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Comment by melling | Hacker News Reader

Americans gave $358 billion last year. $20k is a drop in the bucket.

https://philanthropy.com/interactives/giving-usa-2015

If you really want to make a big difference, start a company, create jobs, make millions then donate a larger sum of money.

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I worked briefly for a philanthropic organization that had high visibility among super wealthy people. They accepted whatever donations, but didn't really pay attention unless you had at least $100K. The vast majority of their endowment came in multimillion dollar gifts from people who wanted hospitals named after themselves.

It's unfortunate that HN readers would rather run through the weeds trying to add zero to infinity, rather than try to actually make a real difference. If we could make medical research donations more efficient, for example, we could make a big difference. Say, for instance, we identified the best medical research charities, and have people donate to those.

Givewell.org. basically does what you propose.

I don't see any medical research charities:

http://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities

Did you read the article?

Their top two recommendations were invest in a startup, or give to the Gates foundation.

I said start a company. That's different than investing in someone else's company. You can't be much of an investor with $20k, that's about what Y Combinator gives a team for an initial seed. That money is quickly followed by VC money.

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