Charitable Donations

This project will be addressing the gap between the number of reusable items being thrown out each year and the lack of correct resources given to shelters and financially disadvantaged communities. With intentional donations, about 60% of items donated after a disaster can't be used, such as chandeliers and high-heeled shoes. Because of this gap of correct donations, non-profits annually spend $1 trillion on goods and services that can be found in homes when their budget could be redirected to their services.  The United States EPA estimates up to 17 billion pounds of office assets, 40 million tons of fresh food from stores, 9 million refrigerators/freezers gets thrown out in the U.S. every year and 85% of all textiles are thrown away in the U.S. Now with the aftermath of COVID, families, non-profits and shelters all across the country are in need of basic items that would help them get by but is difficult for many families. 

Sustainable Development Goals being addressed:

SDG 1: No Poverty
SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
SDG 13: Climate Action
SDG 16: Peace Justice and Strong Institutions

The solution is creating a centralized network for in-kind donation giving in the form of an app and website. It will be the Cashapp, Goodwill, and Givelify on in-kind donations. As a future b-corporation, this business is focused on recycling, reusing, and redirecting everyday items in our homes to non-profits to foster more sustainable cities. This will be done through an app and website platform and in the future will evolve into a more tangible business with pick-up trucks, donation drives, and brick and mortar shops.

Our search function was completed is connected to the database of key phrases, the app was connected Google geo-coding API to our map which allows users to convert written addresses into pins on our map and the gallery is working to upload and display organizations photos to their profiles using Amazon S3 Buckets for the storage.

This idea will be sustained in the future due to 3 different sources of revenue. The first is the yearly subscription fee non-profits would pay to be featured on the app. Non-profit organizations spend around 4% of monetary donations on marketing, thus an affordable yearly fee will be placed to be featured. There is then the utilization of targeted apps from organizations such as Give Pulse, The Children's Trust, and Volunteer Match. Thirdly, when we expand in the future, users who do not have the time or accessibility to drop off donations at their disposal can opt-in for our pick up service. The service will charge prices similarly used by Uber and Lyft with a possible partnership with the latter.

The communities being served include non-profits as well as all homes looking to give back. This project aims to alleviate the amount of money that is spent on common goods (school supplies, clothes, food, etc.) through in-kind donations so that money can be redirected. Redirected into items such as college savings, mortgages, car payments, etc. With intentional donations, about 60% of items donated after a disaster can't be used, such as chandeliers and high-heeled shoes. Because of this gap of correct donations being made, non-profits annually spend $1 trillion on goods and services that can be found in homes when their budget could be redirected to their services.

Non-profits and community partners typically have their own social media accounts where they update the community on what items are needed, but their outreach is not always that effective in reaching all members of their community. Our solution would serve as a centralized network for the community to have easy access to finding locations where specific donations are needed. The app would be updated on a rolling basis so users and donors will know which items are in need and where they can be dropped off. 

Over the past 7 years I, Amelia Raudales, have led projects that have raised tens of thousands of dollars for 15 non-profits ranging from Lotus House to Feeding South Florida. With all these years and efforts spent fundraising, I understand how the funds are used, what non-profits biggest obstacles are and how their donation services work. For bigger non-profits, intentional donations is what is missing from their organization. The same applies for newer and smaller non-profits, but they also lack the correct spaces to market themselves. Charitable Donations has taken this into consideration when creating this app and making it user friendly for users and organizations alike.

Every year charitable giving rises 1/3 as fast as the stock market with donations rising to $459 billion in 2020, $82.75 billion is given to Human and Public-Society Services similar to Charitable Donations, and Fortune 500 companies spend $20 billion annually on Corporate Social Responsibility efforts collectively.

The rest of the team consists of computer science graduates with the combined software development experience of 6 years. Our advisors consists of Robert Hacker, a professor in the Honors College at FIU and he previously taught at MIT Sloan. He previously was the COO/CFO of One Laptop per Child, an international social venture started at the MIT Media Lab. He also built a billion dollar publicly-traded company in Indonesia. Amanda McDole has years of experience in change-making initiatives and community contacts. Barbara Cotto has operation experience with Kraft, Kellogg’s and The Clorox Company and is Director of Procurement for minority-owned companies in StartUp FIU.

I am applying to join a network of change makers and industry experts who will offer guidance, strategic advice and resources. Specifically, I want to learn how to better my pitch for funding competitions, how to go about getting a b-corporation license, and how to expand the impact and reach of Charitable Donations transnationally. 

Success will be measured on the amount of needed donations that are made as calculated by the user analytics on the app. Updates will be made on our website for the general public and to our donors as soon as the data is collected.

Our search function was completed is connected to the database of key phrases, the app was connected Google geo-coding API to our map which allows users to convert written addresses into pins on our map and the gallery is working to upload and display organizations photos to their profiles using Amazon S3 Buckets for the storage.

Charitable Donations is focused on working with organizations that promotes diversity and inclusion of marginalized community members. This includes but is not limited to diversity and inclusion with gender, neuro-diversity, ethnicity and nationality, financial need, and immigration status. Our development team is representative of the Latinx and Hispanic community and we are constantly looking for ways to expand our reach to other underrepresented groups. 

Our solution is tri-fold as it shares information on in-kind donation giving, verifies the quality and status of donation as well as enhances accessibility for donors by filtering organization's proximity and mission statement.

Received seed funding from the Fowler Global Social Innovation Challenge
and the FIU Global Learning Office.