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New Charity Organization - BLOOM
« on: January 05, 2018, 10:09:28 PM »
BLOOM (Be Love Orphan Outreach Missions) is a 501c3 Christian charity which works to serve orphans and vulnerable children in 3 ways:

1. Sponsorship for food/education/clothing and other emergent needs in Uganda and Sierra Leone (We currently have 29 children in Christ Children's Care Orphanage in Sierra Leone who need sponsors; 10 who are in emergency status in our Side by Side Ministries Program in Uganda)

2. Sustainable farming projects and teacher training programs in these countries in order to help wean orphans off sponsorship and get their orphanages to be self sufficient. The goal is also to  engage the local communities to care for their own by creating jobs, therefore locals can generate income, and as a byproduct, we get extended family reunification and thus less orphans.

3. Orphan hosting programs in Poland and Ukraine where orphans come to live with American families for 4-5 weeks twice a year on an "exchange" where they receive the love of a Christian family while learning English, getting medical checkups, and possibly even finding an adoptive family.

Now that you know a little about BLOOM, let's focus on this proposal, which will be for sponsorship support in Sierra Leone and Uganda.

A. Our Side by Side Ministries Program rescues children from abusive situations in the Rakai, Uganda area where they are at risk of being beaten, raped, and neglected by unofficial "foster" families and other negligent guardians. Our team rescues the child, then transfers them to a Christian boarding school while looking for extended family reunification opportunities or a Christian foster family. The cost to sponsor a child for boarding school is $88 per month and it includes all their private school fees, room and board, uniforms, food, medical care, hair cuts, etc.

I have applied for a separate grant to cover 10 children in emergency status for 3 months, so I would like to request 880,000 BBP ($2640) to cover those 10 children for 3 more months of this year to start, and then that will give us time to grow BBP to cover the next 3 months and so on, at which time I'll submit another proposal (or I will find another sponsor later this year).

B. Our Sierra Leone Sponsorship program provides 3 healthy meals per day for the children, including while they are at school, every day each month for $36/mo. These children attend a school at the orphanage, so there are no extra boarding/schooling costs for them. These are children orphaned from poverty and the remnants of the Ebola outbreak that happened there a few years ago.

I am requesting 108,000 BBP ($324) to feed 3 children 3 meals daily for 3 months. Each month that BBP does well or each time a superblock is reached, I'd like to add 3 more children from this orphanage to this list.

You can read more about our sponsorship programs here
http://www.bloomworldwide.org/orphanchild-sponsorship/

and see photos/bios of the children who need sponsorship here.
http://www.bloomworldwide.org/sponsor-a-child/

I am happy to coordinate with you all and/or my volunteers at BLOOM to get the information needed to integrate these photos/bios to the BBP site.

Also of note is that we can often have children's grades or a letter from them sent to us at BBP as the "sponsors", depending on what's available at that particular school. And I, personally, along with my Director of Sponsorships, make sure all our letters are delivered to the kids electronically when they have internet access available (which is not often because, well, it's rural Africa, but it is possible on occasion!).

In sum, I'm requesting:
880,000 BBP ($2640) to cover 10 children in emergency status for 3 months in Rakai, Uganda (ideally to continue in 3 month increments for same 10 kids)
108,000 BBP ($324) to feed 3 children at the Sierra Leone orphanage for 3 months (ideally to continue in 3 month increments for same 3 kids, and possibly add more kids each time a superblock is reached)
Total Request: 988,000 BBP

Please let me know if you have further questions or need any clarification.
« Last Edit: January 26, 2018, 03:40:04 PM by orphandefender »


  • Rob Andrews
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Re: New Charity Organization - BLOOM
« Reply #1 on: January 06, 2018, 03:11:49 PM »
Although in general, I support expanding our ministry to multiple charities, however, I think there are a number of issues we currently have that bleed over into this proposal being paused or approved right off the bat.

1) We have a $10,000 deficit with Compassion and have not even minted our first superblock.
Why dont we wait for that to occur, before adding a new risk.  That occurs at block 24600.

2) We have 189 children with compassion who are not paid a cent in advance (IE if we miss next months payment we lose them all).  Some of us here like 616West have suggested that we pay at least 6 months into the future for these children, as it is really frowned upon to start up new sponsorships with kids from Bloom when we have not even paid a few months in advance with the kids we have committed to.

3) We dont even have an exchange online right now accepting bitcoins.  I think its a bad idea to set a precendent to ask for half of our charity budget right off the bat, when our price is uncertain.  Lets try to get a pulse on our average price after c-cex comes back online for a couple weeks first.

4) I think it would be a good idea to sponsor One orphan with bloom and see how the relationship works out.

5) Im not sure if Togo asked you about this, but here is one huge question.  We currently have IT integration where we can view an orphans Bio by clicking a link.  Would we receive IT integration with bloom for the one new orphan?  Could we write letters electronically?  Could the orphans handwritten letter/reply be stored as a PDF so our pool could show the inbound letter to the user?

6) I think the food program sounds a little pricey, why so much per month for a childs food program? 

7) Is there any PR bloom could give us once we instantiate a relationship of more than 5 orphans per month?

Thanks!  I wonder if starting small will work! 

Please dont take offense to these points, the problem is we are new and our currency is not worth a lot yet, so we have to be very cautious, and make our small amount go a long way.

God Bless you.

Rob


  • togoshigekata
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Re: New Charity Organization - BLOOM
« Reply #2 on: January 06, 2018, 04:47:40 PM »
Responding to Rob's Feedback

=========

Quote
1) We have a $10,000 deficit with Compassion and have not even minted our first superblock.
Why dont we wait for that to occur, before adding a new risk.  That occurs at block 24600.

December 2017 Compassion Expense Reimbursement (Monthly Orphan Premiums)
http://forum.biblepay.org/index.php?topic=53.0
2,894,609 BBP

Extra to Orphan Fund
http://forum.biblepay.org/index.php?topic=66.0
400,000 BBP

My understanding is that the December Charity proposal would bring us current on any expenses?
3,294,609 BBP is going towards Compassion expenses for this 1st superblock.

I do see the risk with the superblock though, hopefully it goes smoothly super early Sunday morning.
But if it doesnt, it could potentially cause days of delay and extra work,
which means more days the funds wont be able to go towards expenses still racking up.

==========

Quote
2) We have 189 children with compassion who are not paid a cent in advance (IE if we miss next months payment we lose them all).  Some of us here like 616West have suggested that we pay at least 6 months into the future for these children, as it is really frowned upon to start up new sponsorships with kids from Bloom when we have not even paid a few months in advance with the kids we have committed to.

616west and I both saw the monthly behavior as high risk in the bitcointalk forums long ago,
616west being more vocal lately about it, but do you have plans to change this behavior?
and start budgeting months in advance or adding cushion?

Togo August 17, 2017
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2042657.msg20973656#msg20973656

It looks like you might be in the process:
http://forum.biblepay.org/index.php?topic=53.msg917#msg917

==========

Quote
3) We dont even have an exchange online right now accepting bitcoins.  I think its a bad idea to set a precendent to ask for half of our charity budget right off the bat, when our price is uncertain.  Lets try to get a pulse on our average price after c-cex comes back online for a couple weeks first.

So far I believe this is just a pre-proposal for discussion, so no actual proposal has been entered into the blockchain yet.

April so far has requested 667k BBP, which would be 23% of Decembers Charity budget.

Also a note, this current superblock, about 123k BBP is going to be burned because we didn't get enough proposals.

Having no exchanges is up is really bad though, because we have no way to sell Biblepay coins into Bitcoin into Dollars to pay for expenses. CoinsMarkets hopefully comes back up in the next few days as they upgrade their servers from too much traffic, and C-CEX hopefully comes back up end of January.

==========

Quote
5) Im not sure if Togo asked you about this, but here is one huge question.  We currently have IT integration where we can view an orphans Bio by clicking a link.  Would we receive IT integration with bloom for the one new orphan?  Could we write letters electronically?  Could the orphans handwritten letter/reply be stored as a PDF so our pool could show the inbound letter to the user?

Im not sure if BLOOM has this ability.

I think this requirement is going to be harder for any small business/nonprofit/charity to do, programmers are expensive, but I do think it is a really cool ability that you have spent time integrating into the pool website and that Compassion offers (and its one of the awesome features of the BiblePay coin).

Im just worried a lot of the smaller charities/nonprofits may not be technologically advanced nor have the money for API support for letter writing. (Compassion had 617 million in revenue in 2013). Do we want to risk keeping most if not all small guys from getting funding due to this? (most businesses are small businesses).

I wonder if we could get a programmer position to help charities/nonprofits with this Letter API ability?

==========

Quote
7) Is there any PR bloom could give us once we instantiate a relationship of more than 5 orphans per month?

I think this is a good question, but on the flip side so far to my knowledge Compassion hasnt given us any PR (whereas they have been getting some PR from us), do you plan to also ask Compassion for PR?

==========
==========

Overall I share most of your main concerns Rob, I do think it would be wise to wait on any and all proposals while the exchanges are down and the 1st superblock hasnt paid out successfully yet. But I do believe this is still just a pre-proposal to get feedback / start discussion.

I think this would be a beneficial starting relationship with BLOOM, Im not sure how many other christian charities/nonprofits are going to be comfortable writing a proposal and handling funding in cryptocurrencies.

I hope everything works out, I believe it will, and I hope we can all learn and grow and help as many in distress as possible!

Thank you Rob and April!
« Last Edit: January 06, 2018, 04:52:33 PM by togoshigekata »


  • Rob Andrews
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Re: New Charity Organization - BLOOM
« Reply #3 on: January 07, 2018, 09:29:23 AM »
Really quick on two of the points as I believe they are mission critical:

Togo, on the "deficit" with Compassion, that $10k deficit was up to the day before I entered the 2.8M proposal for this superblock, so Yes, we would not only be paid up to date, but paid into the future, however, I do want to say this also:  The January payments are already almost due (they are due on the third friday of the month, around Jan 19, and our *next* superblock is not until February 7th, so keep that in mind also).  But to summarize this situation, one exception I make for record keeping with orphans, since its our core business, is I log every bitcoin transaction in Orphans|Fundraisers, and every expense paid to Compassion in Orphans|Expenses Paid.  So it will be extremely easy to see the state of Compassion in about 15 days.  The reason we have such a huge problem this month is we cant even withdraw the BTC we sold this month due to the ccex vacation.  Its just an extrordinarily complicated month.  But around the end of this month, all of that will be recorded in detail. 

Regarding pre-payment, yes, Ive confirmed that is a risk and that we will not be adding new sponsorships to compassion, we will prepay them instead.  And I plan on using any surplus obtained this month for only prepaying them in the future.  But that is part of my point, we havent prepaid any yet, we have a $10k deficit, I havent withdrawn the BTC yet, and the $7100 bill is due in 10 days, so there is not really a ton going to prepayment(I think, we will see shortly).    Its not going to be a huge amount left over for it, as generally I crash the market when I sell these coins.  But with our higher price, lets see how it goes and we can regroup on it towards the end of the month.  My basic summary above-is it sounds reckless to pay anything higher than two new orphans until I see our state Has changed and we start generating surpluses. 

130k of unburned coins yes, but we were overbudget in our departments.

Regarding free PR, this is just a question for new partnerships and leverage.  Its the same idea as what Fios will give you if you dont have fios.  They might give you free channels to sign up with them, but if you are existing customer, they wont give you anything.  We are existing customer of Compassion, so we can ask April for something free as we arent with Bloom yet.



  • togoshigekata
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Re: New Charity Organization - BLOOM
« Reply #4 on: January 07, 2018, 11:38:17 AM »
I think I can agree that any new charity proposals should be paused until we are current/up to date financially with Compassion. Id hate to lose any current orphan sponsorships! Thank you for risking your own personal money to keep it going Rob!

===

PR wise for charities/nonprofits, it would be cool to get a shoutout on Facebook/Twitter/Blog (Social Media) and maybe even get a Logo image that links to us on their websites with a short description.
« Last Edit: January 07, 2018, 11:41:29 AM by togoshigekata »


Re: New Charity Organization - BLOOM
« Reply #5 on: January 26, 2018, 04:08:18 PM »
Although in general, I support expanding our ministry to multiple charities, however, I think there are a number of issues we currently have that bleed over into this proposal being paused or approved right off the bat.

1) We have a $10,000 deficit with Compassion and have not even minted our first superblock.
Why dont we wait for that to occur, before adding a new risk.  That occurs at block 24600.

*This should be good to go now, am I correct?

2) We have 189 children with compassion who are not paid a cent in advance (IE if we miss next months payment we lose them all).  Some of us here like 616West have suggested that we pay at least 6 months into the future for these children, as it is really frowned upon to start up new sponsorships with kids from Bloom when we have not even paid a few months in advance with the kids we have committed to.

*We are caught up now, correct? I have proposed 3 month sponsorship increments and adjusted the amounts/number of kids/program according to our biggest needs right now.

3) We dont even have an exchange online right now accepting bitcoins.  I think its a bad idea to set a precendent to ask for half of our charity budget right off the bat, when our price is uncertain.  Lets try to get a pulse on our average price after c-cex comes back online for a couple weeks first.

*C-Cex is back up now. All good?

4) I think it would be a good idea to sponsor One orphan with bloom and see how the relationship works out.

*You sponsored a ton with Compassion initially. Is there something about them (personal relationship, or they have a direct involvement in supporting the advancement of BBP that led to you starting with a large number with them?) We are smaller, more personal, and willing to work with you. Sounds like Compassion got lucky that you are the one doing all their integration work for them.  ;) Other big organizations probably won't take the time to just work with you for one orphan sponsorship either, or any for that matter, as they can make a ton of money and get more sponsors just advertising like they always do, and their sponsors will use their existing interface, and they won't have to do ANY integration. Also, big organizations are less likely to help you with PR. Trust me, I know how non profits work and what they're willing to do to partner with people. I have worked for big and small ones in many capacities. Smaller ones like us and this new Cameroon One are more willing to think and work outside the box.  :)

*Thus, I think committing to more than that with BLOOM for 3 month increments is fair. If you don't want to take the plunge with 13, I understand. Perhaps just 5-10? Honestly, it's not feasible for me to maintain this relationship on my end for just one orphan at a time. I'm willing to work with you guys on integration with my nearly all-volunteer staff. This is a huge time sacrifice for us when we won't get anything in return as an organization. All my staff except 1 already works for free to serve these kids, so if we are to do this, we need it to be for a bigger commitment. Not to trivialize your offer, which we appreciate, but I have to look at our business side too, and our limited resources available. Working with you on one child will take about the same amount of staff time as 10 kids if you're asking us to handle integration, whereas finding an individual sponsor somewhere else for one child will take no extra staff time in terms of maintenance or integration. Not to mention my time and BBP investment to create these proposals. I hope you can appreciate and understand where I'm coming from. Perhaps if we don't have to do integration, we can consider 3 orphans to start?

*Lastly, if there is enough money available to sponsor all the kids I'm proposing, why not sponsor them starting now? Where else will those funds go? Meanwhile, the kids will stay hungry or won't be able to attend school.  :-[


5) Im not sure if Togo asked you about this, but here is one huge question.  We currently have IT integration where we can view an orphans
Bio by clicking a link.  Would we receive IT integration with bloom for the one new orphan?  Could we write letters electronically?  Could the orphans handwritten letter/reply be stored as a PDF so our pool could show the inbound letter to the user?

*Yes, depending on how easy it is. If it's complicated, we may direct the people who want to write letters to our director of sponsorships directly. Again, we're an all-volunteer staff except for myself. But I have very complicated, detail and time intensive orphan hosting programs to run myself and with my volunteers, so we will have to keep the integration time investment small and simple.

6) I think the food program sounds a little pricey, why so much per month for a childs food program?

* Can you please be more specific and see my updates above? I disagree that any of our programs are pricey for what the children receive. Kids are receiving 3 healthy meals per day for 30 days for about $1 per day. Can you eat that well for that cheap (aside from Ramen?  ;D ) Food in Africa is more expensive than here in the US if you buy it retail instead of grow it (hence why we're trying to do our sustainable farming project). Also, our kids in each program are very rural and it takes quite a bit to rent a truck, go into town, and buy the food. It's also not in bulk since we have smaller programs. If you think it's expensive, perhaps you're comparing to mega programs where they bring in food in bulk or have lower quality/smaller quantity of food per day the kids are getting fed.

7) Is there any PR bloom could give us once we instantiate a relationship of more than 5 orphans per month?

*What kind of PR are you looking for exactly? Right now, I think our audiences as we are each currently promoting our company/organization are completely different, so doing any kind of PR for each other would not add value for either of us. We also have not identified the utility of this coin clearly to the public. We must also identify the utility of BBP to my audience. I would want to have more of a handle on our PR strategy for BBP before making this decision to make sure that working together on PR makes sense. I would also need for there to be a minimum of about 10-20 kids consistently sponsored to consider PR. And I would want to see Compassion and other partners equally sharing in the PR responsibility and agreements so it's a fair relationship.

Thanks!  I wonder if starting small will work! 

Please dont take offense to these points, the problem is we are new and our currency is not worth a lot yet, so we have to be very cautious, and make our small amount go a long way.

*No offense at all! Likewise for you to my points. I'm sure we can come to a fair compromise.

God Bless you.

Rob

« Last Edit: January 26, 2018, 04:19:16 PM by orphandefender »


  • Rob Andrews
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Re: New Charity Organization - BLOOM
« Reply #6 on: January 26, 2018, 09:29:24 PM »
Thanks for the detailed reply. 

"*Yes, depending on how easy it is. If it's complicated, we may direct the people who want to write letters to our director of sponsorships directly. Again, we're an all-volunteer staff except for myself. But I have very complicated, detail and time intensive orphan hosting programs to run myself and with my volunteers, so we will have to keep the integration time investment small and simple. "

So let be me a little more specific on the IT requirements:
1) We need a publically visible web biography link for each child so the users can click on the bio and see who we sponsored.
From the sounds of the reply, you have no plans to do this until after we sponsor children (if ever).
2) We need a restful web page to transmit a letter to your home office so that it gets translated and sent to the child.  Our users do not print and mail letters.
3) We normally want letters from the children sent electronically to us.  We could potentially wait on this feature until later.

Please address these IT issues, if the features exist, need written, need a custom programmer, would be done before we sponsor etc.

Regarding "starting small", I find it a little disturbing that you reference in your proposal that these children will be "starving" because nothing is being done, yet it appears that you would be very willing for us to not come up with the money for the next compassion payment (but instead divert it to BLOOM).

Lets say we are very happy with compassion and I think our money is going to a good cause currently.  That means that I want to prioritize the relationship we have with our existing 190 children before bringing more on.  That means desiring to prepay for all of them six months out, at the very least.

We owe $7100 per month to compassion and have only broken even, so no, that does not mean "our problems are over" - as should have been pretty clear - its only been 25 days since I said the comment.

I believe we can afford one child for 3 months, with a total budget of approximately $120 for BLOOM at this time.

I think we need to come up with $21000 for Compassion in surplus, before we expand our relationship to something in the scale you propose here (980,000 BBP with no IT integration promises).

As it stands, Ill be voting no for all of these reasons, and would consider voting yes if *all* of these reasons were cleared up.   




Re: New Charity Organization - BLOOM
« Reply #7 on: January 27, 2018, 11:11:58 AM »
Can you explain what type of programming is necessary? Is there an instruction manual? If not, I doubt any organization will be able to integrate.

We do or can, however, have all our kids' bios up on our website which is public. I am happy to provide those links to embed wherever you need so we don't need to create unnecessary work. And if anyone wants to write a letter back to the kids, they can type or write them and we're happy to pass it along. Again, though, it's not clear how we are going to get this information. Should I just copy and paste from this site somewhere?

And just to clarify so I understand, you are requiring a custom programmer for nonprofits with limited budgets in order for them to receive sponsors for the kids? But you were willing to provide the programming for 190 children for Compassion? 
*Can you clarify this please before we agree to move forward?

If this is the case, I would highly suggest a solution to this problem. I really don't foresee non profits going through this type of hassle just to get one child sponsored. Most Non profits don't have the resources to do something like that. If your goal was to just have Compassion and provide all their integration and PR, then that's fine, but if you'd like to give other kids a chance, then it will need to be easier and more fair for  others to participate.
*Can you clarify your goals on this as well?

Lastly, I am quite offended by this assumption:

"Regarding "starting small", I find it a little disturbing that you reference in your proposal that these children will be "starving" because nothing is being done, yet it appears that you would be very willing for us to not come up with the money for the next compassion payment (but instead divert it to BLOOM)."

Where did I suggest I was willing for you to "not come up with the money for the next compassion payment, and instead divert it to BLOOM?"

There was NO place I suggested that AT ALL. I asked if you were caught up, and from what Stephen has told me, there is a LOT of room in the budget for more sponsorships. I also gained that from your last replies that you'd be caught up. If you are accusing me of this, please clarify. Seriously, that's offensive and untrue. I can't help but think you're purposefully trying to find ways not to sponsor BLOOM kids, which is sad. How did we get off on the wrong foot here?

It sounds to me like there is a lot of discrepancy in what is available in the budget. Perhaps if that was more clear, we could make proposals that are more reasonable without offending each other.
*Can you please outline what IS available so we can clear this up?
« Last Edit: January 27, 2018, 11:37:49 AM by orphandefender »


Re: New Charity Organization - BLOOM
« Reply #8 on: January 27, 2018, 11:41:04 AM »
As a stop gap, I would suggest the following.

On the side of the coin:

1) Continue pre-paying existing commitments first, strive to have a six month window pre-paid
2) Be open to new ideas, but choose duration over quantity, that is to say, sponsorship of 3 children for 6 months is better than 18 children for 1 month
3) Be amenable to minor changes is how we do things, such as receiving documents via email then uploading them manually during a test period
4) Start a new thread every month that is updated (edited) showing how much we have in the budget and where it has been allotted so far (I'll do this today)

The maker of the proposal to sponsor new charitable items should be willing to do the following during a test period.

1) Create the document needed for the Biblepay system (electronic  bio)
2) Have an email address that can handle electronic response of letters, and then be willing to print them or whatever the standard for the new charity is.
3) Digitize and upload/email any new documents needed (such as response of children)
4) Develop a clear commitment from the charity during the test period to conform to the existing system if chosen as a long term partner


Re: New Charity Organization - BLOOM
« Reply #9 on: January 27, 2018, 07:35:39 PM »
I'm fine with supporting charities with no IT integration with us as long they are willing to work with us to add the necessary transparency to know where the money is going and how it is used which is what BLOOM seems to be willing to do. I would be fine with it just being relevant documents/PDFs. We could probably also figure out the letter writing the same way.

I may have missed it but would it be possible have some numbers about BLOOM (number of children currently sponsored, volunteers, money raised, etc?). I am just trying to get an idea of the size of your organisation and its current impact.

I think the small non-profits we're looking for are probably the ones that give the most to those in distress. Having said that, it will also probably mean that their administrative/IT/budget is quite small and it would be a big burden to have the IT integration. I think it (the IT integration)  would also make us highly centralised which is interesting for an entity that tries to be as decentralised as possible.

If we really want the IT integration, maybe we could fund the development of something that any charity could just install to do  to integrate with us?

Edit: Just thought about it now but would BLOOM be willing to accept the payment in BiblePay and convert it to fiat or would we have to do it? I think accepting the payment in BBP directly could be a great step for us towards decentralisation.
« Last Edit: January 27, 2018, 09:09:27 PM by Alex »


Re: New Charity Organization - BLOOM
« Reply #10 on: January 27, 2018, 11:13:50 PM »
If we really want the IT integration, maybe we could fund the development of something that any charity could just install to do  to integrate with us?

I was thinking something along the same line, such as building /revising the core components of orphan sponsorship into API, and then documenting how to utilize them.  That way a small or large organization would be able interface with us without an undue burden on either party.

That would actually lead to a good line I've talked about several times, which is to separate the pool software from the governance side (which would be both the proposals as well as the charity).


  • jaapgvk
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Re: New Charity Organization - BLOOM
« Reply #11 on: January 28, 2018, 02:48:35 AM »

Quote
If we really want the IT integration, maybe we could fund the development of something that any charity could just install to do  to integrate with us?

Great idea!

And April: I'm sure Rob can clarify what he said. I find it sometimes difficult to communicate online, and it can be hard to get a clear picture of someone. I can also sometimes be wary of the motivations of people online. It can be hard when you don't see someone in person. But I'm sure it will work out.

In my view, we should start slow, and be thankful for every new potential partner, and definitely don't have to ask time and recources consuming requirements from the get go. That's why I really like the  idea of developing a stand alone program that can help charities integrate into BiblePay.


  • Rob Andrews
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Re: New Charity Organization - BLOOM
« Reply #12 on: January 28, 2018, 07:43:48 AM »
Can you explain what type of programming is necessary? Is there an instruction manual? If not, I doubt any organization will be able to integrate.

We do or can, however, have all our kids' bios up on our website which is public. I am happy to provide those links to embed wherever you need so we don't need to create unnecessary work. And if anyone wants to write a letter back to the kids, they can type or write them and we're happy to pass it along. Again, though, it's not clear how we are going to get this information. Should I just copy and paste from this site somewhere?

And just to clarify so I understand, you are requiring a custom programmer for nonprofits with limited budgets in order for them to receive sponsors for the kids? But you were willing to provide the programming for 190 children for Compassion? 
*Can you clarify this please before we agree to move forward?

If this is the case, I would highly suggest a solution to this problem. I really don't foresee non profits going through this type of hassle just to get one child sponsored. Most Non profits don't have the resources to do something like that. If your goal was to just have Compassion and provide all their integration and PR, then that's fine, but if you'd like to give other kids a chance, then it will need to be easier and more fair for  others to participate.
*Can you clarify your goals on this as well?

Lastly, I am quite offended by this assumption:

"Regarding "starting small", I find it a little disturbing that you reference in your proposal that these children will be "starving" because nothing is being done, yet it appears that you would be very willing for us to not come up with the money for the next compassion payment (but instead divert it to BLOOM)."

Where did I suggest I was willing for you to "not come up with the money for the next compassion payment, and instead divert it to BLOOM?"

There was NO place I suggested that AT ALL. I asked if you were caught up, and from what Stephen has told me, there is a LOT of room in the budget for more sponsorships. I also gained that from your last replies that you'd be caught up. If you are accusing me of this, please clarify. Seriously, that's offensive and untrue. I can't help but think you're purposefully trying to find ways not to sponsor BLOOM kids, which is sad. How did we get off on the wrong foot here?

It sounds to me like there is a lot of discrepancy in what is available in the budget. Perhaps if that was more clear, we could make proposals that are more reasonable without offending each other.
*Can you please outline what IS available so we can clear this up?

"Can you explain what type of programming is necessary? Is there an instruction manual? If not, I doubt any organization will be able to integrate. "
-> If you doubt any organization can do it, then it doesnt sound like you are willing to go the extra mile to work with us.  Yes, if we had an integration session, I could provide that to your programmer.  Compassion has gone the extra mile and does have an API, so the statement you made is false.

"It sounds to me like there is a lot of discrepancy in what is available in the budget. Perhaps if that was more clear, we could make proposals that are more reasonable without offending each other.
"

-> Im sorry that you feel that way, but there was no discrepency, and the numbers have been available on our web site since we started if you took the time to read them. 
To see them, click Orphan -> Expenses from the Pool.  To see the fundraisers, click Orphans -> Fundraisers. 


We have just broken even with our compassion expenses, However, we have 190 orphans to pay, 40 day superblocks, (meaning that our Charity budget is only 2.8 MM per month ) that is available.  We crash the market when we convert these funds to cash each month.

Meaning that our budget is very close to break-even currently, and as I said above, I think we have $120 available for a project like this.

You have already said that is too small to work with, so I suggest coming back in 6 months and checking with us again since its "too small".

I feel like we should be working with Positive players, who Want to integrate with us, not starting out by calling us deceptive, and resistant to integrate, and have a very bleak outlook on other charities.









« Last Edit: January 28, 2018, 08:11:33 PM by Rob A. »


Re: New Charity Organization - BLOOM
« Reply #13 on: January 28, 2018, 08:14:52 AM »
Hey Rob,

I think the issue is that (from experience also) most smaller organisations don't have programmers nor even official "IT departments" as it is too expensive and not their "core business" which is helping people in distress. It's usually some volunteers who take care of the "basic" IT needs and the rest (such as the website) is outsourced to contractors or companies specialised in that.

Now that would make sense (and actually be a good sign to me) as I would rather have them use the funds to take care of more children rather than just having more employees.

Now, I might be wrong, but it is my understanding that Compassion did not specifically integrate with us (by that I mean creating an API just for us) but instead had already spent the money to create an API available to everyone. If we want to work with smaller charities, this just will never happen. They don't have the funds nor the HR for that.

IT integration with the pool is not something I would consider mandatory to me as there are other way to do it. It would also remove a lot of power from the masternodes as should masternodes not be able to vote for charities that don't integrate with the pool?
It would limit us to only the bigger charities which will not work with us on a personal level (which I think would be greatly beneficial for BiblePay). They would just have an API to use that everyone can use anyway and we would just be another donator.

I think it would be the best if you entered the budget you need for Compassion soon. Do you plan on using all the 2.8 mil coins? Right now, this is approximately $16000, plenty of room to pay Compassion and more. I understand the risk and volatility of the prices and it maybe being the reason you're waiting. If you plan on asking for all the charity coins, we could wait until we're closer to the Superblock and maybe add the "leftover" coins to the charity budget. Use them either for Compassion, Bloom or any other charity proposal that may appear.

I asked Bloom but if they would accept the payment directly in BiblePay, that could also be to our advantage as we wouldn't have to do the conversion ourselves even thought I am not sure how it would work for them (taxation wise).


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Re: New Charity Organization - BLOOM
« Reply #14 on: January 28, 2018, 08:09:45 PM »
Hey Rob,

I think the issue is that (from experience also) most smaller organisations don't have programmers nor even official "IT departments" as it is too expensive and not their "core business" which is helping people in distress. It's usually some volunteers who take care of the "basic" IT needs and the rest (such as the website) is outsourced to contractors or companies specialised in that.

Now that would make sense (and actually be a good sign to me) as I would rather have them use the funds to take care of more children rather than just having more employees.

Now, I might be wrong, but it is my understanding that Compassion did not specifically integrate with us (by that I mean creating an API just for us) but instead had already spent the money to create an API available to everyone. If we want to work with smaller charities, this just will never happen. They don't have the funds nor the HR for that.

IT integration with the pool is not something I would consider mandatory to me as there are other way to do it. It would also remove a lot of power from the masternodes as should masternodes not be able to vote for charities that don't integrate with the pool?
It would limit us to only the bigger charities which will not work with us on a personal level (which I think would be greatly beneficial for BiblePay). They would just have an API to use that everyone can use anyway and we would just be another donator.

I think it would be the best if you entered the budget you need for Compassion soon. Do you plan on using all the 2.8 mil coins? Right now, this is approximately $16000, plenty of room to pay Compassion and more. I understand the risk and volatility of the prices and it maybe being the reason you're waiting. If you plan on asking for all the charity coins, we could wait until we're closer to the Superblock and maybe add the "leftover" coins to the charity budget. Use them either for Compassion, Bloom or any other charity proposal that may appear.

I asked Bloom but if they would accept the payment directly in BiblePay, that could also be to our advantage as we wouldn't have to do the conversion ourselves even thought I am not sure how it would work for them (taxation wise).


I guess Ill have to be clearer here so we can communicate on this in a more granular fashion.

I realize Compassion had an API, thats why we used it - making the IT integration much easier.  Its either Us or Them, and if one exists it makes the job 90% easier.

To me, its of paramount importance to talk about IT, because we are a cryptocurrency.  (Were not a brick and mortar church).  One of our biggest features is clicking on the orphan Bio, so we can see who we are sponsoring.

Web sites are so prevalent, I argue that any charity worth their salt should be able to create BIOs for us.

So I disagree with your assumption that it cant be done - anything can be done if we both agree on it.  If we are willing to help the children, then put one of your IT people on the problem.

I realize parts 2 & 3 of the IT integration may not be possible (the letter writing interface).  But - I need a person who says Yes, meaning that someone will find a way to accept a typed letter in the mail, and we can have you and 616 mail them out personally once per month.

The $16000 you mention is hogwash.  Please go to Orphan -> Fundraisers, sum the list, and find the average before posting that here.  Its insulting.  I think its more like half that.  We dont raise 100% of our coin liquidations on our last-leg exchange.  We raise half when we crash the market.  I typed that earlier but its possible you missed it or didnt know what I meant.

So, therefore, again - we dont have a surplus, we can afford $120 of new orphans, and I prefer IT integration because I prefer to set a high standard with Biblepay.