Thanks for the update, Joy and Anita. Great work! In terms of expansion into a new region, what factors would determine the optimal timeline on that? Is it some tradeoff between the fixed costs of starting a second project vs the marginal cost of outreach being lower in a new area (low-hanging fruit)? Or more to do with demonstrating the impact in different types of communities in order to attract investment from the national government? I suspect the marginal costs might actually stay lower in Quito for quite some time due to local word of mouth. Best wishes to you in 2024, I am excited to see how this develops.
MikeMorell
Karma: 20
An opportunity has been evolving over the past year that some of you in the US might find interesting. USCIS Form I-134A allows US residents (with qualifying income, approx. $30k/yr+) to sponsor families or individuals from specific countries (in flux—but presently Ukraine, Afghanistan, Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua) looking for US visas under humanitarian parole programs. Form I-134A contains scary language in which the sponsor agrees to take on financial responsibility for the newcomers. However, (a) many potential beneficiaries do not need financial support, (b) some of them, especially Ukrainians, are eligible for a wide range of public benefits, and (c) many legal commentators claim the language in the form is unenforceable.
A nonprofit backed by four former US presidents, https://Welcome.US, helps potential sponsors navigate the process and match with potential beneficiaries. Through them, my wife and I recently sponsored a family of three we had never met. It ended up costing nothing and being easier than expected. Every situation will be different but you can meet (video chat is common) the people you consider sponsoring before making a decision.
It’s not necessarily the very best use of your time and/or money, but if you’ve ever felt that US immigration/refugee policy is too restrictive, and you are well-situated to welcome newcomers and/or good at navigating government paperwork, here’s a chance to sort of take matters into your own hands. The newcomers aren’t immigrants per se; for the most part these are two-year temporary visas. But some of them may find paths to citizenship under other programs now or in the future.
MikeMorell’s Quick takes
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.
Great post! There is a significant amount of value that could be unlocked by practices such as this; one estimate suggests that perhaps 40% of all US donations are made by households that do not itemize deductions.
A potentially good tool for implementing these ideas is the “charity gift card”. The program offered by CharityVest is easy to use (I am not affiliated with them, but am a satisfied client), but there are several other firms offering something similar as well (not sure who was first, maybe TisBest?). The advantage in this context (at least for the CharityVest version, not sure about the others) is that Bob gets to develop a relationship with one or more of his preferred charities directly, without involving Alice beyond a single transaction.