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Thank HN: You helped save 33k lives

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Thank HN: You helped save 33k lives

#71

Post by kalvin »

chris_wot wrote: post #65

I'd be impressed if you would process my donation. Your platform says it can't right now.

We can't see any failed donations around this time, and we've had many successful ones, so we'd love to get more info from you to debug if you're willing. My email is in my profile. Thanks so much for the help!

Re: Thank HN: You helped save 33k lives

#73

Post by aaur0 »

chaseadam17 wrote: post #48
js2 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have been a Universal Fund member since 2014. I couldn't remember when I joined, but it turns out 2014 too. From that date and dang's comment below, I found the HN submission that motivated me to join: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7550005

That’s a very long time - thank you both!

@chaseadam17 -

This is where I learned about Watsi - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlT3UhC7NwQ

I attended it in person. Very inspiring!

Re: Thank HN: You helped save 33k lives

#75

Post by notpushkin »

Ohh, thanks for the reminder! I’ve been a Universal Fund member briefly, but I’ve lost my job soon after, and have had it paused since then. I do have some stable income again now – will resume my subscription later this month. :)

One thing I didn’t like back then (IIRC) was the fact that you couldn’t opt out of receiving the patient stories with your monthly receipts. While genuinely heartwarming, I’d prefer to check these out when I’m in the mood. Any idea if there’s such an option now?

Re: Thank HN: You helped save 33k lives

#77

Post by siquick »

This is truly great - just joined the universal fund.

I tried to signup from the nav bar but kept getting a 500 error from the sign_up.json endpoint. I had to go through the Donate flow to be able to create an account.

Re: Thank HN: You helped save 33k lives

#78

Post by BobaFloutist »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #33
kalvin wrote: post #21

Thank YOU Chase :) (I work at Watsi) If you'd like to see an example of what Watsi's about, check out Philip's profile: https://watsi.org/profile/2286cb03a5bd-philip Also, fun fact: 619 of our current "Universal Fund" monthly donors first made a donation 10 or more years ago, and I'm pretty sure many of those were/are Hacker News readers. If you're interested, see https://watsi.org/universal-fund

I've long played around with the thought of what would happen if someone started something like the universal-fund you mentioned, but had it snowball like a sovereign fund? (ie, instead of spending the in flow, invest it and only spend the profits from the investments, for example) ... Particularly for basic needs like housing,food,clothes... Like what if instead of giving a charity $100 we created 41c per month? of…

That's called a foundation, they exist.

Re: Thank HN: You helped save 33k lives

#79

Post by MASNeo »

That’s such an amazing story. I ca relate to much of the emotional, time and financial commitment of a non-profit and keeping at it like you have is absolutely commendable. Seeing you succeed is an inspiration to continue doing the right thing for me and for many others!

Re: Thank HN: You helped save 33k lives

#80

Post by rlonn »

teekert wrote: post #9
nyddle wrote: post #8

That's incredible. Why even compare your startup to for-profits, while you actually make world a better place?

Why would for profits not make the world a better place? For-profit does not mean “shareholders and ROI over user” or something. You can do for-profit and not enshtfy and make the world better. That’s my goal at least.

The comment is a bit misguided: the operations Watsi helps perform would not have been possible without for-profit companies and for-profit innovators building the infrastructure of modern medicine. It's not one or the other: both for-profits and non-profits make the world a better place and I think they complement eachother. Sure, there are for-profits that do NOT make the world a better place, just like there are non-profits that fail in their mission to do good things. They just typically fail to do good things for different reasons.
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