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We (masporloschicos.com) have been doing roughly the same since 2005. (instead of health we focus on malnutrition) Note- site is in spanish - targeted to the A

We (masporloschicos.com) have been doing roughly the same since 2005. (instead of health we focus on malnutrition) Note- site is in spanish - targeted to the Argentine audience We are a bit less granular though - instead of matching against an individual, we match a specific soup kitchen. But we keep donors updated with newsletters, pictures, letters from the kids and so on. edit: this level of udpates keeps donors engaged. we dont allow one time donations - instead we require you to subscribe. When we built masporloschicos.com I wanted to do it more granular (individual level), but we ended up doing it a bit more aggregate because it was really hard / expensive to get to that granular level. I wonder how is watsi tackling this problem - because ultimately you don't want to spend a lot of funds (regardless of where they come from) on the administration/bureaucracy required to provide quality 1:1 matching. So I just wonder how are they doing it?

irollboozers 14y ago
The issue of administration and bureaucracy is definitely one the best questions and hardest challenges for new startups trying to tackle these kinds of peer-connected problems. There are entire systems of middle-men built up over long periods of time that up until the internet have been how systems like medical treatment, education, and research funding operate. The biggest factor of inertia in these systems is the system itself. Sites like Watsi are now making people realize two things: which inefficiencies we can cut away, and that simple experiences like funding medical treatment can be enhanced. Those are two very big revelations that will fuel so much of peer-to-peer funding.
chaseadam17 14y ago
Hablamos español and we tried to check out your site but it appears to be down (maybe because of HN traffic?). Two quick answers to your question about how we operate efficiently at a granular level: 1) We may have a slight advantage working in healthcare. Our partners already collect patient info (and sometimes even photos) for patient medical records, so requesting they send us that info isn't a big ask. 2) We leverage technology to ensure we can efficiently process and allocate donations. Look at kiva.org - they've leveraged their platform to fund individual microloans for nearly a million people, and that's a much more complex process (because of repayments, interest, currency conversion, etc.) than a one-way donation for a medical treatment. Happy to talk more offline if there's any way I could be helpful: chase at watsi dot org.

irollboozers 14y ago

The issue of administration and bureaucracy is definitely one the best questions and hardest challenges for new startups trying to tackle these kinds of peer-connected problems. There are entire systems of middle-men built up over long periods of time that up until the internet have been how systems like medical treatment, education, and research funding operate. The biggest factor of inertia in these systems is the system itself. Sites like Watsi are now making people realize two things: which inefficiencies we can cut away, and that simple experiences like funding medical treatment can be enhanced. Those are two very big revelations that will fuel so much of peer-to-peer funding.

chaseadam17 14y ago

Hablamos español and we tried to check out your site but it appears to be down (maybe because of HN traffic?). Two quick answers to your question about how we operate efficiently at a granular level: 1) We may have a slight advantage working in healthcare. Our partners already collect patient info (and sometimes even photos) for patient medical records, so requesting they send us that info isn't a big ask. 2) We leverage technology to ensure we can efficiently process and allocate donations. Look at kiva.org - they've leveraged their platform to fund individual microloans for nearly a million people, and that's a much more complex process (because of repayments, interest, currency conversion, etc.) than a one-way donation for a medical treatment. Happy to talk more offline if there's any way I could be helpful: chase at watsi dot org.