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Comment by tlb | Hacker News Reader

A plug for New Story (https://newstorycharity.org/), which has built 900+ homes in Haiti for $6000 in donations each. And they think a lot about building those homes into functional communities.

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Thanks, Trevor. Hi all, I'm the ceo and co-founder at New Story. We're proud of the work we've done in Haiti as we've also used all local material and local labor to build the homes. What's more transparent than just the "100%" promise, is that we prove to donors via family profile pages and move-in videos the exact results of their donation.

If someone donated $6k on our site now, 100% of that goes towards local materials cost, labor, and sometimes the land for the home.

We have a separate bank account to fund salaries, R&D, etc. Therefore, donors have the option to give directly to a home/family (which we show you the digital profile of that family and a move-in video), or a donor can choose to give to our "Builders fund" that covers salaries, R&D, travel, etc. We ask for minimum donations of $25k/ for 3 years to join the Builders fund.

I completely understand the "marketing scheme" some have mentioned. We really don't view it that way. If someone gives to homes, it's absolutely restricted to go towards building homes. If a donor gives specifically to an innovation project we're working on, their donation is restricted towards that project.

Happy to answer any other questions.

https://www.fastcompany.com/3058514/did-this-new-nonprofit-c...

What's the biggest challenge your organization faces?

My kneejerk reaction is: local labor!? local materials!? So inefficient! But I'm wrong. You're doing exactly what's needed; bootstrapping skills and contributing towards the local economy.

I'm curious how much housing is still needed in Haiti, how much more money into the pipeline would fix the problem, etc. Would you be able to scale beyond Haiti? Sorry to ramble, love the mission!

It's been years since I was an American Red Cross (local) disaster services volunteer, but at the time I believe the philosophy was also providing funds rather than materials because it helped local economies recover.

Also, if many people donate materials, it quickly turns into a logistic clusterfuck, where the charity suddenly has to worry about (and spend money on) shipping tons of stuff across the world, which is significantly more expensive than just buying it locally.

Expensive and wasteful, as people all donate the same tin of beans and no spoon to eat it with, so to speak. But there is also a point to this sort of donation - gifting in kind usually ensures it won't be pocketed along the way. It might get wasted (food expires, boxes break etc), but rarely exploited for profit - or so the common wisdom goes.

Unfortunately, something like that can still be used for evil in many ways. Say your container full of cans gets delivered to Port Disaster and stored in customs; the local docks boss (be it a warlord or local leader) gets wind of it and refuses to release it unless his palms are greased. The org will be forced to pay, otherwise all effort will be for nought, food will rot etc. Charitable gifts will then help fostering the blackmail and corruption economies that wars and disasters inevitably create, rather than relieving the honest one. But then again, so would random "cash rain".

There is no magic bullet, all solutions have their downside. Operating in crisis scenarios is a constant moral maze.

Is corruption of local players a problem you've encountered?

That's really incredible. What's more fascinating is their 100% promise [1]:

> We send 100% of all donations directly to hire local workers and buy local materials so you know exactly where your donation is going.

Considering their Careers page lists they are hiring a software engineer, I dug a little further and found this info in their FAQ:

> How Does New Story Fund Operational Costs With A 100% Promise?

> We are committed to putting every cent of donor contributions to the building of homes. We fund our day-to-day operations by generous contributions from corporate investors and private individuals. Also, a majority of our incredible donors opt-in and add 10% onto their donation to fund New Story operations. If you are interested in investing in our organization, so we can serve even more families, email info@newstorycharity.org.

The FAQ mentions an investment opportunity, though I'm not sure what the investment is, besides charity social goodwill -- which of course, is a great thing.

[1] https://newstorycharity.org/100-percent/

That's just bucket A and bucket B right?

Like, the money going towards operations is still donated. The page about the operations money even puts it in terms of having 2 bank accounts: https://newstorycharity.org/the-builders/

So fine, they are able to advertise that they are spending 100% of certain funds on programs. But it is just a marketing gimmick, they still have some overall efficiency, just like any other charity.

It means there's more transparency about where the money is going. It's going to be hard to get corporate donations if you have to say to them, "we need X from you to run the business of providing only Y in actual support".

It surely has to help stop bureaucratic creep. You're forced to run lean and efficiently in the administration.

Isn't that the pitch they make to the large contributors? That if they have $X of funds for operations they will be able to gather and deploy $Y funds for programs?

Surely the large contributors have some concern for that ratio.

Of course I think of matching campaigns the same way (as a gimmick). If you are willing to donate $10,000, why not blare out that you are matching $10,000 instead of just donating it.

Of course I think of matching campaigns the same way (as a gimmick). If you are willing to donate $10,000, why not blare out that you are matching $10,000 instead of just donating it.

Obviously many companies match for the marketing, but besides that, they're also convincing others to donate. It's like giving people a "50% discount" on their donations. If the matchers believe in the cause, why wouldn't they match rather than just donate?

It means everyone donating knows what their money is going to. If you want 100% of if to go to houses, it will.

Exactly, it is about transparency. You get to choose what it is used for and they follow through.

This is right. We, of course, use both bank accounts for overall efficiency. What's important to know is that donors are able to: a) Choose exactly what they want to give towards b) Donors see the family profile and move-in video that their donation was allocated to. This holds us accountable and shows results to the donor.

example: https://impact.newstorycharity.org/families/SV-FC-AHUACHAPAN...

That doesn't mean as much as it sounds like it does, though. Suppose an organization has $100 of "houses only" money, and another $100 of "general fund" money, $20 of which is also spent on houses. Now say I donate $5 of my own money to "houses only". There is absolutely nothing stopping the org from (and arguably nothing wrong with) reducing the "general fund" spending on houses by $5, so that the ultimate amount that goes to houses is unchanged.

That's not how it works with New Story as they are not putting their own operating funds towards funding houses. It'd be odd and a question in the auditing process if a non-profit operated the way you described.

It's similar to the difference between opex and capex. You can call it a marketing gimmick, but 100% of the money put into capex is capex, at least according to the page you linked.

The hygienic accounting doesn't change whatever the overall efficiency is.

(a sibling comment to yours points out that the separate accounting can help create good incentives, which could well be the case, but looking backward, there is still an efficiency that can be calculated and compared to other charities)

Hygenic accounting, marketing gimmick? It's really straightforward, so I don't see why you need to malign a charity that has found a way to separate overhead from assistance.

o=overhead donations (min of 25k)

a=assistance provided

donations received = o+a;

donated % used for charitable cause = a*100/(o+a)

I don't see what is malign about hygienic accounting.

Marketing gimmick is certainly a cynical take.

Not all gimmick it means that people/companies who are donating know that their money is either going towards operational funding or to relief efforts.

Is there a reason that they are not listed on Charity Navigator? Are they listed on any other independent charity rating site?

https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.profil...

... which confirms that they are unrated.

They're too new to be on Charity Navigator.

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