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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

#151

Post by chaseadam17 »

eranation wrote: post #123

I'm so glad this was funded, I remember when it was initially posted, and the simple, brave solution, and I salute to YC for funding and mentoring this. One small thing, although I just donated 50$ for two people, I found myself to be a bit uncomfortable with my actions, I didn't really pay attention much to who I'm donating to, just clicked on the first picture that caught my eye without thinking, and donated 25$. T…

Thanks for the feedback and the donations. We're hoping to implement all of the features you mentioned.

We're in the process of switching to Stripe, building a general fund that will auto-allocate donations to patients, and enabling recurring donations (with the option to personally allocate your credit to a patient, or have your credit auto-allocated). All in that order.

We're usually pretty hesitant to add new features to Watsi for fear of complicating things (we're big fans of simplicity). However, you hit the nail on the head with your suggestions, and all of them will be included in the coming iterations. Thanks again.

Re: Meet Watsi, Y Combinator's First Nonprofit

#152

Post by chaseadam17 »

rdl wrote: post #138

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,…

Yes! Great idea. We'll get on this.

Re: Meet Watsi, Y Combinator's First Nonprofit

#153

Post by chamboo »

This is how all charities should be done. I will be supporting this charity, and I furthermore think it should be illegal to run a charity in any other manner than pure transparency. My hat is off to Watsi, and I feel this is a bigger deal than most people may realize. These are the types of startups we need to change the world. Not only do they do something good and useful for people, they also show the rest of the charities that operating with transparency is the only way to go. Thanks guys, this made my day.

Re: Meet Watsi, Y Combinator's First Nonprofit

#154

Post by lilsunnybee »

eranation wrote: post #123

I'm so glad this was funded, I remember when it was initially posted, and the simple, brave solution, and I salute to YC for funding and mentoring this. One small thing, although I just donated 50$ for two people, I found myself to be a bit uncomfortable with my actions, I didn't really pay attention much to who I'm donating to, just clicked on the first picture that caught my eye without thinking, and donated 25$. T…

It's part of human psychology that you'd do that. You shouldn't feel too bad. Hopefully Watsi can figure out how to work with that best and just more heavily promote anyone that doesn't have the cutest picture, or limit the total amount of possible recipients they show to get the most severe cases handled first.

Re: Meet Watsi, Y Combinator's First Nonprofit

#155

Post by kanamekun »

chaseadam17 wrote: post #134
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…

If your doctors do "pre-treat" patients, please be very careful! If patients are regularly pre-treated, then the 1:1 connection between donor and patient could be seen as less pure (if the surgery already happened, it isn't 100% clear that the users' donations funded that specific surgery - as opposed to just being a general donation to a Medical Partner's operating budget).

A similar criticism was made of Kiva, as covered by the NYT here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/business/global/09kiva.htm...

It's really important to disclose the date of any surgeries. And if a surgery has been performed prior to the profile being fully funded (or even prior to posting), the date of the surgery should be displayed and the profile should be labeled as pre-treated.

Just want to make sure you guys avoid some of the growing pains of Kiva! (I used to run Marketing over there for a bunch of 2010/2011.) Good luck!

Re: Meet Watsi, Y Combinator's First Nonprofit

#156

Post by andrewem »

nowarninglabel wrote: post #136
andrewem wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 :)

Nice! Have you considered open sourcing Viva? I bet it would be useful to other nonprofits.

Re: Meet Watsi, Y Combinator's First Nonprofit

#159

Post by nlew »

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. :)

It's not about whether or not to use Watsi now, but a concern on behalf of Watsi. I'm not going to refrain from donating today because Watsi might go away tomorrow, but I'm certainly concerned about if and how it will still be here tomorrow.

Re: Meet Watsi, Y Combinator's First Nonprofit

#160

Post by philwelch »

tinco wrote: post #142
philwelch wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Well you can downvote me all you like, but it's just not bigotry. Merriam-Webster defines bigotry as the state of mind of "one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance". This is just not the case, so first of all you are wrong. And second of all, that you think one should spend his charity with maximum (perceived) efficiency is just _your_ ethical view. I…

What's hateful is criticizing Watsi for not letting you donate money to people who don't need the money as badly on the basis that you'd rather help people in your own country.
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