

Ask HN: Best startups related to non-profits/charities? - thetylerhayes

When you think of startups in the non-profit/charity space, what comes to mind? (The startups themselves do not have to be non-profits or charities.)
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anemitz
Shameless self-promotion: <http://swipegood.com/blippy> :)

Turn your blippy account into a fund raising machine. Every time you make a
purchase and review it on Blippy we round it up to the nearest dollar and
allow you to give it to your favoriate charity.

We just launched the blippy integration and would love any feedback!

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tgriesser
<http://www.kiva.org>

Edit: This is a cool video where the founder talks about how he considers
zynga to be their biggest rival. [http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/13/kiva-ceo-
on-the-next-5-year...](http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/13/kiva-ceo-on-the-
next-5-years-and-why-zynga-is-their-biggest-rival-tctv/)

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thetylerhayes
That is a great video, thank you. What he talks about is the basic, age-old
problem of attention: how do we get it?

Historically, different groups of people have tried to solve the problem of
attention together given their status quo; right now, I feel like those people
are mostly in marketing and business/product strategy. The problem can't be
"solved" in the traditional sense, but I'm glad to see companies like Kiva are
actually doing something to address it in their industry (in addition to just
thinking, which is what it seems most non-profits are doing), as attention-
winning/holding concerns all non-profits.

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neuromancer2600
Embrace (<http://www.embraceglobal.org>), d.light
(<http://www.dlightdesign.com>), and nuru (<http://www.nuruinternational.org>)
are the first that come to my mind.

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thetylerhayes
Hadn't heard of any of those. They all look strong. Thanks for sharing. Nuru
reminds me of Acumen Fund; I could see them partnering well together.

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skowmunk
got a thought I had to unload:

What if there were a site where non-profit orgs, non-government orgs or
charity orgs can post 'jobs' (unpaid) on a website and people can volunteer
themselves to particular jobs?

I believe there are sites for it. But, how about points being given for each
job actually done?

What if people can compete for max points in a time? and the winner gets a
prize from a company which wants to 'encourage' good stuff for their own
marketing purposes or whatever? (the prize gotta be a 'bonus' not the main
attraction, otherwise it may not fly in the long run, hmm.. or who knows)

Would that result in more people doing more volunteering stuff?

A platform like facebook can easily implement such stuff, probably. and get
some 'good' rub off too

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katpoteri
<http://www.toms.com> and to some extent <http://www.source4style.com>

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jamesteow
<http://www.causes.com>

