Funding Friday: The Human Utility Monthly Match
And we are back with this month’s matching campaign to support a good cause.
We are moving away from the big well known causes to some lesser known but important efforts to help people who need our help.
We are going to start with helping people in need pay their water bills and keep clean water flowing to their homes.
The Human Utility helps almost 1000 families in Detroit and Baltimore pay their water bills and avoid a water shutoff.
We are going to match the first $20k of donations that anyone makes to The Human Utility between now and Sunday night (midnight PST). If we fully utilize this match, we will raise $40k which might get another 100 families their water back. That would be awesome.
To donate and have your contribution matched, go here and hit the big blue Donate button and make sure to tweet out your donation so we can match it.
Let’s get some water flowing again.
Comments (Archived):
I’ve started to look forward to these.Thanks to the matching team on this.
is water an expensive utility in America?
Liquidity tends to keep the price under control in fluid markets. Nonetheless, when you’re awash in debt, everything is expensive.
🙂
Jim, please tell me you write copy for an ad agency?
Nope. Too late in my career to dive into that.
I am seeing that this is ‘Fiscally sponsored’ by ‘the Social Good organization however you are running this through crowdrise.com. Social Good Fund essentially charges for doing admin work. Am I raining on a parade here? This is probably a good cause but I am not sure the way they term this ‘Fiscally sponsored by’ and then listing that it’s an IRS nonprofit (the payment and admin processor) isn’t somewhat misleading in terms of what it implies. While I am sure this is a good organization (by the people who are backing it) and will donate at your suggestion, I don’t think it’s a model of transparency. There is no info on who is behind it other than the supporters listed in the screen grab at the bottom. I don’t like at all the fact that I don’t know who is running this show. While that may not be an issue here (I guess) it creates a template that allows others to do the same who may not be as scrupulous.https://www.socialgoodfund….So I assume that means that the project is only paying one set of fees, to crowdrise.com ?This appears to be socialgoodfund.org vetting process:https://www.socialgoodfund….Noting also no Form 990’s on Social Good’s website (something I typically like to check) and a search only reveals a 2015 Form 990 floating around…. https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Fred, have you considered doing a monthly match for charities recommended by GiveWell and many members of the Effective Altruist movement? All of these have been rigorously evaluated, including through Randomized Controlled Trials.Examples include:- Anti-Malaria Foundation — $7,500 to save the life a of child- GiveDirectly — direct cash transfers to the poor- Schistosomiasis Control Initiative — ending a parasitic diseaseSee more info on all the above here:http://www.givewell.org/cha…
Really seems there should be baseline access to water.Agree. It seems that instead of having discussions on things like UBI there should be a conversation around providing for certain basic necessities. Which certainly includes water.I don’t even know what my water bill is. But it’s low enough that a few places that I live and work don’t even monitor it. It’s included in common charges and doesn’t pay for the associations to bill directly (to cut down waste).That said, and along with my other comment, I am curious how they vet people applying for help. How do they determine the need and that the money that they do have isn’t being spent on things that are not basic necessities.