Now that the giving season is officially over it is also important to set your wheels in motion to give not just at the end of the year when the appeals are loudest, but throughout the year. Giving throughout the year helps space your giving and organize it. It also allows you to easily give to several different charities (for example, a different charity per month) as opposed to hastily finding charities to support in November and December.
There are three start-ups that caught my eye that are making giving easier in this fast-paced environment. One allows you to be a true Slactivist, but also donate real dollars (not your own) to charities. Another allows you to schedule your giving and watch its impact. And the other provides a daily list of charities to support for those who have trouble finding the exact charities that speak to them.
Creddon
If you have ever wanted to give to charity but didn’t have enough money to do it, look no further than Creddon. San Francisco-based Creddon is designed for the ultimate slactivist. Using Twitter or Facebook you can easily give to a number of select charities on creddon.com with a social share. A donor then donates $1 to the charity you choose. It really is that easy.
The social shares encourage others to retweet and share your social media messages and also include the name of the donor, the charity and mentions Creddon. Right now, the site has a few charities to support, but the potential is tremendous! Should Creddon increase the number of donors and charities, the impact can be limitless.
Here is a donation we sent. I love this!
ChariPick
For people who are not immersed in nonprofit giving and have no clue how to start there is a new mobile app that solves that problem. ChariPick is a mobile app for iOS and Android that literally cherry picks three new lesser-known charities for those who want to give, but don’t know where to begin.
ChariPick was created by a former hedge fund manager, Stephen Lee, who believed he could use his financial acumen to raise awareness about giving to charities to a key demographic that is clueless about giving.
ChariPick is more customizable than I thought. I downloaded the app on iOS and was extremely pleased to see that I could set how often I want to give and then I can choose the charities and category of charities I want to donate to. You will not find the large charities that you always hear about on ChariPick. Rather, this app gives users the opportunity to discover charities that need more funding and publicity.
ChariPick hand selects three charities a day per your preference and you can also search for charities that specifically speak to you. The app also sends push notifications (if you add that to your preferences) about donating on the schedule you chose.
You will have to include your financial information to use ChariPick in order to make donations directly from the app. Users’ donations go directly to the charities. ChariPick does not distrubute donations to nonprofits.
Givn
Givn is a mobile and web-based app that allows individuals to donate and track their influence when they share their giving with their social followings. Research says that when people give, others are compelled to give as well.
Givn uses social sharing to reach donors’ sphere of influence on social media. Givn allows you to track your influence and see how generosity sparks others to also donate time and money to worthy causes.
The dashboard was a little hard to figure out at first, but after testing it I can see how the dashboard is a fun way to not only schedule your giving to the charities you support, but also see the impact your giving creates.
Through Givn you can share your giving on Twitter, LinkedIn as well as on Facebook. While donors can use Givn, nonprofits can better use it to create social postcard campaigns that will allow donors to easily donate and share. There is a cost for use depending on the nonprofits’ size, but the app is easily able to go into e-newsletters and Posiba, the platform Givn is built on, provides donation widgets for nonprofit web sites.
As the pace of everyday life continues to quicken there are sure to be more start-ups that are making it easier and easier to give.
What apps and web sites do you use to donate to charities?
Social Good Moms 