Show HN: HoboJacket, want to see hobos clad in your rival school's jackets? (opens in new tab)

Yes, this does represent a certain level of immaturity. The idea behind this originated as a prank, but it was meant to be a harmless one. We didn't want to dance around being politically correct so we broke some social norms.

However, we are not giving the homeless jackets because we want to laugh at them. We are trying to put a spin on the gamification of charity to see if we can get people to do more than they would otherwise.

If you cant do the right thing for the right reason do it for the wrong one.

Well, you have this enormous amount of energy in the form of college rivalries going towards (in my opinion) a relatively silly ball game. Our hypothesis is that if you could tap just 1% of that energy, you could accomplish something great. This is our first foray into tapping that intensity.

Yes, I agree this is a terrible idea in some respects, and we're not certain if we're set on actually donating the jackets. One route we're actively considering is contacting the donors and asking them if they're open to the possibility of us directly giving the funds towards more traditional nonprofits, and refunding those against the idea.

This idea makes a lot more sense to me.