[networked]

>You have an urge to save a life? Make a direct donation yourself or to one of the hundreds of charities that exist. Some charities are certainly better than others, but the options are out there. Watsi is a pathetic excuse for a "company" where this sort of pick-and-choose comes across as a form of good when it's really quite creepy and saddening.

The "pick-and-choose" mechanism Watsi uses is a (pretty brilliant) psychological hack to grab attention and elicit empathic concern [1]. I suspect a lot of Watsi's donors would not have donated to a similar cause otherwise; if so, Watsi isn't competing for their money with traditional charities.

I would love to see the statistics on how many of the people donating to Watsi are first-time donors to any charity.

[1] Phrased this way it might sound like a bad, manipulative thing to do but I don't think it necessarily is one -- at least in this case.

[mistercow]

I especially don't think it's a bad thing because it's a hack that provides significant value to the donor. My wife and I made a small donation (we are fairly poor by US standards) a while back, and I teared up when they emailed me to tell me the girl was fully funded a few hours later. I probably would have gone back and donated to another case right then if they'd had any left (it was right after the Boston Marathon bombings, so I think they were seeing a spike in donors).