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Universal Fund

watsi.org

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Re: Universal Fund

#21

Post by gracegarey »

coolnow wrote: post #20
gracegarey wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the kind words! Our operational funding comes from investors and philanthropists ( https://watsi.org/faq#how-does-watsi-fund-its-day-to-day-ope... ). You can see them all on our About page (just tab over from team to "Founding Donors"): https://watsi.org/about

Thank you for the quick response! Have you thought about teaming up with eBay or some other giant like that? I know they ask me to round up/add a £1 extra to give to charity. Although i think the monthly subscription is hassle free, you'd get much more pocket change like that, which would compound. I'm not sure how you'd get listed there though. Edit: i see the tip option while subscribing which is better than nothin…

Np!

People are generous with tips, which is awesome and helps a ton. At this stage, we're 100% focused on raising money for patients. But down the line we'll likely start optimizing more for tips as well, in hopes of becoming self sustaining (https://watsi.org/faq#how-do-tips-work).

Re: Universal Fund

#22

Post by kaahne »

Just signed up.

I was wondering how you select which patient will receive the donation each month ? Optimise impact ? Try and top up a maximum number of patient funds ?

Re: Universal Fund

#23

Post by gracegarey »

kaahne wrote: post #22

Just signed up. I was wondering how you select which patient will receive the donation each month ? Optimise impact ? Try and top up a maximum number of patient funds ?

Amazing! Thanks so much for signing up.

Your donation will go to a patient who's fundraising on our website but hasn't had their treatment fully funded yet (like these folks: https://watsi.org/fund-treatments).

Re: Universal Fund

#24

Post by TwoWheelWonder »

How is this different from the typical charity/NGO donation drives of "donate 39 cents a day" ad? I saw how introducing personal connections to individual medical treatments was different from the norm, however this now seems to reverse that by going right back to the old school, typical, individual international aid style of monthly monetary donations.

Re: Universal Fund

#25

Post by JshWright »

TwoWheelWonder wrote: post #24

How is this different from the typical charity/NGO donation drives of "donate 39 cents a day" ad? I saw how introducing personal connections to individual medical treatments was different from the norm, however this now seems to reverse that by going right back to the old school, typical, individual international aid style of monthly monetary donations.

They're not reversing anything... They're just providing a way for people who want to donate to Watsi, but don't care to spend the time to find a particular patient.

They aren't doing away with the old 'pick a patient' method, they're just adding another option.

Re: Universal Fund

#26

Post by eximius »

Bold move to put the number of members on the website while it's so low. It's professional looking, but the low member count immediately makes me wary. I would have waited until it was higher. :/

Re: Universal Fund

#29

Post by TwoWheelWonder »

JshWright wrote: post #25
TwoWheelWonder wrote: post #24

How is this different from the typical charity/NGO donation drives of "donate 39 cents a day" ad? I saw how introducing personal connections to individual medical treatments was different from the norm, however this now seems to reverse that by going right back to the old school, typical, individual international aid style of monthly monetary donations.

They're not reversing anything... They're just providing a way for people who want to donate to Watsi, but don't care to spend the time to find a particular patient. They aren't doing away with the old 'pick a patient' method, they're just adding another option.

To be more clear: I'm not saying that they are reversing their "pick a patient" method. I'm saying that I saw how the "pick a patient" powered by the web model was an evolution among international aid / charity models. The "big generic fund" model however clearly is not. I'm not saying it's not convenient, I'm saying I don't see how going back to a model that's been used for decades is useful when such a model is arguably ineffectual at building deeper cross-cultural relationships. Not to mention that neither of these models of international aid or public health build anything sustainable.

Re: Universal Fund

#30

Post by neodude »

TwoWheelWonder wrote: post #29
JshWright wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not reversing anything... They're just providing a way for people who want to donate to Watsi, but don't care to spend the time to find a particular patient. They aren't doing away with the old 'pick a patient' method, they're just adding another option.

To be more clear: I'm not saying that they are reversing their "pick a patient" method. I'm saying that I saw how the "pick a patient" powered by the web model was an evolution among international aid / charity models. The "big generic fund" model however clearly is not. I'm not saying it's not convenient, I'm saying I don't see how going back to a model that's been used for decades is useful when such a model is arg…

A quick clarification here: joining the Universal Fund doesn't mean that we charge your credit card an amount every month and you have no idea where or who your donation is going towards. Every month, we automatically pick a patient your donation goes towards, and you get an email with the patient's story, and an update email after the patient's medical procedure.
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