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Meet Watsi, Y Combinator's First Nonprofit

ycombinator.com

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Re: Meet Watsi, Y Combinator's First Nonprofit

#131

Post by 1123581321 »

girvo wrote: post #124
cperciva wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who cares about the Watsi founders? Go help the girl! I think the point is not that people particularly care about the Watsi founders; but rather, that they care about the hundreds of thousands of other girls whom Watsi won't be able to help if Watsi and/or its founders go bankrupt because they lack a sustainable funding model.

I don't understand the logic there; at least in terms of stopping someone from getting involved: the girls you can help now should be just as, if not more important than the future. Note, that comes across as snarky via text, but it's not meant to be. I'm just explaining my way of thinking about it. :)

The logic is that it takes time and money to get to where people can be helped. While it is true that Watsi can help people now regardless of whether they will be able to in a year, it's much more effective for Watsi to continue to exist because otherwise another organization will have to pay the startup time and money cost again.

Also, it is entirely possible to donate and also have this discussion, so you may very well be talking to people who both help present needs and express concern for potential unmet future needs.

Re: Meet Watsi, Y Combinator's First Nonprofit

#134

Post by chaseadam17 »

kanamekun wrote: post #128

Congrats on a great site, and the exciting news around joining YC! One quick question: > If a surgery isn't funding in time to save a patient's life, would you fund the remaining amount of the loan out of your own funds?

Yes, we guarantee funding for all patients on our site by leaving profiles posted until they are fully funded. Also, we give our partners permission to pre-treat a patient in the event they need immediate care, so long as we've already accepted the profile. We then reimburse the partner for the cost of treatment once the profile is fully funded. In the event we have more profiles than we can fund (never been the case so far) we will accept and post the lowest-cost, highest-impact profiles first. However, we can do a pretty good job of avoiding this situation by growing our partners (and thus our volume of potential patients) at a rate that corresponds with the speed at which donor demand is increasing.

Re: Meet Watsi, Y Combinator's First Nonprofit

#135

Post by chaseadam17 »

ryanmolden wrote: post #100

Congrats, this is awesome news! I contributed to a couple of patients when I first saw you announce this on HN because I like the 'direct to patient, 100% utilization' nature of it. This is a reminder for me to go back. I see from your website you are a 501(c)(3) charity. I will submit your organization for approval for the matching program at my employer, which I like because it allows me to 'stick it to the man' by…

Awesome! Thank you. Please let us know if we can provide any info for the matching request: chase@watsi.org.

Re: Meet Watsi, Y Combinator's First Nonprofit

#136

Post by nowarninglabel »

andrewem wrote: post #103
nowarninglabel wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You also have to take into account the amount of time it would take for PIH to deal with direct contributions. It's a non-trivial problem for these organizations to focus on that aspect when their core competency is to focus on the medical work they do. We've seen this a lot at Kiva where our partners are able to do things they could not have done otherwise because we are providing a source of funds that they don't h…

Speaking of Kiva, is Watsi going to need volunteer translators? Kiva has a great program where people volunteer to translate loan applications into English, and excellent infrastructure to support it. (My wife has been a Kiva translator for a long time, and might be interested in translating for Watsi, since she specializes in Spanish to English medical documents.)

Oh what a coincide! I work on the software, Viva, that the volunteer translators use at Kiva :)

Re: Meet Watsi, Y Combinator's First Nonprofit

#137

Post by corin_ »

jk4930 wrote: post #108
corin_ wrote: post #47

I'm personally not a fan of the concept of donating to help a specific person, rather than a cause, but am unsure whether I'm a rare exception or whether many people have the same view as me - hopefully a few replies could help answer this? When I say not a fan of the concept, I absolutely don't mean I disapprove. I don't have any problem with organisations raising money this way, nor with people choosing to donate m…

You don't really have to make a decision. Those you don't donate to receive donations from other people. Nothing to worry about I guess.

If you use the logic that it doesn't matter because other people will donate, that leaves me clear of ever donating to charity, safe in the knowledge that other people have got it covered. What a relief!

Re: Meet Watsi, Y Combinator's First Nonprofit

#138

Post by rdl »

Please figure out a way to take equity eventually (there are organizations which help non profits do this).

I, and a lot of other startup founders, have limited income to donate, but potentially have equity which could be worth a lot of money someday. It is a lot easier to donate equity than current income.

It adds overhead and complicates your "transactional" model, but it might be a good way to fund your overhead, or to fund longer term projects, and could eventually be a recurring income stream to pay for some number of treatments.

Re: Meet Watsi, Y Combinator's First Nonprofit

#139

Post by loceng »

tptacek wrote: post #51
loceng wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"guaranteed medical care" - of what quality, with what results? And the value of medical care being covered is that it doesn't destroy the rest of your life. It's actually kind of pointless to help someone just get to the point of surviving, and then leave them to fend for themself.

I just don't know how to respond to the idea that there's minimal value in removing infected bone fragments from a child's femur, and so I'm not going to pretend that there's a useful discussion you and I can have about this.

Not the situation I was insinuating. That child will not be left on their own, presumably they have a family who will care for them and help them get past it. In a situation where the person is just left to basic care, and has no other future care options is what I was referring to. I should have been more clear.

Re: Meet Watsi, Y Combinator's First Nonprofit

#140

Post by loceng »

philwelch wrote: post #126
tinco wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone is saying giving to local people is nationalist and bigotry, I am merely refuting that.

There are some ways that I preferentially give to local people because it's easier. I've helped more street beggars in my neighborhood than in Port au Prince because I don't walk down the streets of Port au Prince. But when it comes to paying for perfect strangers to receive medical treatment, and I'm choosing between someone in the US, whose medical treatment costs more, and who will receive the medical treatment an…

The question is does giving your money directly to a street person help them more than giving it to a shelter so there are more places for people to sleep at night, and healthy food for them - or is it just faster and stronger gratification / reward for you? Not saying this as a put-down.
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