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Ask HN: Have you donated to a YC nonprofit / Would you if it was easier to do so

3 points by chadkruse ↗ HN
Curious how many HN folks have donated to a YC nonprofit and where you first learned about the organization. If you haven't donated to one, interested in any specific thoughts/reasons why.

Thanks all!

Background: We're building a service that makes it easier for people to engage in effective philanthropy. Our launch market will likely be unstaffed foundations, but thought we'd do some testing with a feature focused on individual donors (people like you and me, donating ~$50 at a time vs $50,000).

We'll do a Show HN soon for the full enchilada, but here's how we're thinking the consumer version would function: https://kyn.me/coinvest/y_combinator_all_time

Any and all feedback most welcome!

2 comments

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tlb
As a YC partner, I've given to all of them.

Watsi and Zidisha are particularly enjoyable to donate through directly, because you choose a person you'd like to help.

Like, for the cost of a good dinner, you could fund the remaining 1/3 of fixing this kid's legs: https://watsi.org/profile/0cbc7f502d2e-deonisi. He's from a farming family, so imagine how much difference it will make throughout his life to be able to walk properly. You'll get pictures after the work is done.

Or choose someone else to help: that's part of the experience.

(But it's also a fine thing for unstaffed foundations to give across the board.)

chadkruse
Appreciate the insight @tlb. One of the most interesting things we found when we first embarked on this journey was the seemingly inverse relationship between the size of the check and the donor/beneficiary connection. Great to see innovators like Watsi and Zidisha (DonorsChoose, charity: water, etc) bringing that connection back!

Clickable links for folks:

Watsi: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8563558 (today's Universal Fund announcement)

Zidisha: https://www.zidisha.org/