As he says, there’s a systematic problem at play that’s the root of all their other problems: lack of a safe home. With a home, kids can go to school, study, sleep comfortably, and parents can work a full day not worrying about leaving their family behind. He was in Haiti because he wanted to help – legitimately help. You see, Hagler was fed up with donating online to help people in Haiti, people he had met face to face. His searches kept leading to websites where, once the money was donated, could have sat in a drawer for all he knew. Where was the transparency in it all? He didn’t want to donate to a charity that had no real proof the money actually went to help the Haitians. After examining those three pain points, Hagler decided he would simply flip them upside down. What if, instead, people knew exactly who they were giving to, how much of their donation went to the people, and what the direct impact was? That was the genesis behind New Story, and they build houses for families in need. The partners at New Story screen families experiencing life-threatening homelessness, and donors then fund the cost of building a new home for them. After it’s funded, the new home is built by the partners with the help of the family. The best part of New Story’s pseudo-crowdfunding platform is that everything is recorded and sent back to the donors so they can see exactly where every penny went. Not to mention New Story builds a lasting and sustainable relationship to ensure the long term success of the family.
I suppose if you had to sum New Story up in one word it would be transparency: it’s what Hagler craved from day one. He couldn’t find it in other platforms, so he built one that deifies it – and he’s not wrong in doing so. According to him, if you look at Habitat for Humanity you can’t really put into words how much good they’ve done. However, Hagler thinks they could have a better model. To date New Story is only about eight months old, but they’ve been able to take that time and squeeze every bit of social good out of it. They’ve been engaged in a campaign called 100 Homes in 100 Days that was started on June 1. Obviously, the goal is to fund and build 100 different homes in 100 days, and at the time of my interview with Hagler they were 36 for 36. That’s an epic stat right there. You see, for Hagler and his cofounders it’s not about who can raise the most money or help the most people – helping is simply an moral imperative for them. They want to take it deeper though and build a world class charity that pushes transparency and personal connection as the new status quo: something that’s surprisingly hard to come by in other platforms out there. My hat off to the crew at New Story, you have to give respect where respect is due, and these folks are earning it. Image Credit: New Story’s Facebook page
