We’re a community of social entrepreneurs and innovators. And so it behooves me to share my work with you all. Below, and the next few blog posts as well, will convey my responses to the Echoing Green application fellowship – I applied with my partner Fernando Santillan. When we get feedback on our application, I will share that with the community as well. If one person learns from it, then I will be glad to have contributed.

Q: What is your new, innovative idea to create lasting social change? Be clear, specific, and jargon-free in your answer

A: We make it effortless for people to a) engage with charities through donating and volunteering and b) mobilize their community to follow suit. We do this with a web and mobile-device application that identifies relevant volunteer/donation opportunities and facilitates immediate action. Opportunities are location-specific and project-specific. For instance, rather than ask users to donate to a specific organization like charity:water, our app allows users to fund a specific project led by charity:water, such as building a well in remote Ethiopia. Contributors can track the progress of the project and immediately share the charitable opportunity with friends via social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Our application is fully customizable. Users are notified of opportunities via the users preferred method (e.g. SMS, email, tweet), and according to their location and interests. They also see how other members of their social networks contribute, which capitalizes on the power of social proof in motivating individual action. The ultimate goal is a customizable social app that makes it easy (automatic) for people to truly make an impact and mobilize their community to do the same.
Q: What drew you to this issue? When and how did you come up with your idea?

A: My initial interest in the lack of funding for charities came after learning that 1 billion people around the world drink dirty water and walk as far as 5 miles to retrieve it. After becoming aware of this issue and the efforts of charity: water to address it, I immediately started brainstorming ways to
raise money for the cause. I eventually developed a simple idea – “round-up” all purchase transactions at any given store to the nearest dollar, and donate the difference to charity: water. If implemented at a large department store or across many smaller stores, we could generate massive amounts of funds for the cause. Just over a week ago, I attended the LA Startup Weekend, where I pitched this idea to a group of more than 40 entrepreneurs. When the group voted on top pitches, my project was 1 of the 6 selected. A group of 6 people decided to work on developing my idea. As discussions began we eventually decided that it would be nearly impossible to develop within one
weekend a cost-effective method of processing such small amounts. The final product of our discussions was a dramatically different idea: YouImpact.Us.

Q: As specifically as possible, demonstrate the need for your organization. Use statistics and references

A: A large percentage of American households support charities – 89% to be exact. However, two-thirds of charities saw declines in contributions in 2008. At the same time, online contributions have experienced a rapid increase, highlighted by the fact that electronic gifts grew by more than
37% between 2005 and 2006; 85% of the groups in this survey saw their online contributions rise by as much as 50% (Source: National Philanthropic Trust). This growing shift towards online contributions necessitates the development of platforms that leverage new technologies such as donations via text messages (www.hmgf.org) to benefit the non-profit sector. The currently available applications have barely scratched the surface of possibilities at a time when barriers for communication, money transfers, and contributions of time and resources have never been lower.
Technology needs to continue to be utilized effectively in non-traditional ways, and YouImpact.us seeks to comprehensively fill that urgent need.

Q: What’s the root cause of this problem? How does your idea tackle this root cause?
A: The root cause of the problem can be described as a lack of time and a lack of timely access to relevant information. With people leading such incredibly busy lives, it becomes tedious to research charities and charitable opportunities, especially when many people simply have higher priorities. This isn’t to say that they aren’t willing to give, but the opportunities are simply not presented to them in an effortless and seamless way. People have to go online, search through hundreds of websites, and settle for opportunities that may not be as compatible with their lifestyle as they’d like. Nothing currently exists that puts the information they need in front of them in an easy-to-manage, completely personalized, and fully actionable capacity. Our idea tackles that root cause by making the user actions of volunteering and donating as time-efficient as possible.
Opportunities are customized to the user on the site and in communications based on their location and preferences. By getting customized opportunities to users in their preferred format we reduce all the barriers to entry that keep them from taking action.

Click here for Part II of the YouImpact.us Echoing Green application.