In a world of “donations” for world crises, I want to create a website where individuals can buy specific needed items to contribute to crises relief.
The idea came to me sitting one day at Price Center in UC San Diego. We have these huge scrolling LED news feeds along one of the walls, relaying messages from Reuters and other news sources.
Among the news that day included a natural disaster: scores of individuals displaced and in need of relief.
While I don’t have hard data on this, I believe a lack of transparency is a large hindrance to donating. As a donor, I would like to know exactly where my money is going and how it is helping people. In addition, in this digital age it is hard to discern legitimate relief organizations from other organizations that squander donation money.
My thought process:
- What if donating was like buying things off of Amazon? Only instead of delivering it to me, it would be provided immediately to those in need?
- What if we could gamify the donation process? If we know that 10,000 blankets are needed, and we can represent that like Kickstarter represents funding targets, would that provide extra incentive?
- How can we have one central platform through which altruistic individuals can see what is needed in this world?
All of those thoughts, condensed into a quick sketch jotted onto a Tapioca Express napkin:
ALEX_CHAN_ 