New Story (YC S15) Crowdfunds Houses For Homeless Families

by Kat Mañalac5/18/2015

Meet New Story, a non-profit in the Summer 2015 batch of YC. New Story crowdfunds houses for homeless families living in danger.

Here’s how it works:

  • New Story partners with organizations on the ground that identify families living in conditions exposed to dangers like rape, theft, and sanitation borne disease.

  • New Story tells the stories of these families on their crowdfunding platform.

  • Donors can give directly to a family, and when the home is built 2-3 months later, donors receive a video of the family they helped moving into their new home.

  • Local contractors build the homes, providing jobs and stimulating the economy.

In their first 6 months, New Story raised over $120k in donations, and funded 20 new homes in Leveque, Haiti. 

Part of what we like about New Story is their focus on creating a better giving experience. They built transparency and personal connection into the platform, along with features that make it easy for donors to share campaigns. 

To help donors understand where their money is going and what it is (or isn’t) accomplishing, New Story posted a breakdown of what it costs to build one home on the site. 100% of every donation goes to building homes and so far, the team has funded its operations through private investors and YC. 

New Story is founded by Brett Hagler (who previously founded the socially conscious e-commerce company, Hucksley), Alexandria Lafci (a Teach for America alum with a decade of international development experience), and Matthew Marshall (a UX designer for charitable brands and a World Economic Forum Global Shaper). They believe, as we do, that this tech-powered donor experience is the future of philanthropic giving.

Read more about New Story on TechCrunch

Learn how to create a campaign here

The founders answer questions on Hacker News

Author

  • Kat Mañalac

    Kat is the Managing Outreach Officer at YC. She was Chief of Staff to Alexis Ohanian, cofounder of reddit, before joining YC as its Director of Outreach. Prior to that, Kat was at WIRED Magazine.