Glad to see this idea come to life, thank you for working on it! Many of us understand the temptation to hold back more than we ought to, due to concerns about unforeseen financial reversals, some of which are not conventionally insurable. If implemented well, Basefund sounds likely to encourage marginal donations in excess of its costs, and help individuals at difficult hinges in life.
Sounds like you’ve done a lot of homework and this is workable in a Dutch context. Best wishes to you, and I’ll drop you an email about possibly participating.
If it were to expand to the U.S., having support that is formulaically tied to past donations would be difficult. However, one could envision a model that achieves both tax deductibility for donors and tax exemption to grant recipients, and the economic benefit would be significant compared to individual gifts (which are tax-free to the recipient but not tax-deductible to the donor). The key would be a well-defined mission and charitable class of potential recipients, as discussed here, and a layer of discretion at the board level between donor and recipient.
One example of a U.S. public charity that supports individuals in financial hardship is ModestNeeds. Their program is innovative, although for several reasons it’s unlikely to meet the high bar of a “top charity”. Nevertheless, they are worth a look as general inspiration for your project, as it lets funders recommend individual grants (where the grantee is anonymous but their circumstances are described) without formally earmarking donations.
Glad to see this idea come to life, thank you for working on it! Many of us understand the temptation to hold back more than we ought to, due to concerns about unforeseen financial reversals, some of which are not conventionally insurable. If implemented well, Basefund sounds likely to encourage marginal donations in excess of its costs, and help individuals at difficult hinges in life.
Sounds like you’ve done a lot of homework and this is workable in a Dutch context. Best wishes to you, and I’ll drop you an email about possibly participating.
If it were to expand to the U.S., having support that is formulaically tied to past donations would be difficult. However, one could envision a model that achieves both tax deductibility for donors and tax exemption to grant recipients, and the economic benefit would be significant compared to individual gifts (which are tax-free to the recipient but not tax-deductible to the donor). The key would be a well-defined mission and charitable class of potential recipients, as discussed here, and a layer of discretion at the board level between donor and recipient.
One example of a U.S. public charity that supports individuals in financial hardship is ModestNeeds. Their program is innovative, although for several reasons it’s unlikely to meet the high bar of a “top charity”. Nevertheless, they are worth a look as general inspiration for your project, as it lets funders recommend individual grants (where the grantee is anonymous but their circumstances are described) without formally earmarking donations.