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Dollar a Day

dollaraday.co

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Re: Dollar a Day

#61

Post by travisfischer »

guelo wrote: post #42
travisfischer wrote: post #21

I was hoping this would be implemented as: - I sign up to donate at least a dollar a day. - There is a growing list of non-profits supported. - I get emails with newly added ones. - For each non-profit I get to choose to either: a) add a full additional dollar a day for that organization or b) add the new organization to a list of organizations that split my daily existing donation amount. or c) skip it. I dislike th…

You could do what these volunteers did with their free time and build out your idea.

Great point.

I'm not at all trying to detract from what they have chosen to spend their time building. I'm simply giving my perspective which can be taken as feedback for the builders or alternatively just sideline commentary on the problem space they are addressing and is interesting to a number of us who care about using our money to impact the world.

There is a fine balance in communities like HN between giving honest feedback/having honest discussions about a topic vs. everyone just being a negative critic and armchair quarterbacking anything anyone builds. I think it's often best to sandwich real feedback in some positive encouragement to avoid the negative critic spiral. On the other hand, sometimes I think that's the same sugar coating as "no offense but..." in which case I skip it.

Re: Dollar a Day

#62

Post by lotharbot »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #58
jleader wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about whether they were joking or serious, but I think their point was that for any person, there are probably some charities they'd object to funding. I know people who won't donate to Habitat for Humanity (US charity that builds houses for poor people) because of their religious proselytizing. There are Catholic charities; there are charities that distribute birth control; there are even white supremac…

That's why they explicitly stated that they are excluding charities with religious and political affiliations. But there is only so much you can do to avoid controversies - there will always be someone who want to earn a quick buck on a scandal, or sometimes someone who just wants to watch you burn. Controvery is something people manufacture . At some point you have to stop caring.

There are issues that are inherently controversial.

For example (don't hate): if you believe human life begins and has value at conception, then abortion is in the same category as murder. If you believe it begins some time later, then any restriction on abortion is a violation of a woman's control over her own body and is in the same category as rape. Those positions are fundamentally at odds, and fundamentally do not lend themselves well to compromise. An organization with activities that touch on either side of that issue is going to be controversial, not because of religion or politics or making a quick buck, but because neither side is even remotely acceptable to the other side.

There are a handful of issues that are like that. There are a handful of issues where people are unwilling to compromise even a little bit. If you casually insert an organization that even remotely touches on that type of issue into a list of 30 organizations to support this month, with no ability to skip, you lose a certain category of sponsors.

Re: Dollar a Day

#63

Post by antaviana »

It seems a good idea that can also be applied to open source projects who ask for donations. You could donate just to support the concept of open source.

Re: Dollar a Day

#64

Post by icebraining »

IkmoIkmo wrote: post #54
exacube wrote: post #19

I hate the whole credit processing fee bit -- Why are 2+% of all donations going towards VISA? There should be a direct deposit through your bank card or something!

They actually use a payment processor and the full charge is 4%. It states they also disburse the donations, which may actually end up being a rather good deal. That is, collecting money via creditcard AND getting that money to a local NGO in Mali is not going to be cheap. But regardless, 4% does sound like a lot, especially if they disburse to e.g. US based organisations that work abroad. If the bitcoin ecosystem ma…

The 4% also shocked me, since even PayPal has much better fees. There's a couple of posts on GiveWell about that payment processor (Network for Good):

http://blog.givewell.org/2007/02/10/network-for-what-now/

http://blog.givewell.org/2007/02/17/quick-update/

Re: Dollar a Day

#65

Post by Duhveed »

Personally, I'd want an opt-out too...I don't mind a default of charitable, but for me to be on board, it'd be essential to be able to disable my contribution should I find the organization uncharitable.

More than that though, I think it'd be neat if this group hooked up with giv2giv.org and each day/dollar would create a new, well-funded endowment. And maybe give users a way to vote for their favorite reruns or something so there'd be a bit of a feedback loop.

Anyway, congrats to them for a basically good idea. I agree that there are some refinements that would make it a bit more palatable for me personally, but I dig it. I love innovation in this space.

Re: Dollar a Day

#66

Post by [deleted] »

lotharbot wrote: post #62
TeMPOraL wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why they explicitly stated that they are excluding charities with religious and political affiliations. But there is only so much you can do to avoid controversies - there will always be someone who want to earn a quick buck on a scandal, or sometimes someone who just wants to watch you burn. Controvery is something people manufacture . At some point you have to stop caring.

There are issues that are inherently controversial. For example (don't hate): if you believe human life begins and has value at conception, then abortion is in the same category as murder. If you believe it begins some time later, then any restriction on abortion is a violation of a woman's control over her own body and is in the same category as rape. Those positions are fundamentally at odds, and fundamentally do n…

[deleted]

Re: Dollar a Day

#67

Post by eru »

ddlatham wrote: post #23
jacalata wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since they're a nonprofit, they could simply offer the option to have that days dollar go to them instead.

That sets up a perverse incentive for their organization however.

Might not be a problem, if they are in it for the long run.

Re: Dollar a Day

#68

Post by briandear »

scotje wrote: post #46
bmmayer1 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to agree. If I don't know where my money is going, I simply can't countenance giving money to a nonprofit (or a company for that matter). I don't know what their selection process is. The one nonprofit they show on their site, Shelterbox, I've seen in action in the Philippines and I have a lot of issues with how they run their operation and the efficacy of their solution. I've actually looked into that model.…

Do you know if there a legal/tax impediment to getting the pass-through classified as a not-for-profit? Or did you just mean it makes it harder to implement as a traditional startup?

The pass-through would have to set up as a foundation that then issues grants to other non-profits. That isn't an easy process. I won't donate anything unless there's a tax advantage. The reason is that non-profits that are registered 501 3(c)'s have certain reporting requirements. If they aren't registered, there's little accountability.

Re: Dollar a Day

#69

Post by briandear »

tothetop wrote: post #31
travisfischer wrote: post #21

I was hoping this would be implemented as: - I sign up to donate at least a dollar a day. - There is a growing list of non-profits supported. - I get emails with newly added ones. - For each non-profit I get to choose to either: a) add a full additional dollar a day for that organization or b) add the new organization to a list of organizations that split my daily existing donation amount. or c) skip it. I dislike th…

This seems the way my brain wants to donate. I want to pick and choose instead of giving $1 every day to a random charity I have no idea how I feel about.

Exactly, not every charity is worthy. Some charity wasting my money on CO2 mitigation has a different value to me than a charity helping battered women escape abuse. ..as an example.

Re: Dollar a Day

#70

Post by zemaj »

It would be great if the daily email included the amount being sent to today's charity. It would be a nice feeling to see this number go up over time.
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