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Show HN - We just built a site that saves lives

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Re: Show HN - We just built a site that saves lives

#141

Post by dmix »

nowarninglabel wrote: post #126
nollidge wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could offer a subscription model, and then make it a monthly "game" of deciding where your money's going to go. Lots of people are willing to become sustaining members of charities. Or, I'm a member of a meta-charity called Foundation Beyond Belief, in which my contribution is distributed to various nonreligious charities based on priorities I set (e.g. 25% of funds to environmental causes, 50% human rights, 25%…

We (Kiva) are also adding monthly donation subscriptions as well, or at least I'm trying to this week for my innovation iteration project.

Is Kiva still growing? Haven't heard much about them recently.

Re: Show HN - We just built a site that saves lives

#142

Post by giblfiz »

alexanderh wrote: post #118

This is "Death panels" in a fancy suit. Bid on life saving medical treatment from a thumbnail? By someones looks? and a possibly fabricated story? So now we the internet get to decide who lives and dies? Who has a healthy fulfilling life and who lives with disease and disability? Idk about this idea. Its well intentioned, but oh so wrong all at the same time. This type of charity should be first come first serve to b…

Alexanderh, that's a really interesting criticism. I understand where your coming from with the concern that the photogenic will absorb more funding than they should (a morally questionable advantage). To a lesser extent I also see why the concept of having people choose, as if sitting in judgment, makes you uncomfortable.

I suspect however that you are thinking of the donation pool as a fixed one, rather than a flexible one. It seems likely that having a face, a name and a story will cause people to engage and ultimately donate more. Donor fatigue ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donor_fatigue ) is a very real thing, and specific interactions with specific recipients that have visible outcomes to the donor on a human scale do a lot to avoid it.

So the question really becomes: Is it ok to let the photogenic people be more likely to get treatment if it means more people get treatment overall? Is it ok to let folks sit in judgment if it means they will save more people as a result.

I think we all have to come to our own conclusions. I for one am blown away by what this site is doing. I'm willing to let the photogenic do better than normal if it means more personal engagement. I also think that we all make choices about who we help live and who we leave to suffer every day. Relegating those choices to chance doesn't seem to me to be any more moral than selecting on other criteria. In fact it's something you are already forced to do because their are several different charities out their to choose between.

Re: Show HN - We just built a site that saves lives

#143

Post by giblfiz »

dmix wrote: post #141
nowarninglabel wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We (Kiva) are also adding monthly donation subscriptions as well, or at least I'm trying to this week for my innovation iteration project.

Is Kiva still growing? Haven't heard much about them recently.

Yep, still growing. In fact they have a pretty cool "free trial" program running right now, where you can assign the funds of a single large lender. (It's a little bit like matching, but you don't even need to put up anything to be matched)

Check it out: http://www.kiva.org/invitedby/giblfiz

Re: Show HN - We just built a site that saves lives

#144

Post by rkwz »

chaseadam17 wrote: post #134
alexanderh wrote: post #118

This is "Death panels" in a fancy suit. Bid on life saving medical treatment from a thumbnail? By someones looks? and a possibly fabricated story? So now we the internet get to decide who lives and dies? Who has a healthy fulfilling life and who lives with disease and disability? Idk about this idea. Its well intentioned, but oh so wrong all at the same time. This type of charity should be first come first serve to b…

We are bummed out that the site makes you feel this way, but we genuinely appreciate you voicing your opinion. We're here to listen to the public, and if people disagree with what we are doing, we will shut down immediately. That said, I'd like to point out a few things. 1) This is not a bidding war. We won't remove a profile until it is fully funded. This is why we only post a few profiles at a time (and not hundred…

Alexanderh's main concern is he doesn't want to choose who gets treatment:

>This type of charity should be first come first serve to be fair. Not some bidding war over who's the most sickly (but still cute) looking child, or who has the most compelling story. A human is a human. The good intentions are there, but something about the way this website presents itself is twisted. Why should any of these people receive preferential funding over any other of them? Why should I get to choose? I'm not an expert on their medical conditions, or who needs more help than others. If this gets people to give money to a good cause, thats fine. But Idk. Still seems odd.

Can't you also provide a way to pay to a common pool? People who are uncomfortable with choosing can contribute to this pool. You can take money from that pool and forward that to patients who urgently want money for treatment? And people who contributed can see where their money got used (if they want).

Re: Show HN - We just built a site that saves lives

#145

Post by rkwz »

__alexs wrote: post #85

> 100% of your donation directly funds treatment! ITYM 98.6% - 96.6% - £0.20 GBP of your donation directly funds treatment! Or is there some awesome charitable PayPal fee structure that you are using?

I think PayPal does take a cut. Look at their transparency doc: https://docs.google.com/a/cordys.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Ah...

Re: Show HN - We just built a site that saves lives

#146

Post by thuffy »

Does it bother you that you are subsidizing defective genetics and thus making humanity less fit and thus increasing the average level of suffering? You might think you are being nice by decreasing the suffering of an individual, but you are also dooming consciousness to suffer being born into a defective host that otherwise would not have happened if not for your subsidization of defective genetics.

I am curious as to what the higher than average enlightened readership of HN thinks on this?

Of course it is very taboo to say what I did as the medical industrial complex is on the side of causing this problem as they are then guaranteed not just one more customer, but a new lineage of customers.

Re: Show HN - We just built a site that saves lives

#147

Post by tatianajosephy »

dinkumthinkum wrote: post #90
brittohalloran wrote: post #12

The one thing you need to focus on above all else is transparency and preventing scams. Video of the actual person who needs the treatment would go a long way, as would video updates along the way. I'm thinking an Android app that the locals could use to document the process. If you solve that properly, this will really take off and do a lot of good. Also, you're going to eventually need to take a very small cut of t…

I don't think we need video of the process. If the people want to do it fine, but making them put on a show of themselves I think is a bit much. As a person, not only are you sick and need help from others but you need to be a documentary just to prove to people you aren't a scam, little much -- it's one thing to have a photo and story so it makes it real but as long as there is some trusted third party verification,…

The advantage of sharing the individuals' stories is not only for preventing scammers. Connecting with recipients would be hugely motivating for your donor base. DonorsChoose.org is an excellent example of an online charity that built a scalable feedback loop into its donation process (I ran marketing there for a few years). At DonorsChoose.org, donors fund teachers' projects, and then teachers submit pictures online of the project taking place in the classroom. It brings donors back over and over again.

Re: Show HN - We just built a site that saves lives

#148

Post by chaseadam17 »

rkwz wrote: post #144
chaseadam17 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are bummed out that the site makes you feel this way, but we genuinely appreciate you voicing your opinion. We're here to listen to the public, and if people disagree with what we are doing, we will shut down immediately. That said, I'd like to point out a few things. 1) This is not a bidding war. We won't remove a profile until it is fully funded. This is why we only post a few profiles at a time (and not hundred…

Alexanderh's main concern is he doesn't want to choose who gets treatment: >This type of charity should be first come first serve to be fair. Not some bidding war over who's the most sickly (but still cute) looking child, or who has the most compelling story. A human is a human. The good intentions are there, but something about the way this website presents itself is twisted. Why should any of these people receive p…

Definitely! That's a great suggestion rkwz. There is a new crowdfunding site called Wishbone that actually has a "profile" that serves as a general fund. Would something like that be a good solution? http://wishbone.org/students

Re: Show HN - We just built a site that saves lives

#149

Post by chaseadam17 »

needcaffeine wrote: post #111

This is brilliant! What a great cause. I have a few questions for you on the technical side: - What did you code this in? - How many developers did you have? - How long did it take you? - What kinds of problems did you encounter on the way? Congrats on the launch.

Thanks for the kind words.

- Ruby/Rails/HTML5 - 1 dev + some freelance assistance on the front-end - Took a while since we are all working part-time as volunteers. About a year total. Probably a few months of solid dev time. Setting up operations took a lot of time. - Hardest part is working as volunteers. Everything takes 5x longer when people aren't being paid.

Thank you!

Re: Show HN - We just built a site that saves lives

#150

Post by chaseadam17 »

TomGullen wrote: post #101

Absolutely amazing, love the idea, love the way you implemented it. I'll definitely be signing up and making some donations. My main concern though is as this scales (which I'm sure it will because it's awesome) you will run into the scammers.

Scale will be tough, but our goal is to partner with a few large organizations (Doctors Without Borders for example) that can provide a lot of patients. That will help alleviate a lot of risk as opposed to working with 1,000 smaller clinics.
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