The ClearGivers Platform

The ClearGivers Platform is an online charity gift registry, purposefully supplied exclusively by small businesses. Vendors list inventory with us; charities add items from that inventory to their wishlists; donors buy items directly from those wishlists. Those items are delivered directly to charities by vendors.

The Platform is a responsive, online web app built atop established Cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, and Bubble.io). Standard web app technologies are used (HTML, SQL, and JavaScript) augmented by other, more specialist internet technologies accessible via API.

By creating a sustainable bridge between enterprise and nonprofits, we enable small businesses to expand their market-reach and tackle current economic challenges in a socially responsible, meaningful way. Charities using our platform gain an alternative way to ask for what they need and to further publicize their work. Our platform increases donor awareness of specific needs, and changes the donor journey to make it more active, integrated and involved with the entire process of giving.

Our solution facilitates human-centric user journeys that encourage societal connections and community building. In designing and iterating our solution, we continue to use in-depth surveys with each user group to understand and target their specific needs. 

Our platform responds to both the encroachment into fair business terms by multinationals, and to the valid and increasing demand for greater transparency in charitable giving and distribution. It enables the creation of extra business, simultaneously alleviating pressure from the debate around effective management of nonprofit overhead.

Our current solution is a responsive web app built on the CakePHP framework, which follows the Model-View-Controller approach to online software development, and is powered by a MySQL database back-end. The WebApp is deployed on AWS Elastic Beanstalk, and leverages other AWS Cloud services in order to run effectively using any HTML5 compliant browser. We also leverage a content delivery network to manage efficient distribution of resources over the web. These technologies are complemented by Azure Cloud and Microsoft 365 services that are used to run the organization outside of the actual running of the WebApp.

The next version of the Web App will be deployed from Bubble.io. This deployment will allow us to rapidly iterate on product development and launch several features laid out in our product roadmap with minimal additional technical investment. This will also reduce our need to maintain expensive technical expertise in-house. Finally, Bubble.io will allow us to scale our user base, server loads and unit economics much more easily than with a custom, AWS-based solution.

While the technologies we are using have been widely established for some time, our application of those technologies to the intersection of the nonprofit and small business sectors is quite novel. Our Web App itself is unique - there is no other product in the market like it - and the solution we have built on top of these technologies is entirely proprietary. 

We know from our research that small business owners in the US are a hugely varied demographic. Several common elements stood out to us: 

1. most, if not all owners are facing difficulties retaining their brick and mortar stores in the face of increasing costs;

2. many are listing their goods and services on platform sites such as Amazon and Etsy as additional ballast to a physical store;

3. most run a business as their livelihood, not as a lottery ticket. They simply want to make a living.

We saw these problems in parallel with difficulties that we observed within the charity supply chain, and came up with the idea for a product and system that uses both these challenges to solve one another.

We have built our platform to be as easy as possible to use for people who don't like technology. We have included all the usual management tools and systems for sellers, additional stock management tools for charities, donation tools for donors, and oversight tools for our team. 

Using the platform is either free or extremely competitively priced (depending on the type of user). The offline parts of our business rely on knowledge systems and logistics pathways that already exist, and can easily be additionally routed to create extra societal benefit at very little / no extra cost.

We have built this innovative solution to change the game for small businesses, charities and donors in the US, at the same time.

We are currently working with 100 pilot-product users. Our solution meaningfully addresses multi-layered problems for three user groups:

1. Lower-profile charities who must manage the difficult balance between fundraising activities, and managing those funds to meet charitable objectives efficiently, quickly and economically;

2. Small & family-run businesses already under strain from global technological progress, hit hard by the pandemic and continuing to struggle in a tough economic landscape increasingly dominated by large enterprise; and

3. Donors, whose wishes and requirements have advanced. Today, donors request more information on how charities spend donations, and seek qualitative, longer-term personal connections to their charitable aspirations.

Initial questionnaires to each user group indicated best-practice for particular aspects of our platform. For example, on learning that charity and small business personnel are time-poor, we designed their journeys through our platform to be simple, practical and highly automated. On the other hand, as donors preferred a richer experience, their journeys have more optional features.

We offer small businesses access to a customer group they are traditionally excluded from. We regularly survey and solicit comment from all small business users, and use this data to gain feedback on feature efficacy, and to spot needs as they arise.

For charities, our goal is to help them obtain resources to meet their charitable objectives. We provide them with increased visibility and a fast, simple way to ask for what they need. Having established relationships with several charities, we consult with them directly to understand how we can best develop our software to fit their needs.

We target donors who are comfortable with eCommerce platforms and transacting over the internet. We use web analytics supplemented by 1:1 interviews with donors and donor advisors to identify the most effective approaches to soliciting charitable involvement.

We established The ClearGivers Platform to create and grow mutually beneficial paths between enterprise and non-profit. We built our technology and business around the principle of strengthening community ties. By empowering such disparate user groups to work together, our platform aligns precisely with the Challenge’s drive to provide small businesses with pathways to resiliency and sustainability.

It is clear that those able to use technology efficiently are able to grow and strengthen, while others struggle. We have built our platform with a view to helping small businesses in the latter group, by providing them with technology built for them, alongside access to a new customer group via that same technology.

Our diverse team, experienced in both the for- and non-profit sectors, passionately believes that working together at velocity strengthens both sides. Business benefits from a socially-minded approach, and non-profits benefit from established economic practices.

We align strongly with the business development & procurement challenge dimension. Our platform specifically, intentionally brings small businesses into an arena they have previously been excluded from, due to pressures on charities with regards to thrift and economies of scale. Our alternative relieves those pressures and gives small businesses a new network in which to market themselves alongside their inventory.

We further align with the data & impact challenge dimension, due to the information we gather. This unique pool of data on needs and consumer behaviors forms a valuable business intelligence resource for companies needing to make strategic decisions about resource allocation.

Our Theory of Change posits that merging best practices from the for- and non-profit worlds to establish cohesive societal habits will result in stronger, more efficient, sustainable communities in the long-term. Currently, the division between for- and non-profits contributes to inefficiencies in an already overburdened infrastructure. Enabling communication and benefit to flow between both will shake up increasingly unsuitable established practices.

Our logical framework for how we will achieve these aims:

What we do

We provide:

- Small businesses with:

• cost-efficient ability to sell within a totally new market;

• free platform and training in additional marketing practices;

• savings on services from pooled resources.

- Charities with:

• free wishlisting platform;

• free platform and training in additional marketing practices;

• free marketing to raise awareness of their causes & needs.

- Donors with:

• ability to stay intimately and emotionally involved throughout their donation process;

• mitigation of worries around donation spend.

Our impact

- Small businesses gain:

• Traction in a new marketplace and access to otherwise inaccessible customers;

• Valuable community goodwill;

• Up-to-date marketing techniques and training;

• Insights into new consumer behaviours.

- Charities gain:

• Ability to build reputation within communities;

• Ability to provide bespoke items and services to their recipients;

• Integrated, unique way to request and receive goods & services.

- Donors gain:

• A novel way to discover charitable causes and small businesses to support;

• A method to stay involved with all donations from start to finish;

• Increased feeling of social cohesion through literally seeing the impact of their own actions.

Outcomes

• Small businesses go from 0% paid involvement with charities to full integration into charity supply chains. Currently the only way small businesses interact with charities is donating; an impossibility for struggling businesses.
• Charities are able to request non-traditional items and services for recipients in need and who have been difficult to serve adequately in the past. 
• Donors are involved from start to end, from the second they log in and start discovering new charities and businesses, to the second they decide how the last $1 of their donation should be spent. 
• Every $1 helps a charity and a small business

Our solution currently serves around 100 small businesses and charities. This consists of a combination of businesses which entered into our pilot program, and others who have joined subsequently.

We are working towards doubling this number by the end of 2023. We are keeping these numbers small to begin with so that we can adequately manage our technology, our supply chains, our own team members and all the logistics pertaining to running a three-sided marketplace.

In 2024, we will be working towards meaningfully expanding our users as we get to know patterns and behaviors even better. The intention is that by the end of 2024, we will have 300 small businesses (located in LA) on our site.

After that, we will have a larger team and better handling processes. Our 5-year growth plan is targeted at 50% growth year on year, leading to approximately 2300 businesses using our site within 5 years. This constitutes approximately 1% of the total number of small businesses in LA. Broadly, this will mean we have introduced 1% of small businesses into the charity supply chain, providing the businesses with extra revenue, and the charities they supply with high quality, necessary goods and services.

Separately, we hope to be considering expansion outside of LA within 3 years’ time.

Our solution is implemented within small, closely located communities. We have built relationships with several Chambers of Commerce within LA, and are proud to say that we serve their members well with a product that helps financially as well as socially.

Local community members form part of our volunteer corp, and provide valuable knowledge and experience regarding community connections and needs.

Local community businesses who are not listed with us also form a valuable part of our communication strategy.

We aim to provide a unique and invaluable communication and supply chain tool between different community members that, until now, have not had a lot to do with one another. Our decisions and strategy are influenced by the overriding need to balance the needs of each of these groups with one another. We achieve this by ongoing communication and discussion with leading members of each group.

1. We prioritize attendance at in-person networking events. We are the faces behind our work, and find that presenting in person and letting people get to know us as a team is invaluable when it comes to generating trust. Providing our own email addresses to people so that they can reach out with questions about orders etc has demonstrated to people that we are people of our word.

2. We also use standard outreach methods (email, phone-calls, social media) to establish our existence and ensure there is a continuous stream of information about what we are doing available.

3. Many new small businesses start out on social media, so this is a large area of communication for us also.

4. We are starting to hold our own in-person events, and plan to increase these in the future, to better get to know people who use our site.

We aim to transformatively impact whole communities in the immediate and long term. 

In the short term, our solution will create more:

1. revenue for small businesses, 

2. efficiency for charities, and 

3. involved experiences for donors. 

In the long term, these results will in turn lead to:

1. increased employment opportunities

2. enhanced community integration for charities, donors and businesses.

For the current year, we are aiming at the LA market only. If we achieve our goals within LA, our forecasts show that redirecting just 1.2% of all charitable spend towards small businesses will result in a 12% increase in revenue for small businesses. This is a fantastic return, and will strengthen community ties, mitigate environmental impact and bolster the local economy, in addition to creating extra employment opportunities.

Over the next 5 years, we aim to widen our operation through US territories that will benefit the most from the enhanced community integration our solution brings. These territories will be ones that our research shows to have a high number of small businesses and charities.

The technology we use is scalable and will form the foundation of this expansion. We have in place a rigorous roadmap to keep it up to date, and will use an HQ team to do this. Alongside that, we will need to replicate our ground support in each new location. Due to the nature of our work, we will hire locally and also partner with existing logistical infrastructure in each location to achieve this.

Each member of our team has faced discrimination. Our experiences drive us to build something that contributes to a better, community-first, inclusive future. We are applying to Truist Foundation Inspire Awards because our mission and solution align well with the Truist Foundation’s impetus to level the playing field by focussing on economic mobility and small businesses. 

1. Financial and operational barriers

To achieve maximum positive impact on the largest possible number of small businesses, charities and donors, we need major financial and operational help and advice to scale correctly. The financial grant will enable us to hire staff and invest in informative outreach activities and materials. Mentorship will equip us to better strategize and face challenges.

2. Business / Technical barriers

The team will benefit from the partnership program's teaching and connections. Guidance from established entities, alongside a strong peer-2-peer network, will take us further towards our goals. We hope to connect with the technically and operationally skilled people needed to scaling and develop.

3. Cultural / Market barriers

Pitching and business modeling lessons will inform the future of The ClearGivers Platform, and it's exciting to consider taking ‘classroom’ lessons and apply them directly in the real world.

Our Team Lead is passionate and fiercely driven. Despite numerous setbacks, she has continued to lead this non-profit’s build. With mentorship, partnership and leadership guidance, she will harness the qualities needed to achieve real impact.

Our founding team embodies Truist Foundation's principles. We believe this partnership will be strong, powerful and worthwhile.

Financial

1. We would like help to improve our internal accounting practices, and understand that some of the workshops assist with this. Financial accuracy and strong systems will be imperative as we grow; we would benefit from assistance to set up good practices now.

2. We would also appreciate advice on pitching (to investors) and making grant applications correctly, to give us better chances of raising funding as we go forward.

Product / Service Distribution & PR

Our platform represents a new way of doing things, and therefore requires financial and know-how investment into education and resources. Receiving advice on industry best practices, communication techniques and distribution networks will be invaluable for us to maximize our impact. Partnership with MIT and Truist Foundation will, we hope, allow this solution to reach many more people than otherwise.

Human Capital

So far we have relied on independent contractors where necessary. We will need more permanent staff, and will require advice and assistance to source and identify the best talent.

Data Monitoring

Guidance on building our abilities to analyze and assess new data.