Happy to have donated! Amazing work.
Thank HN: You helped save 33k lives
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Re: Thank HN: You helped save 33k lives
#82You, Thomas, Watsi, and crew have been an inspiration for a long time. I loved getting to know you all back in the day, and I've loved being a small donor since the early days. Deep respect for what you built.
Re: Thank HN: You helped save 33k lives
#83Wow this is special. I hope as AI scales, we can channel some of that growth into philantropy and non-profit (startups).
Re: Thank HN: You helped save 33k lives
#84I have been a Universal Fund member since 2014. Watsi has this Impact page where you can see every person you've helped — their photo, their story, the country. I visit it more often than I'd like to admit. I have been building a startup since the last couple of years and as we all know it is relentless. There are weeks where nothing seems to work, where you question every decision. In those moments, pulling up that…
Another 2014 batch member here. Hard to believe it is over 10 years I've been contributing to Watsi.
Re: Thank HN: You helped save 33k lives
#85Thank 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…
What you need to consider is that you also get compounding returns by treating a patient. They can now be more productive and contribute to their local economy. They might plausibly have a higher return rate (in wellbeing terms) than your alternative investment into stocks.
Re: Thank HN: You helped save 33k lives
#86> Watsi donors have donated over $20M to fund 33,241 surgeries
I don't get this. Why wouldn't your normal healthcare cover the surgery?
Re: Thank HN: You helped save 33k lives
#87That'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.
Value makes the world a better place, not profits per-se. Sometimes the two things coincide, sometimes they don't.
Re: Thank HN: You helped save 33k lives
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m a fan of DAFs and agree they are underutilized. Getting ppl to donate stock might be hard but I’ll chat with Mackinnon, Watsi’s ED, about it and let you know if we have any questions. Appreciate the offer to help share research!
Totally! What you’ll hear from DAF folks is “we have to sell everything we get in when we get it” -> not true, managed by disclosures “Our job is managing volatility of the donated assets, so getting volatile assets would be bad for the fund, or possibly not allowed” -> not true, managed by disclosures “DAFs are disliked because of asset stuffing, and on the down” -> true as to the first part. On and off legislative…
I wonder if some sort of partnership with https://forgeglobal.com/ could potentially help for syndicating to secondary buyers?
Re: Thank HN: You helped save 33k lives
#89Great to hear!
As someone that has been in the volunteer/NPO space for decades, it’s nice to hear stories like this, in this land of money-making. I confess that it can be difficult, when dealing with folks unable to even understand there are priorities other than money.
There’s certainly a need for your service, these days.
Re: Thank HN: You helped save 33k lives
#90First time seeing this. Really moving story.
I just set up a monthly donation and had one thought: the way to donate monthly feels a bit too hidden right now (did a ctrl+f search to find the footer link).
Much love to all of you!