I made an important connection the evening after the WordPress conference. There was a little post-conference WordPress party which was held in a fun old warehouse down on one of the piers by the waterfront. Rebecca and I went to the party to meet and socialize with members of the blogging community.

Rebecca is pictured with Seth Masow (bearded guy on the right) and another guy (name unknown).

Seth works for a Non-Profit Organization (NPO) called Interplast. Interplast facilitates plastic surgery operations in Third World countries. Seth and I spent the better part of an hour discussing the role of NPOs in improving living conditions in the World. This is a complicated topic because some NPOs are beaurocratic and innefficient, which gives a bad name to other NPOs.

Additionally, Interplast experiences a moral dilemna in addressing fundraising needs. Some NPOs spend enormous amounts of time and money on fundraising efforts, which can seem like a waste. The money spent on marketing and fundraising could instead be contributed to charitable efforts. The couterpoint, of course, is that fundraising helps to increase the overall impact of an NPO by making more total funds available.

Nontheless, Interplast does not spend money on fundraising or marketing. Instead this organization relies on word-of-mouth and social networking to gain support.

One of the problems Interplast experiences in its efforts is in capturing dramatic “Before and After” photos of patients. For example, a six-year-old child with a cleft palette, from a remote village in Nicaragua, may come to an Interplast-funded facility for surgery. Interplast takes a photo of the child prior to the surgery, showing the area needing repair. Then a photo is taken after the surgery, showing the child in bandages with a swollen face. But Interplast has a difficult time capturing photos of patients after scars have healed, because the patients go back to the villages, where they have little access to telephone, internet, or other means of communication. Therefore, the “Before and After” documentation is incomplete.

As a result of this, Seth and I agreed that when I am in Nicaragua, he will help me find Interplast patients. I will drive out to their villages in my 4Runner, and take photos showing the significant changes in their health and appearance. Visit my site in November or December to see if I am successful in finding these patients.