Category Archives: Charity

Toilets for the Global Poor

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Trump’s demolition of USAID means that many worthy causes are now suddenly without any funds. Little care was made around what is the most beneficial or not.

In Madagascar, they were funding toilets for people who didn’t have any (or didn’t have any that were sanitary).

I looked into it a bit deeper and I was shocked but also not so surprised that charity can get it so wrong. Compare the efforts in Madagascar with those in India, which are directly from the government. Yes, India has the advantage of scale and long-term priorities…

Madagascar – the design of the MVP1 toilet had two main features. A self-closing (weighted) lid to keep flies away, and the ability to store a month or more of waste from multiple families. The cost per toilet, based on the scheme total divided by installations, was over $2000 USD, and maybe more. The roll-out supplied 4500 toilets at most. But here’s the kicker, they need to be regularly emptied, by hand, something the locals generally cannot afford!

India – most of the rural toilets are twin-pit pour-flush toilets, where fecal matter decomposes into manure over 1-2 years without emptying. And the average price in USD is $130.

Too many charities re-invent the wheel for bad results. Simply copying what India does, in all the countries that need toilets, is the way forward.

Reducing Homelessness: The Spartan Network

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Stupid name is just a placeholder…

But it comes from thinking about what stops people from letting the homeless take shelter in unused rooms, spaces and buildings. A key concern is that they will steal or do damage. So naturally you provide the barest of minimums. Potentially just a foam mattress on the floor.

There are other concerns obviously, so this is just the beginning of an idea…

In reality, few homeless people would bite the hand that feeds them, with the strong exception of drug addicts. So while the fear of theft or damage is real, it won’t happen very often.

The idea: participants are covered by an insurance of sorts – if the person you provide shelter for does such a thing, you get fully compensated.

The cost of covering such events will be minuscule compared to other solutions.

Charity_Coin / Crypto Idea

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All cryptocurrency is magically created from thin air, one way or another. It can be created via proof of work, or bought based on some future use you believe in. But it isn’t physical and making anything digital is essentially free.

We also have stablecoins, which are (if it isn’t a scam) backed by real money and aligned with a currency and serve no meaningful advantage over cash.

Either way, everybody wants to profit from crypto, or at the very least break even and get some functionality. But what if we seeded a cryptocurrency by giving it to a charity?

Charities of course already receive donations, so all we are changing is the format. I give the crypto service $100 cash, the money gets banked somewhere, and the charity gets 100 Charity Coins.

The charity can then spend it anywhere that accepts it, so we need merchants on board who charities usually spend with. And then wherever those merchants spend money, encourage them to accept it.

This seeds the cryptocurrency, which can circulate forever, or be redeemed for cash. That redemption would be 98% or something to cover costs and encourage circulation.

You can also buy Charity Coin directly from the exchange, and get 100 coins for $110. That 10% goes to all the involved charities on a pro-rata basis, determined by the amount of donations they receive.

But here’s the thing – charity money is cool. When you pay in Charity Coin, indirectly you are supporting it & promoting it, which makes you look good, and benefits the charities. Nobody knows if you bought it (giving 10% to charity) or received it from someone.

Because crypto can be tracked (anonymously). we can see how the donation not only helps the charity, but circulates throughout society. This will provide empirical evidence of how putting money into the economy stimulates it. And then governments can use that data to base their spending on. By actually knowing that $1 put into the economy increases the GDP by $5, or whatever. So the government could manage this, in return for the data.

And… it can be used for charity accountability, if we can see where they spend their coins.

To remove barriers to acceptance, the coin needs to be acceptable through existing payment mechanisms. The best/easiest way is via a bank or government operating it. Governments can mandate it, or a bank can call it a featue. Banks do give a lot to charity anyway, so this could be an extension of that.

Compulsory Charitable Donations

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The majority of charities do work that should be directly supported by the government. But governments, rightly or wrongly, make sure that donations from citizens are also required to support charities.

Any compulsory giving to charities benefits all of society, as well as the emotional well-being of those who give.

Profits – it has been suggested that a way for some businesses (for example, insurance companies) to operate would be to cap their profits at a certain amount – say 5% of capital, and that any excess be given to charity. That would let businesses be successful, but at the same time limit the motivation of profit.

Fines – governments fining businesses who do wrong could also be seen to have a more genuine motivation if those fines were donated to charity.

Taxes – meanwhile, one of the world’s richest people, Michael Dell, says the super-rich shouldn’t be taxed at higher rates because they tend to very philanthropic people, and money is better going to the causes they support, than to the government. Perhaps their charitable donations could be 100% tax deductible, and their income taxes rate rise at the same time.

For this to occur, the regulation and oversight of charities would need to increase significantly, as well as laws requiring complete separation from the charities you give to – perhaps even two or three degrees of separation. Any organisation that receives funding or support from a charity would need to publicly disclose this. 

Trash Money

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Cans1

In South Australia, you can hand in used bottles and get back the 10c deposit paid at purchase time.

What if that 10c was in the form of a crypto-currency?

What if little kids could use the very same crypto-currency? Or homeless people?

What if kids and homeless people got to crowd-source the name?

I predict an unpredictable economic system not witnessed before.

  1. Bottles and cans have a Q-Code on the label.
  2. When bottles are redeemed, the code is scanned. Every bottle has a unique ID, so redemption rates and per-product data can be known
  3. At redemption, a smart device with NFC (or card) receives the credits

Not redeemable for cash!

This is the key. It only has value to those that earn it – their specific needs.

It could work in conjunction with a non-profit that sells affordable/subsidised healthy snacks and drinks. Exactly what kids and homeless folk need. Maybe anyone who has ever earned $10 worth of credit gets access to an elite community centre, with WiFi and showers and newspapers and comics and pay TV.

It would also help provide a form of currency for those with little of no actual cash. It can be traded for goods/favours between users. But nobody else would want it, as it has no value to those who are not poor. So theft or skullduggery is a not a risk.

Possible redemption:

  • Charity stores / op shops
  • Libraries / community centres
  • Bike share
  • Swimming pools
  • Attending sporting events
  • Cinemas
  • Off-peak public transport
  • Entry to Shows (as in the Royal Melbourne Show)

Places to be where you can feel that you have earned the right to be there.

And if you were wondering if there are enough cans/bottles laying around to support this… I suspect that local residents will make connections with people in need and give them their cans/bottles in exchange for them being taken away. Just like the scouts used to do when I was young.

People with more credits than they can use, can gift them to others.

Ultimately it means the young and marginalised get access to food, clothing and society.