How do we innovate an industry as vast and old as charity?
This was the central question of the IDEO Reimagine Charitable Giving Challenge, which focuses on solving inequities within the philanthropy/nonprofit space. My response was Gratis.
Gratis consolidates volunteering and donating on one platform, specifically showcasing nearby nonprofits and charitable organizations.
After conducting academic research about giving habits, it was clear donors faced significant barriers to entry. Namely donors were frustrated at not being able to ascertain the trustworthiness of a nonprofit and having to go to multiple places for donating and volunteering opportunities.
Moving from the research stage, I wanted to create a platform that made volunteering and donating easy, since these two activities can magnify individual impact. I simplified the scheduling process right from the onboarding stage. I also chose to make this a mobile app, offering the most convenience for busy users on the go.
By recommending nearby organizations, donating and volunteering become more appealing for locals.
Given the sheer amount of nonprofits, Gratis also curates the recommended list by personal interests. This avoids having to dig through hundreds of organizations and experiencing decision fatigue.
Gratis shows the mission statement first and foremost. I also included information like live updates as well as testimonials from other volunteers to increase transparency.
To ensure that users can commit to volunteering opportunities, Gratis includes a scheduling feature.
I focused on simplifying the search stage, since that often provides the most challenge for potential donors. While my research showed donating and volunteering are closely related, finding organizations that offer both is hard. To better answer this how might we, I also created user personas to narrow down specific pain points.
Additionally, I conducted a competitive audit to get a sense of the solutions already solving for issues within the charity landscape. I explored platforms of various sizes, ranging from GoFundMe to Project Wren.
Moving from the sense making stage, I started creating user flows for essential parts of the app, such as onboarding, volunteering and donating. Afterwards, I created several low fidelity options to explore, focusing on layout, call to actions and visual hierarchy. I've shown a few examples below of some of the flows and low fidelity mockups.
Besides creating the UI for Gratis, I also chose to hand illustrate many of the visuals for the platform. The typography and colors also convey a friendly and welcoming tone.
If I had more time, I would focus on these specific areas of improvement:
I want to extend a huge thank you to my mentor Bryan, who provided valuable feedback throughout this process!