Please be careful and ensure that your partners have been verified, evaluated and audited regularly by experts who specialize in it and are on the ground. For example, CNN, ABC, and HBO are not experts in this area and are by no means doing it on an ongoing basis. The partner can easily showcase needy cases when the cameras show up for a week and then go back to scamming once the cameras leave.
A 501(c)(3) means that it is a type of legal entity with certain tax benefits. It is not overseen by the US Government, except by the IRS to make sure for example that it is not a business pretending to be a non-profit. They do zero checks on efficacy and impact.
Just because a Medical Partner has fame does not mean that they are trustworthy!
I am concerned about fraud from MP's, especially as you expand and add more of them. One of the techniques that Kiva uses is sending out Kiva Fellows who, among other things, verify and audit the local bank's process and borrowers.
As you scale, you need to build in verification processes. As someone who has been living and volunteering for an NGO in Africa, I can't stress how important it is to build in transparency and accountability systems - on the ground. Fraud is rampant, even by doctors (for example, at a public hospital, the poor have to bribe the doctors to be soon in a reasonable amount of time). You don't want to create a situation similar to this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/nov/14/orphans-...
And there are three cases that immediately come to mind to worry about: 1) Is the patient real, 2) Is the patient truly in need, and 3) Is the cost of the treatment true?
All in all, it's a great idea. I implore you to please execute well to maximize impact and minimize unintended negative consequences. There are too many projects out here that were started with great intentions but end up doing more harm than good on the ground.
Once I'm ready to buy, why doesn't Hipmunk forward me to the airline website, where I can pick my seats and buy the ticket ... all in one smooth process? They keep sending me to Orbitz - as far as I can tell there is no value in buying a ticket through a reseller like Orbitz when it's the same price. At least on Kayak they show you all the sellers, including the airline and resellers. I always choose the airline website if the price is the same.
If there are any problems post-purchase, you can solve them with the airline directly. If you buy through a reseller, you have to deal with the reseller.
It's important to keep note of the fact that Hipmunk is not innovative about their UI/UX for the search results, but rather has done a great job at creating buzz and good marketing. ITA Software's free flight search tool ( http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ ) has had very similar looking search results of flight data for several years. Albeit their search form is more complex, but I like the complexity as it gives me more flexibility. I was rather surprised to see that Hipmunk copied ITA's search results almost completely without giving any credit.
ITA Software never wanted to compete with its customers, which means that you can't buy a ticket from them. I simply went directly to the airline websites to purchase the ticket.
I wish Hipmunk luck as they have a great job at marketing.
Stop fabricating numbers. The US National debt is about $14.5 trillion, not anywhere close to 54 trillion.
Btw, the Bush tax cuts — costing $1.8 trillion from 2002 to 2009 — are a big reason we got into this deep hole.
Buffet: I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what’s happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation.
Stop spreading lies - it's incomplete data! Do you work at FOX News or something?
It’s true that the top 1 percent of wage earners paid 38 percent of the federal income taxes in 2008. But people forget that the income tax is less than half of federal taxes and only one-fifth of taxes at all levels of government.
Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance taxes (known as payroll taxes) are paid mostly by the bottom 90 percent of wage earners. That’s because, once you reach $106,800 of income, you pay no more for Social Security, though the much smaller Medicare tax applies to all wages. Warren Buffett pays the exact same amount of Social Security taxes as someone who earns $106,800.