Bitcoin Forum

(Updated to provide more detail on request from community)

Hi Everyone

My name is Peter Finn http://www.linkedin.com/in/finnpeter (http://www.linkedin.com/in/finnpeter) and I volunteer as the CEO for a non profit organization called Against Hunger http://www.againsthunger.org (http://www.againsthunger.org).  My volunteer work and day job are completely separate and there is no relationship between the two.  Against Hunger is a 100% non profit organization. We started raising money for hungry children and became a registered non profit in 2001.  We have used a variety of innovative methods in the past to raise money to feed people living in poverty, from playing games to feed the hungry, click to donate, surveys, banner advertising, sales referrals and various other methods.  We managed to raise thousands of dollars and worked with other charities to distribute the funds.  Our major revenue source was banner advertising and when the cost of banner advertising fell our business model was no longer affective. As a result fundraising has been minimal over the last 5 years.

We started mining Bitcoin Litecoin, vertcoin and Dogecon and this showed promise as a method of raising funds. The cost of mining is high and there are so many cryptocoins on the market it is difficult to decide where to use mining resources.  I believe there are significant advantages to Cyrpto coins in the fight against poverty from raising donations distribution to people in need and validating where the money was spent by tracking the donations on the blockchain.

I would like to partner with the Bitocin community to see if we can work together to raise money for people around the world who still live in poverty.  We are completely independent and a 100% volunteer organization so we have no overheads.  We have no political affiliation or ties to any religious organization. With the ability to transmit money seamlessly around the world we are able to ensure all funds raised go directly to those most in need. We do not discriminate based on religious beliefs, age, ethnicity or cultural backgrounds.

How can you help
We would like to raise money to feed the hungry by accepting donations in various Cryptocurrencies.  We are currently accepting Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin and Vertcoin but are certainly interested in other cryptocurrencies and would appreciate feedback on what currencies we should accept. Essentially we would like to focus on currencies that are listed with major exchanges but if you have a new currency that has unique properties we would be open to suggestions.  Contact donations@againsthunger.org

Donations Wanted
If you would like to donate please visit http://www.againsthunger.org (http://www.againsthunger.org) and make a donation in one of the listed currencies. If the currency you wish to donate in is not listed but it is on one of the major exchanges please suggest it here.   At this stage we are not sure on the ability to issue tax receipts for donations but hopefully we will be able to in the future as government regulations are put in place.  The good news is you have proof of your donation registered on the associated block chain.  Contact donations@againsthunger.org

Advertisers Wanted
We are open to provide advertising for people who make donations at a rate starting at 0.1BTC per month or equivalent in a currency of choice for websites offering cryptocurrency related products or services. Just contact us at advertise@againsthunger.org  and we are open to negotiate.

Charities Wanted
We are looking for boots on the ground charities. People working directly with those in need to distribute funds. We are exploring unique models based on crypto currency for fund distribution to get money for food and water directly to those in need. If you have a charity helping the poorest of people in the world in unbanked regions we would be interested in partnering.

Partners Wanted
We are interested during the early phases at looking at exchanges of advertising on crypto related sites such as mining pools, currency exchanges or other related sites and would appreciate if sites can add a donation item in mining pools if possible. We are also looking for a hosting partner as we envision we will receive a significant amount of traffic and have enjoyed some unique hosting models in the past in exchange for advertising.
If you can think of other ways to partner and grow the charitable aspect of cryptocurrencies in order to help raise money for people living in poverty
Please contact partners@againsthunger.org

Volunteers Wanted
If you would like to help please reach out to us.  We need website developers experience with developing API's and integrating with exchanges, mining pools and other systems. Social networking, we have a twitter account and would appreciate a follow and retweets.  https://twitter.com/AgainstHunger  We are working on facebook accounts, youtube accounts, linkedin groups, Google+ etc and would appreciate some support as these come together.  We are interested in your ideas and how you can help as well. Although we can't pay you it looks great on a resume. If you can volunteer please contact  volunteers@againsthunger.org  and we would appreciate the help.  


Thank you everyone for your support.  I really appreciate and value the cryptocurrency community and look forward to working with many of you as we try and give back to people who are not as fortunate as others.

peter@againsthunger.org

Scam?

i'm hungry.  buy me a big mac

I appreciate the healthy skepticism from the community :-)

I hope our proof of registration is sufficient but we can certainly provide any records if you require them.  http://www.againsthunger.org/files/6913/9240/5058/againsthunger.jpg (http://www.againsthunger.org/files/6913/9240/5058/againsthunger.jpg)


I know this is a new and innovative way to raise money for charity but I do believe with the communities help we can all work together to raise money to help end world hunger and provide some positive press in the future for Bitcoin and the Cryptocurrency community.  If people need more information please contact me directly

peter@againsthunger.org

We don't know if it is genuine or not. If serious, Should check registered list approved by Government in real.

There is one thing. Better get the information from guilds such as IRIS (If for conversation projects like eagles, swallows and etc.) or government, not from the group you asked.

I personally do this if considering to do seriously.

Hi

We have been on line since 2001 and you can see this from the DNS information. The wayback machine is also a great place to see some of the innovative ways we have raised money in the past.  (Yes the internet looked a little different back in 2001).  Some ways we raised money on the past were Surveys to feed the hungry   http://web.archive.org/web/20010625085032/http://www.againsthunger.org/vote/vote.cgi , Click to donate to feed the hungry http://web.archive.org/web/20051130032906/http://www.againsthunger.org/ etc etc   I have provided our non profit organization registration information and to verify the registration I recommend you contact the Canadian Revenue Agency

Please PM Me for more information.  I am happy to provide any details donation receipts over the years.  Again I appreciate the healthy skepticism online and I would like to ensure we are not perceived as an "Internet scam" when the intention of this is purely for the purpose assisting people in need and to bring the much needed positive focus from the media for the Bitcoin community.  

If you would like to help with any of the ways listed above please PM me or contact me directly peter@againsthunger.org

they quote "Against Hunger has been raising money through the internet since 2001. "

well
1. kinda strange to see the website has only just been touched under a week ago, and lay dormant for years before that(2009-2014)
2. kinda strange to see that if truly doing goodwill since 2001, where is the credit card processing, paypal, cash in the mail, donation methods.
3. crypto currency only as donation method. do not make me laugh that this is a legitimate charity running since 2001
4. if you lived in africa, id half believe you because then you atleast be in the area to deliver food bags to kids in need..... but your in canada

you state that you feed hungry kids. lol i guess you walk past their parents?

hang on let me become a non profit organisation.

... quick google search for someone elses dead charity, buy their domain. copy and paste their registration number into a forum message.

and there we have it, now to design a website that subtly says .. "give me moneyz".

if you are a genuine charity then dont just have a website that has images on it that look like they came from a google search of the word "poor africa" try to show us the results. maybe a video of you personally handing food to the poor with the business logo in the camera shot..

Hi franky1

I appreciate your interest in our organization. The domain was registered in 2000 and has always remained with the same organization. It has never been deleted or changed hands. A detailed whois report is obtainable with domain registry history from whois.sc (I do believe they charge a fee but hopefully you can find a free resource)  but the general who.is shows the domain information.   http://www.who.is/domain-history/againsthunger.org Our method of fundraising in the past has primarily been using banner advertising models. As I am sure you are aware the CPM and CPC revenue from banner advertising has significantly reduced so this is no longer an affective method.  

Yes we have accepted donations using Paypal and other forms of fiat currency in the past but we do not believe it would be in the "Spirit of the Bitcoin community" to continue to do so. Our focus in not just on feeding starving children and as per our mission statement we do not discriminate based on age.  Our Mission is to provide nutritious meals to people in need irrespective of location, ethnicity, age, religion, culture or nationality.

  

http://www.ted.com/talks/tristram_stuart_the_global_food_waste_scandal.html

I'm sorry OP, the capitalists have been pushing charity down our throats for over a century, and things have only gotten WORSE.

The world needs solidarity now more than ever... charity was always a lie, a myth, an ineffectual bad joke.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpAMbpQ8J7g

Great Ted talk Beliathon,

The high ratio of food waste in North America and Europe is astonishing.  How we obtain and redistribute this over abundance is certainly a good question.  The second video is also an interesting perspective but not necessarily a position I agree with. To refrain from helping someone now because we may not be able to change the overall situation they are in is certainly a controversial topic. I know there are significant challenges in closing the gaps to provide access to Shelter, healthcare, security and education but our goal is simply to focus on the most basic of human rights. A right that is still unobtainable by a large percentage of the worlds population, access to food and water.

:) don't know realy what to think.

Is is good or bad idea?? :)

very cool, good luck

Good luck and get some food for hungry ones!

I know how it is to be hungry for days.
So I might give some mBtc too.
I am not a rich so cant help a lot ...

But will think about how much can I give.

my problem is that if this 'charity' has been operating for 14 years, why does the website seem like a basement dwellers 5 minute creation. why are there no video's or pictures of their donations at work.

eg seans outpost less then a year ago asked for bitcoins, but they showed proof and did not hide. they now have video's of their action and everything.

to me, if i was doing something charitable (which i actually do) i would video it or take pictures, even as a momento of all my hard work or atleast as a free media way of showing supporters how they have helped, which in turn would generate more.

something just does not feel right with this campaign. its like a college student that made a website to get a few click referals to pay his foodbill through college under the pretence of "feeding hungry children".

so OP.
please show us where 14 years of donations went to thus far, if you show that your campaign actually works and has positive results then you would see donations flying in

If you want to donate in Bitcoin I think it's a good idea to contact the charities that we normally help and ask them to consider accepting donations in Bitcoin. At least that's what I am doing.

Oh by the way, you have misspelt Litecoin (Litcoin) on the index page of your site...  ::) (fixed)

PS. My favourite charity is http://www.kiva.org/ and I believe they are currently considering accepting Bitcoin for their loans.

Edited: Took out some negative comments after OP at least provided a personal LinkedIn page.

Hi franky1

I really appreciate your continued interest.  Against Hunger in the past has worked with other charities who have people on the ground and when we received funds via online methods we passed these funds onto other charities.  Here are some receipts as requested from Against Hunger to Plan International but I really encourage you to validate the authenticity of the receipts yourself with receiving organization.  http://againsthunger.org/files/3113/9257/2750/photo_1.JPG (http://againsthunger.org/files/3113/9257/2750/photo_1.JPG) .  I do not believe this is the best method for distributing funds as there is multiple places the funds change hands and there is a significant amount of overhead in the process.

Bitcoin provides an open audit trail that with the help of the community we can all track the path of the funds from the point of receipt to the point of spending and all the way through the supply chain.  This open audit trail provided by the blockchain should help us avoid corruption since we can all track this.  Someone asked me on linkedin today how we plan to distribute the funds to people who do not have access to the internet or cell phones.  The method I have been exploring is the use of custom BIP38 plastic cards with scratch off private keys and passwords (similar to the phone cards you see in the store).  The cards will come with a pull tab with the password on it so only the recipient knows the password and can see if it has been compromised (private key scratched off or password exposed on pull tab).  The recipient receives the card but there is no bitcoins on it so if there is a break in the chain do not loose any money.

The organization on the ground (we have some relationships but we need more) will notify the cards have been distributed and tell us the active public keys.  At this point we can now place small amounts of bitcoins on the card that can be used at a supporting merchant. This allows us to track that the bitcoins were in fact used appropriately and we can continue to track the progress of the coins across the supply chain. The issue I have is once the private key has been exposed there is the chance the merchant could continue to take the currency as it is placed on the card.  Here is a photo of progress but some feedback on better ways to do this when we have large numbers of people without internet and we want to avoid overhead would be appreciated.

http://againsthunger.org/files/4313/9256/4888/photo_2.JPG

Warren

I am not a supporter of microfinance and I encourage you to do some research into this area. Microfinance is not a donation it is a compound interest bearing loan. Repayment of the loan is not necessarily an indication of a success.  Please do some research into the impact on the poorest people in the world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_microcredit

lol

receipts from 9+ years ago, a website left derelict for 5 years. and ofcourse you being a middleman and not anywhere close to being on the front line.,

seriously your credibility is failing.

do you even know what percentage (after your cut) the foster parents plan actually goes to families in need?

please update yourself to the 21st century. find a proper good cause that you can show actual results in and be a part of. instead of being a middleman.

what makes things worse is that http://plancanada.ca/ is not even a charity that itself has people at the front line. they themselves are middlemen forwarding funds onto other organisations.

seriously if you want to be a charity, please dont let it end up that only 5% of funds end up at the front line. and i hope you atleast researched that the 1billion they receive only 30 million gets to the front line.

Franky1

I agree passing money to other charities is not a good solution and I had stated that prior to your response. I have provided you with the method that will be used to leverage the benefits of the bitcoin network to move coins directly to the people in need.    I wish you all the best and I appreciate your input.

Peter@againsthunger.org

Thanks for your heads-up on the potentially negative impact of Microcredit. I read the Wikipedia page with interest.

In general I am firm believer in helping people "help themselves", rather than making them dependent on hand outs. I always thought that Microcredit was a good way of doing that, and most of what I have previously read about it was positive. The vast majority of new businesses fail, regardless of where in the world they are located, but I never looked closely at other potential problems that could be arising from Microcredit. I will look into this further now.

If you are genuine in your attempt to help others you will need to define what you are doing/planning to do much more clearly.

This mission statement just doesn't cut it:

"Against Hunger Mission
Our Mission is to provide nutritious meals to people in need irrespective of location, ethnicity, age, religion, culture or nationality.

Goals and Objectives
1) Implement projects to provide short term support to an individual or group of individuals who we identify as needing temporary support.

2) Develop long term programs to provide support for individuals who we identify that are in need and assist them in becoming self sufficient."

You will also need to be transparent and open about who is behind this organisation and what it is that you plan to do.

I would suggest creating a video filming yourself and placing it on the index page, where you explain who you are and what you want to do to. Explain any past charity work you have done or organisations you have been part of, with references that can be verified. If you don't have any then be open and honest about that.

If you are genuinely hoping to help people in need using other people's money, then you will need to try much harder!

Edited: Took out some negative comments after OP at least provided a personal LinkedIn page.

Seems like it.
No address or personal information given, no proof of actual projects they have worked out, ...

Hi Rmines if you read through the responses you can find certificates of registration details etc hope this helps.  I will consolidate all of this into an FAQ and put on the website.

Hi Warren Really appreciate your note back My personal linkedin profile is here,http://www.linkedin.com/in/finnpeter (http://www.linkedin.com/in/finnpeter)  but charity work is not in anyway associated with my day job. I am certainly not out to scam anyone. My goal is to leverage a non profit I am still the CEO of to give back to society. We have already started to receive donations  and I am  reaching out to volunteer field workers on distributing the funds directly and I will try to keep twitter updated.  https://twitter.com/AgainstHunger (https://twitter.com/AgainstHunger)    I will get some more info out on the website. Thanks for the advice.

 

I would like some French fries with a 350 gr t-bone steak, bloody as hell. And sauce! Lots of sauce!

Gollum is hungry! Send us some preciousss coins!

http://www.arandor.com/rivendell/images/arandorawards/ttt/keepnastychips.jpg

all he has said is that he is in relationships with organisations.

as said before all he has shown is receipts that are old, and i mean real old.

so what is 2014's organisation?
apart from some middleman converting the bitcoin into fiat, how will the needy on the frontline benefit from actual bitcoins?
why are you even bothering with plastic cards, if people do not have phones/internet how will they exchange bitcoins for FIAT?
if the frontline people in need are supposedly meant to spend the bitcoins on whatever they need directly. have you established this supplier/shop/service is accepting bitcoin?
and what is this supplier/shop/service?
and lastly. to gain exposure of the frontline people in need and bitcoins. is the middlemen going to advertise bitcoins. or is this just your middleman effort to take a cut in the exchange process, and then feed them fiat?

come on after 14 years of pretending to be a charity you should have atleast learned how to pitch a good cause better then you have.

i am not only an investor but i do also give alot to good will too. so i know how this game is played and can spot the holes in a campaign from a mile off. please either plug up the holes and do whats needed or more people will rip into your 'charity'

Franky1

If you would like this effort to be handled by a massive team with a group of executives drawing multi mllion dollar salaries I am sorry to disappoint you.  No one has ever drawn a pay cheque or even charged a personal or even business expense to the organization.   I am trying to build a charity to raise and distribute crypto currencies for the purpose of providing food for people in need using a registered non profit with the support of the Bitcoin community.

I personally believe this is a worthwhile initiative as do many people in the bitcoin community. There are multiple benefits if we are able to achieve this.

1) We help people who are less fortunate than we are.  I believe everyone understands this goal and agrees that it is "The right thing to do".
2) We can remove all of the overhead usually associated with helping people in need and we can audit this on the blockchain
3) We introduce Bitcoin into communities that have zero exposure to bitcoin or other crypto currencies today.
4) By increasing the use of Bitcoin to new communities we increase the value of the currency so investors benefit.

I do not believe bitcoins need to be converted to Fiat at any point for the purpose of purchasing food to feed people in poor nations. Some countries don't even have their own currency like Zimbabwe so bitcoin is an ideal solution and would probably make a good pilot location.

There is a discussion on another thread about how the plastic cards were to be used and I had great support from the community with ideas for other solutions on how to disperse the funds.  A possible solution looks like books of coins you tear out using BIP32 HD Wallets with BIP38 encrypted coupons to distribute the bitcoins. The bitcoins are then spent at a merchant who has a phone and the ability to process the payment.  

This is a work in progress and I said I am in the process of trying to establishing a network of "Boots on the ground "people who work directly in providing field support. My goal is to distribute the paper wallets /coins  to these people for distribution to those in need.  

If you would like to help or have a better solution I would certainly be interested in hearing it.

Haters gonna hate.  Remember, most people who post here will issue criticisms of the system they are participants in at the same time they are purchasing coffee with US or Canadian dollars.  Then they will go off to yoga classes.  They've never had to analyze whether or how aid should be given to others beyond maybe a few pangs of guilt when they see homeless folk on the streets.  They've never had to burn trash or toilet paper to heat their daily meal.  They've never had to scrounge for an outlet or a charge so that they can communicate and find a place to sleep, access donations, connect with friends or parents - or for that matter, broadcast to the network (bitcoin) from mobile.  

Am not going to respond to all the people who sit around griping about the system we have but can't be bothered to do something about it but suggest that Against Hunger should somehow be 'doing better.'  How about _you_ do better.  Get out there and get to work on your own initiative.

kthxbai

p.s. to Against Hunger:  Sent you pm via LinkedIn, check it