Mint Chip winnings donation

[mirhagk]

Hey everyone,

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but I have entered a programming competition with the Canadian Mint. The competition was used to figure out ideas for what their upcoming electronic money chip could be used for. My submission is here:
http://mintchipchallenge.com/submissions/9452-mint-chip-receipt?page=1

Basically there are several prize categories, many which are judged by judges, and one that is judged by voting. Since the prize for voting is $5100, and I don't need that full amount for tuition (because of OSAP's 30% off and a $750 scholarship) I want to donate $1500 to a charity. I am learning towards world vision because they are doing a donation match with the government right now, so every dollar I give them is doubled, meaning $3000 would end up being donated. I am also considering other avenues for instance medical research, and local charities such as city kidz. The medical research I'm not huge on, because I know that the majority of medical research money just comes as overflow from pharmaceutical studies instead of donations, and I want the donation to mean as much as it can. I'm not saying you shouldn't donate to medical research, because of course you still should, but I just think the money could be used more by others right now.

Help me decide which charity this money should go to (If we can't come to a consensus I will end up donating it to world vision, so regardless the $1500 is going somewhere if I win). Also if you want me to win then you will have to vote for me. I know this is kind of a self promotion thing, but I think Mint Chip needs some attention, I think my submission is a good idea (and it will be an entirely non-profit endeavor, an open source specification for electronic receipts), and I hope that if I win the money will go to people that need it.

If we come up with some good ideas I can open it up to a poll if there's a wide variety of suggestions, if there is an overwhelming support going for a single idea then I'll just use that one.

[Aange10]

I find it a bad habit to spend your money before you have it.

[mirhagk]

Well I'm not spending it, I'm just making a commitement because I'm more likely to want to make that decision now then later when I have the money in my hands. Now I hold myself accountable, which is good, as that means I will make the donation. (btw since there was no responses I just went with world vision)

[2goto1]

Nice that you contributed something. A paperless receipt is one obvious advantage of any digital payment system. Online payments for purchases today are great because they're often paperless (sometimes you get a physical receipt if you're ordering a physical product, sometimes you just get an email receipt).

Tracking spending habits is a great idea but real world consumers pay for stuff by cash, interact, credit card, etc. Higher level tracking is required in order to track spending habits.

Tools like Quicken are robust enough to track and analyze spending habits, and integrate with your financial institutions.

However I think that something along the line of what Mint, and also Canadian startup Spenz is doing is definitely better than a product like Quicken since you can track spending habits in real time.

Good luck with your submission.

[mirhagk]

Yeah with my submission, since the mint chip will be completely replacing cash, it would be very easy to have ALL of the raw data you need, which as I mentioned is very important to your spending habits. People sometimes don't realize that 1 pack of smokes a day at about $10 each, comes to the same price as a room in a student house.

[2goto1]

Your solution would have some of the data, not all. Hence those other solutions that I mentioned. Mint chip would replace cash purchases. For kids and students it could be useful since they tend to pay by cash only.

I pay for everything that I can by credit card, then make one monthly lump payment to pay it all off in order to avoid interest. I pay with cash or debit only where necessary mostly. I'm a pretty typical adult market segment. Hence the reason more robust higher level solutions exist in the space.

[mirhagk]

Yes, but the framework for the receipt is an open design and free to use, and since your credit/debit card is already tied to a single account, those companies could easily allow you to store those receipts via the web, including a spreadsheet, a SQL database, an FTP server, or just about anything. Since everything you would use besides mint chip is already online, it is very easy for those systems to add receipts to their existing infrastructure. Mint chips can be stored online or offline with later uploading to online, so every avenue of payment would be covered, giving you all of the data.

[2goto1]

Right....good luck with that

[mirhagk]

LOL I never expected this to catch on. I don't have millions in funding, and I don't expect to get any millions any time soon. But it's an actual idea instead of simply integrating it into existing systems which is 90% of the rest of the submissions. It gives mint chip a reason to exist, whereas most of the other apps don't really provide any benefit over existing systems other than no fees for using it for the business.

[rdrake]

http://www.sickkidsfoundation.com/donate/

[mirhagk]

The only problem with sick kids is the vast amount of money required to make the littlest of difference. With world vision a tiny amount of money can save someone's life ($50 for a cow which will provide money and nutrients for years). I believe sick kids is a very worth cause, but $1500 towards patient care doesn't go as far. Research is a great cause as well, but again lots of money is needed to make a difference, money that is put forward by the government and pharmaceutical companies, and very little of which is actually donated.