Of my three choices:
www.givedirectly.orgPro: May push Bitcoin into a country where transferring money internationally is problematic, i.e. pretty much exactly what Bitcoin was designed to do. Might help establish a working Kenyan shilling <-> Bitcoin exchange.
Con: May be difficult for the charity to exchange Bitcoin for local Kenyan currency.
www.againstmalaria.comPro: International donations, seems fairly simple and direct type of charity, connections with (exposure to) lots of other high-profile organizations and charities
Con: Rather complicated and convoluted donation page. The Bitcoin option may not even be noticed by others.
www.nyayahealth.orgPro: $300 can do A LOT in that part of the country. Simple, easy donation page.
Con:
Don't know enough yet.
And the discussion begins! Since you took the time to do a little research and offer up an opinion(s), I took the time to read the pros and cons and see if there's something overlooked. Lo and behold, this:
http://www.againstmalaria.com/mobile/DonateSimple.aspxFrom a convoluted donation page
http://www.againstmalaria.com/Money.aspx to a simpler one utilized by smart phones. Now what was that figure on the percentage of smart phone users tapping the internet? Taxing my memory, it's a comfortable x% and growing exponentially yearly.
I like this about
Against Malaria Foundation (AMF):
Given 100% of funds buy nets at US$5 each, this means every US$100 we raise equals 20 nets in place and saves the life of one child. This ensures maximum efficiency of the funds you raise and donate.
With
http://www.givedirectly.org/, the following could be changed to 0%:
It's efficient: it costs only 10% of each donated dollar.
Nice and clean donation page here:
http://www.nyayahealth.org/donate/Back to this one and addressing the con aspect:
www.givedirectly.orgPro: May push Bitcoin into a country where transferring money internationally is problematic, i.e. pretty much exactly what Bitcoin was designed to do. Might help establish a working Kenyan shilling <-> Bitcoin exchange.
Con: May be difficult for the charity to exchange Bitcoin for local Kenyan currency. After quickly reading this page
http://www.givedirectly.org/howitworks.php I envision the village shop agents figuring out the BTC to their Shilling dilemma. Although currently problematic, Kenyans have proved to be rather resourceful in times of crises. I'm pretty sure that in some Kenyan hut there's a young fellow working on this now with the help of his Nigerian cousin via one of those $100 Apple computers.
But, moreover, remember that even most well run charities have an administration staff and office of sorts, and no matter how admirable they are, funds are still needed to run and maintain those said expenses, no matter how minuscule. Therefore, it's the main governing body that has control of the donations before the funneling process begins. And I'm sure those folks would enjoy a nice cup of coffee purchased from
BitBrew via the use of Bitcoin donations while reviewing and hashing out that funneling process.
After reading that last paragraph I was thinking of how this is such a nice closed loop we have here with Bitcoin. Donate them, then get them back. Whereas a bank doles out dollars and hopes they don't come back so that they can create more debt. I hope this analogy made sense, or I have scrambled all the information I've viewed from those videos linked from this forum. Surely, by now, with close to 2,000 posts, I should have my head wrapped around this Bitcoin vs Banks thing, opposed to just knowing where Pattaya is located on a map and that a coffee table could be a piece of fine art.
~Bruno~