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Comment by maxerickson | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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.

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