agree they're okay.

Re: Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999

#38

Post by koevet »

dariusmonsef wrote: post #15

BEFORE you RT that RedCross donation message or donate any cash yourselves... please consider. Red Cross is a giant beast of a company. It is $600,000,000 in debt. It has ridiculous overhead. As fellow hackers... We're all trying to build startups/ideas because we think big companies are missing something... that we have a better way to do things... that we can build a better product. If you want to help Haiti. Give…

Google does not mention Red Cross at all on their Haiti relief page. http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake/
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