Topic: Bitcoin 100: Developed Specifically for Non-Profits - page 99. (Read 262771 times)

I say let's do this anyway. They had a REALLY bad experience with PayPal, there's nothing PayPal can do to completely fix this. And they will always worry about that kind of shit happening again. With Bitcoin, they don't have to worry, period. I also think that it's fine if we ask them to post about it afterwards so it's more than quietly adding a Bitcoin donation address. If they are only willing to quietly add the address, I also think we should skip this. We have limited resources on this project and it's not very resourceful to splash around too much.

Another option is quid-pro-quo: Ask these guys how much they'd be willing to evangelize Bitcoin after their shitty experience with PayPal, and us donating a bunch of money. If their group is willing to embrace us, I'd say go for it, but if all we get is just a bitcoin address in the donation page, I think other charities would be way more worthy.
Sorry for putting such a "heartless" spin on this, but this is other peoples money we're planning to throw around. I don't want it being wasted.


EDIT: On the other hand, Regretsy is saying that PayPal is working with them is still PayPal PR BS http://t.co/CPoADocW Maybe it's worth pursuing this still.

I am kind of on the fence on this one now.  I was very excited when the headline would be something like "Bitcoin saves Christmas for the children - PayPal is a stinky Grinch meanie head"  but now that PayPal has backed down - not at excited.

Maybe we just go back to our regularly scheduled program - and find an established charity.

Since this isn't a serious or established charity organization, and would be more of a short term publicity buy-in, do we need a whole 100BTC pledge? I'm thinking some donors might prefer their larger amounts going to more established and productive causes than a maybe-once-in-a-life-time toy drive by an internet group.

I've sent a mail to Tony from Bit-pay explaining the situation, and asking if he's willing to go along with this. Hope I didn't scare him off too badly

*Frantically scrambles around to assemble 1 BTC out of various leftovers in various wallets

Heh, I had just sold nearly all of my bitcoins in a nice opportunity.

Nevertheless, I managed to produce 1 BTC

Let us know if they start accepting Bitcoin donations.  For a case like this I expect many people would like to donate more.

In general.  If a payment processor cuts off a charity and they reach out to Bitcoin for help then I'd offer 2 BTC instead of 1.

And you don't have to be part of it to continue offering up your unique insight.

I'm going to be out of pocket for the next couple hours. When I returned, I want to see regretsy.com acceptance of our proposal and funds transferred there way. Or, at the very least, a link to Atlas's new account, if he happens to have one.

Also, at that time, I'll update all that needs be, as well as starting on the rewrite of the OP.

~Bruno~

IMO, it should be 1 well-spoken, respected 'member of the community' + a representative from Bit-Pay.  That way Bit-Pay doesn't come off just fishing for business, but Bit-Pay is the only one I can think of that could handle the logistics of accepting bitcoins and turning them into USD, if that's what the charity chooses.

(Note: I'm not yet apart of the 100)

Normally, I update the OP and address routine posts, along with offering up the 'thank yous' prior to tackling key issues. I'll temporarily forego that order, and jump into addressing the regretsy.com concern.

Firstly, does anybody here have a problem with choosing regretsy.com for the recipient of this first pool? Time being of the essence, doesn't afford us the luxury to conduct a formal poll. That said, I'm all for moving forward with this for the sole purpose that they're an established entity with a huge cult following. Being picked up by major news organizations, a human interest story centered around the Christmas giving spirit, and slapping PayPal, certainly helps in swaying me, among others, into the 'Just Do It' mindset. As Technomage emphatically stresses: Let's do it now.

Next, how to approach Helen at Regretsy? Bear in mind, the main objective of Bitcoin100 is to offer up initial donations for exchange of a charitable organizations to paste a Bitcoin donation option onto their respective websites. This helps Bitcoin in general, and the organizations in particular, but mostly in the long term, as far as both are concerned. Yes, both entities win, but the best regretsy.com would hope for, short term, is a pouring in of a few hundred bitcoins during their current crisis, all before Christmas, which could prove to be their saving grace.

Who, here, feels they can lock the deal (for lack of a better word) by contacting Helen? I feel that I may come up short, hence not volunteering. If this were a face-to-face meeting, I would be more confident in closing the deal, but jetting across the country to do such is impractical. Currently, all we have is this thread outlining the mission of Bitcoin100 and, of course, bitcoin.org with its links, as our main selling tools.

(paused with the penning of this post after reading johnj's post)

https://www.thepaypalblog.com/2011/12/regretsy-issue-resolution/

meh, guess paypal just bought themselves some time...

According to paypals blog, they've reenabled the accounts and made a donation towards their charity.

I put up a link here: http://bitcoinx.com/charts/

Mostly this thread has been in the top10 posts anyway but we still need some 30 supporters.

+1  Phinnaeus, get on it. Tell them we have almost $100 ready to be donated already, and all they need is a MtGox account set up with a huge "Sell at 0.00001" order, so as soon as any coins hit, they'll get them instantly converted to USD.

+1 agree, 1 bitcoin sent

This is exactly what this project is made for. I think we should act on this fast and make it the first Bitcoin100 charity. And when I mean fast, I don't mean next week. Let's do it now.

This charity is currently very prominently visible on the internet. Reddit is all over it, and it's been crossposted a lot.
If we can get this to accept bitcoin AND are able to make a significant donation before the internet's ADHD kicks in, this would make bitcoin very visible.

Here is a VERY interesting thread about a charity that just got their funds frozen by PayPal.

If we can talk them into taking Bitcoin we get to promote Bitcoin and slap PayPal!

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/paypal-freezes-regretsys-christmas-for-kids-account-53841

The point of the Bitcoin100 is to get major charities to accept Bitcoin. I don't think we should use this project to fund charities that already accept Bitcoin. That doesn't mean people shouldn't donate to this particular charity, I hope everyone checks it out and donates if their cause is worth it.

Sent 1BTC