edit: we charge no fees since our ops are supported by our donors - the only fee that gets taken out is that charged by our brokerage for selling the crypto
> If circumstances make Giver to that particular Nonprofit impossible or inappropriate (such as if the selected Nonprofit ceases operations or loses its tax-exempt status), we will attempt to contact you first for additional preferences on where you would like your Donation to go. If we do not receive your preferences before we must disburse the funds, then we may in our sole discretion select an alternate Nonprofit to receive the Donation. We will do our best to direct your Donation to a Nonprofit in a similar space and/or with similar goals. Except in cases of fraud, we do not issue refunds.
If I can get Andy or ZSF representative to say they'll claim it from every.org I'd consider that. I can't find any obvious disclosure about margin/overhead from Every.org but I might still consider it despite that.
This not a surprising term. By accepting donations to be passed on to someone else, they become trustees, which comes with hefty legal constraints. By having terms saying "we will try our best, but if we fail, we will try to honour your intentions", they can avoid winding up with little piles of money that can't be repurposed and simply ... exist.
No, I don't think it's surprising and I'm glad it's there. But it's the reason that I was nervous about donating absent an affirmative response that ZSF would claim the money. It's nice they'd try to apply it to similar projects but I'd prefer it go to Zig or nothing (or I can donate to another project of my choice).
Just to note - unless we can't reach you, we usually end up just crediting the donor's account with a balance that they can use to support any of the other nonprofits on the platform, so usually you do get to donate to another project of your choice :)
Great question - we have more info on how we disburse at https://www.every.org/disbursements - but in short, ZSF hasn't claimed their profile and connected a bank account, so we'd disburse via our partner NFG. We treat crypto donations like those made via bank account, meaning we cover the 2.25% fee that NFG charges, so (100% of your crypto donation - broker fee (<=1%)) goes to ZSF.
Hey just a heads up, you said 1 hour ago "you can donate via their profile here" and then 30 mins ago Andy comments and says he's making an account as we speak..
Did you just solicit donations without them even being signed up? If so, that feels weird, and I'd appreciate at least (as I cant speak for others) if you didn't do that without some heavy disclaimer text making clear that they've shown no interest yet. I love the concept of what your service does, but you can get users in other more honest ways than this.
How it works according to their website is that they will mail a check to the registered address of the charity. That's actually an amazing service - even charities which are not aware of Every.org still benefit from its existence.
I can appreciate that you derive value from this, however, envision it from Joe Casual walking by, it has in my case discouraged me from using their service because to me this feels dishonest in a lie-of-omission way. I'm not calling them dishonest, I'm not saying anybody lied, I'm saying the marketing and recruitment strategy should encourage people to use it, not use gray patterns like the ones random voip text people do about "claiming your funds" and such. It's just relating my personal experience and perception of it for the purposes of helping them make a better product, that's all.
I have a text message from just today after lunch with a link to click to claim my funds. No name, no context, just a random text that I can only imagine isn't in fact free money waiting for me.
Thanks for this feedback, and I definitely think we could do a better job of making it clear which orgs we have a direct relationship with vs not.
That being said, Network for Good, our partner for disbursing to nonprofits whom haven't connected directly with us, also handles disbursements for a lot of Facebook Giving and other large donation platforms, so I don't think the checks coming from there are necessarily unexpected by many nonprofits - see their support article on this at https://networkforgood.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/1150073...
Their terms are pretty clear that it's how they work. I don't know that it's dishonest but it is slightly tricky IMO. It seemed like it was the case when I clicked on it and it would be nicer if it were obvious before donating.
But bottom line they'd have gotten the money delivered to ZSF anyways.
True, in this case it goes to a worthy cause and it seems as if Andy is thrilled by the ability to get a check mailed, so obviously there's utility, there's no disputing that... It's just you don't need gray patterns to attract people to things that are awesome.
Wow, thank you for sharing this. I was not aware of Every.org until today. I checked out the platform just now and am delighted. I love that it is a 501(c)(3) and that it is crystal clear with the promise to remain that way. We desperately needed something like this.
I also love that you will mail checks to organizations even if they do not sign up for electronic disbursement. However I will sign up ZSF now of course :)
Ok sounds like I can go ahead because you will accept from every.org and you do not plan to publish an address to accept donations directly?
I'll match other HNers donations of as much as $100 to a total of an additional $1000. Not sure how to substantiate every.org donations but maybe I'll take HNers at their word.
EDIT: scoreboard as of 22:20 UTC: $400 out of $1000 to be matched: easymuffin, slimsag, tav, _hl_.
Because we need some kind of time bound, I'll leave this matching window open for the next 48 hours, so ~21:20 UTC on Saturday (this is ~5pm US Eastern time IIRC).
Is that conditional on donating via some cryptocoin? I'd be up for donating a well-deserved $100 (can't really afford much more right now sadly) but prefer traditional methods.
Thank you for such a kind comment, and I'm glad we can support your and the foundation's work! I've just shared this with my team, it makes everyone's day when we get feedback like this <3
edit: we charge no fees since our ops are supported by our donors - the only fee that gets taken out is that charged by our brokerage for selling the crypto