
Announcing 10x donation matching on Watsi - chaseadam17
https://watsi.org/universal-fund
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nilstycho
See also: “Why you shouldn’t let ‘donation matching’ affect your giving” at
GiveWell. ([http://blog.givewell.org/2011/12/15/why-you-shouldnt-let-
don...](http://blog.givewell.org/2011/12/15/why-you-shouldnt-let-donation-
matching-affect-your-giving/))

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reasonattlm
Undeniably the case that it works really well, however, especially given how
easy it is to arrange for the people holding the fundraiser. Broadcasting a
matching fund is news, adds an extra touch to potential donors, inspires
people to donate when they wouldn't otherwise have done so, and costs very
little in additional administrative time.

Administrative time is always at a premium in non-profits, and optimizing for
lower overhead in time and work is a reason for many things that might
otherwise seem a little puzzling in their persistence.

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koolba
Is there a cap to this? For example, the first $100K will be matched 10x?

Also, is the match monthly or all at once?

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chaseadam17
The match is for the first month's charge. If you sign up for a $20 monthly
donation, it will be matched to $200 for the first month, then return to $20
after that.

The current cap for the campaign is $100k and we still have a ways to go.
However, the campaign is off to a great start and there might be an
opportunity to increase the cap if needed.

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tedmiston
It's awesome when platforms can increase the effectiveness of our donations
like this.

By the way, if anyone is looking to support teachers through small donations,
DonorsChoose ([https://www.donorschoose.org](https://www.donorschoose.org))
does matching opportunities like this regularly. They fund classroom projects,
not health issues, but I think the satisfaction and rationale for supporting
are similar. The most recent match was backed by The Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation.

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maxerickson
It's the effectiveness of Tencent's donation that is being increased.

Which I guess I don't feel bad that more money is being raised for Watsi, but
it's interesting that people don't see this sort of thing for what it is.

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brianbreslin
I love the idea of Watsi. I do wish they would, tastefully of course, take a
page from CharityWater's playbook and highlight better the impact your money
creates. Also is it like charity water in which my donation goes to the cause
100%? or are the funds going to support watsi ops? (I'm ok with either, but
would prefer transparency this day in age). The donate a birthday Idea could
be pushed further. I've given up my birthday a bunch on charity water, raised
thousands that way. I'd like to see "I'm giving up my birthday so we can get
Maria in honduras a new kidney" or something along those lines.

anyway sorry for the rant.

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jrowley
100% goes to the patient. They fund raise for operations via other means.

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TorKlingberg
Since we are already linking GiveWell, claiming administration costs are paid
separately is just an accounting trick.
[http://blog.givewell.org/2009/12/07/robin-hood-smile-
train-a...](http://blog.givewell.org/2009/12/07/robin-hood-smile-train-and-
the-0-overhead-donor-illusion/)

Donors shouldn't obsess about the overhead ratio anyway, as the link explains.

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opendomain
I LOVE Watsi - 100% of my donation goes directly to help people.

Is this only for new donors? I am already a universal fund donor, but may
consider making a new account for my 'friend' to get the match donation.

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chaseadam17
Thank you! If you are already a donor and you increase your donation, Tencent
will match the new amount the next time your donations runs. E.g. increase
your existing $10 donation to $20 and it'll be matched to $200. No need to
create a second account.

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covercash
Nice! Have you sent an email out to existing UF participants explaining this?

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WhitneyLand
No emotion on the home page. Would be nice to immediately see a real person
that could be helped. Not sally struthers style melodrama but some connection.
Some example of the good that will happen.

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sthatipamala
When I go to watsi.org, I see 3 friendly faces with bios in the "Meet the
patients" section. Are you not seeing that?

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pbreit
Guessing was mistaking the Universal Fund page for a home page.

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WhitneyLand
Yes you are right, assumed the link was to the home page.

Thanks -

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liber8
Can the monthly donation amount be lowered in the future?

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chaseadam17
Of course. But we hope people will keep them and continue to support patients.

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orvado
What if they have a 90% administration fee... all that matching could go right
back into the charity. This would effectively make it 0% matching.

Also, the matching could be prorated over the next 100 years. This company has
only been around for 3 years and doesn't have a profile on Charity Navigator
yet. I will give it some more time.

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chaseadam17
100% of donations directly fund patient care. We even pay the credit card
processing fees out of our own pocket in order to keep the administrative
costs at 0% for donors. If you donate $10, it'll be matched to $100, and every
cent will go to the healthcare provider to cover the cost of the patient's
care.

We can afford to do this by 1) raising money separately from a group of donors
to cover our administrative costs and 2) enabling people who donate to
patients to add a tip to help cover administrative costs (despite it being
optional, ~2/3 of donors tip).

We're too new to have been rated by Charity Navigator. Regardless, even when
we are rated I won't point donors there. I think Charity Navigator is a
valuable tool (more transparency around nonprofits is a good thing imo) but I
don't think it's an effective way of evaluating an organization's impact. It's
focused on what % of donations nonprofits spend on programs (vs
administration) but not on whether the programs work.

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maxerickson
You need to find a better way to discuss the separate pools of money. Each of
the three sources of funds you mention is donated.

