Universal Fund

#1

Post by koopajah » Wed, Nov 05, 2014, 7:02 PM UTC

Re: Universal Fund

#2

Post by gracegarey » Wed, Nov 05, 2014, 8:44 PM UTC

Thanks for sharing! Want to make sure we mention that thanks to the founders of Teespring, donations are matched for the first 1,000 people to sign up. Let us know if you have feedback!

Re: Universal Fund

#3

Post by mallyvai » Wed, Nov 05, 2014, 8:58 PM UTC

This is a really cool idea :-) looks like you guys are using Stripe's recurring billing features?

Re: Universal Fund

#4

Post by joeariel » Wed, Nov 05, 2014, 9:04 PM UTC

this is awesome, watsi!

Re: Universal Fund

#5

Post by toomuchtodo » Wed, Nov 05, 2014, 9:13 PM UTC

gracegarey wrote: post #2

Thanks for sharing! Want to make sure we mention that thanks to the founders of Teespring, donations are matched for the first 1,000 people to sign up. Let us know if you have feedback!

Hey Grace! Are you providing end of year reporting for tax purposes of the contributions?

Re: Universal Fund

#6

Post by neodude » Wed, Nov 05, 2014, 9:15 PM UTC

mallyvai wrote: post #3

This is a really cool idea :-) looks like you guys are using Stripe's recurring billing features?

Thomas from Watsi here! When we were initially building the recurring donation feature, we experimented with using Stripe's recurring billing functionality, but we ended up building our own monthly charging (still through Stripe's API). Stripe's feature is more designed for fixed-price "plans" that folks can sign up for - i.e., SaaS products, rather than the Universal Fund's pick-your-own-amount recurring charge.

Re: Universal Fund

#7

Post by gracegarey » Wed, Nov 05, 2014, 9:22 PM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #5

gracegarey wrote: post #2

Thanks for sharing! Want to make sure we mention that thanks to the founders of Teespring, donations are matched for the first 1,000 people to sign up. Let us know if you have feedback!

Hey Grace! Are you providing end of year reporting for tax purposes of the contributions?

Yeah! Every month, donors receive an email introducing them to the patient they supported, which serves as a tax receipt for that month's contribution. We also aggregate tax receipts for every Watsi donor and send them out at the end of the year for easy reporting.

Re: Universal Fund

#8

Post by sudonim » Wed, Nov 05, 2014, 9:26 PM UTC

Yay Watsi! I think this is a great extension to what you do.

For people who haven't tried the normal funding flow for Watsi - https://watsi.org/fund-treatments, directly funding someone's healthcare is an amazingly personal experience.

It literally costs you $10 to be part of changing someone's life and sometimes $100 to be the difference between them getting treatment or not. Making the donation recurring lowers the friction for someone to keep helping people if they had a good first experience.

Re: Universal Fund

#9

Post by hotgoldminer » Wed, Nov 05, 2014, 10:04 PM UTC

Amazing work! Beautiful design as well. Relevant NPR story: http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2014/11/05/361433850/w...

Putting a face to the contribution bridges the gap. Sign me up!

Re: Universal Fund

#10

Post by liber8 » Wed, Nov 05, 2014, 10:08 PM UTC

I'm a little confused. For many months now, Watsi has charged my card each month for the amount I specified whenever I first signed up. Each month, I get an email explaining which patient my recurring donation was directed to that month.

What is different about the Universal Fund? Is this just the formal announcement of what was already in place? Also, will Teespring be matching the recurring donations that were already in place before this announcement? Thanks!