About Kinder
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The place for all the people interested in the world of doing good. And in doing it better.More about KinderThe place for all the people interested in the world of doing good. And in doing it better.More about KinderYou: First off, why are you called "Kinder"? I vaguely remember from my German class at high school that it means "children" in German.
Us: You’re right, but we are kʌɪn-der, not kɪn-der. As in: “more kind”. Because kind is not enough, join Kinder!
Ok, I get it, you’re called Kainder. But what do you do?
Kinder is here to change the world of charitable giving. We restore trust in the sector of “doing good” and make giving, or contributing in other ways, simple, effective, and rewarding.
That’s a nice mission statement. But what does it mean in practice?
We empower people to instantly and effectively act on the global challenges of our time. We do so thanks to our research about the performance of charitable organisations. We create awareness and trust in the form of light, snackable, daily content, showing you why world-improvement is the best form of self-improvement. And we facilitate action and change by developing smart tools that can help you make effective donations.
What’s your legal status?
Kinder is divided into a non-profit foundation and a for-profit social enterprise. The reason for this split is our belief that a foundation can ensure the independence needed for objective research and journalism whereas a for-profit enterprise can help us grow and sustain ourselves.
Great stuff you do! But how are you funded?
We are funded by private investors. Our fast-growing team is a mixture of young professionals, eager interns, and volunteers. Are you interested in joining our team and building a Kinder world together with us? Look here for our vacancies.
What kind of articles will I find on Kinder World?
You will find premium content that helps you understand how together we can improve this world. You’ll be surprised to discover the real impact that you can start making on the world right now.
Can I also submit a column or an article?
We would love great writers to join our cause. If you have what it takes, you can shoot a message to our publisher Davide. You can contact him through our contact page.
How does Kinder help me donate to charitable organisations?
We give you the means to directly donate to charitable organisations covered in Kinder World articles. Just indicate how much you want to donate, leave your email address (optional), complete the financial transaction, and share your act with friends to spread Kindness! In a few simple steps, you can make the world a Kinder place.
To which charitable organisations can I donate?
Currently we are running a pilot with a dozen of charitable organisations. Afterwards, you can donate to all charitable organisations that have been featured in Kinder World articles. This means that all organisations that can be donated to have passed the accountability and transparency screening of the Kinder Vetting Framework. In the future, we will launch additional donation tools that will allow you to donate to all organisations that pass our initial screening. Sign up here to be the first one to know when these donation tools go live.
Can I donate to charitable organisations that use other currencies?
No problem! You can donate in Euro, US Dollar or British Pound, which we will exchange to the currency of the receiving organisation if needed. For this transaction, our Payment Processor Mollie B.V. applies an exchange rate of 2%.
Why does Kinder charge a service fee to the receiving organisation?
In order to be able to operate its services sustainably, Kinder has to charge the receiving organisation a small service fee on donations (max. 8%). This service fee is much smaller than the amount the charitable organisation would have to invest to attract donors by itself. As a result, overhead costs drop and more money goes to actual interventions.
My preferred organisation is not covered on Kinder World so I can not donate to them. What should I do?
If you really feel that there is an interesting organisation out there that we should write about and allow donations to, please reach out to us with your suggestion. As long as the organisation passes our screening, we will consider covering their story on Kinder World.
Is Kinder another evil tech company that will sell or misuse my data?
Yes. Muhahah. 😈
Joking. Of course not. We will never sell your data to any charitable organisation or third party. As a user, you remain anonymous with the receiving organisation, and you can even decide to donate without leaving your email address. Check our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy for more information.
Why do you assess charitable organizations?
We assess non-profit organisations because we know that there is a need for it. Inspired by the school of effective altruism, we realise that the performance of organisations should be measured in order to maximise their impact.
And how do you actually assess them?
We created a Kinder Vetting Framework; that is a protocol of questions that guides vetters in their analyses. Thanks to this framework, we can ensure that organisations are assessed consistently.
How can I be sure that the vetting framework is independent and reliable?
We collaborated with the Impact Center Erasmus of Erasmus University Rotterdam and the Center for Advanced Hindsight of Duke University to create our vetting framework. Moreover, we safeguard our vetting process by carefully selecting our vetters, and assigning vetters with a proven track records increasingly important tasks. When vetters have a personal connection to a particular organisation, they are not allowed to do the assessment.
Why doesn't Kinder simply check the financials, salaries and overhead costs of charitable organisations to get a good impression on their performance?
We do check them! But we dig deeper, because salaries and overhead costs alone are simply not a good enough indicator of how effective an organisation is.
For instance, imagine you can donate to charity A or B, where A has no overhead thanks to sponsorships and volunteering and B has an overhead of 40%. A looks better, right? But what if we told you that A hands out medicine that only suppresses the symptoms while B distributes an actual cure?
Has all this vetting of charitable organisations not already been done before?
All of this combined into one epic world-improving machine? In a nutshell, no. Other vetting frameworks often focus only on efficiency not considering important parameters like the cost-effectiveness of interventions. Others, like the one employed by GiveWell, assess organizations to find only the few most effective ones, not leaving much room to choose.
We still have 2-3 tickets available for impact investors to join our ride.
For charitable organisations, we can answer questions about your vetting score, we can help you improve it, or - if we have not vetted it yet - we can add your organisation to our next assessment batch.
For corporate and media partners, there are different options for collaboration. Kindly reach out to discuss the possibilities.
For all these matters, shoot a message to our founder Mathys Van Abbe through LinkedIn or through our contact page.
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