carexchange

Donation platform including product donations and charities ranked based on their exact needs

One of the most severe problems charity organizations face is unstable donation flow throughout the year. People tend to donate more, for example, during Christmas, Easter etc., while charities' donation needs remain roughly the same during the year. This creates a significant management issue for them. Additionally, charities need food products like dairy, meat, fruits and vegetables, which people cannot donate due to expiration dates. We validated all the above with surveys among 700+ participants and 18+ charities in Greece. Another issue these surveys showed was the lack of transparency in current donation methods, as donors are not getting enough information about the process.

We believe that we can solve this issue by directing donations when charities actually need them, converting donations into products charities need the most, and connecting people with charity organizations while making the donation procedure fun, fast, easy and more transparent.

Carexchange collects data from charities including their extensive needs in products and lists them based on the fullness of those needs. This way, users can see real-time which charities need their help the most and donate. At the same time, we partner up with suppliers who make their products available for donations in carexchange and make sure they reach the charities. When an organization is satisfactory full in donations people can only donate coupons which can be used by it in the future.

Users can either select the donated products manually, or can use SmartPick to make the most efficient donation possible. SmartPick is an algorithm that inputs charity's present needs and user's donating amount of money, thus finding the best possible combination of products.

-Total Available Market: 13.6B €, -Total Addressable Market: 10.6B €, - Total Obtainable Market: 2.3B €, *The Market Size was calculated for USA, India, Canada & Europe.*, Greek Market Size: 9,000,000€. Overall giving worldwide grew 4.1% over the past year, the 6th consecutive year of growth. Online giving grew by 12.1% over the past year. Revenue from individual online gifts grew by 19% over the past year. Online monthly giving revenue grew by 40% as recurring donation options become increasingly popular with online donors. A starting segmentation is people who can download an app & make online transactions. We rank our users/customers further based on their donation frequency: Regular donors(5+ donations per year), Occasional donors (1-4 donations per year), and non-donors (0-1). We also plan to have a B2B segment, including all types of corporate-medium-sized businesses.

-Antonis Politis - Managing Director. Antonis is studying Business & Management Administration in AUEB. He has been awarded on entrepreneurship in various programs and competitions, like F1 In Schools, Hult Prize, Junior Achievement Greece and more.
- Panagiotis Kokmotos - Head of Business Development. Panagiotis is studying Mechanical Engineering at UoP. He is working part-time on another global start-up, bringing experience into the team. He was also Project Manager in the European Startup Universe.
- Alexandros Karagiannis - Software Developer. Alexandros is studying Computer Engineering at UoP. He is also working 2+ years part-time in a software company in Patras and he is one of the top students of his department. Thus, he is bringing great talent and knowledge in our team.
- Paris Sergiannis - Software Developer. Paris is also a student of Computer Engineering at UoP. He has great talent in programming and has earn awards about his mathematical abilities in the past.

It is also interesting to mention how we met.

Antonis met Paris in a cafe in Patras while working on carexchange. Then Paris & Antonis met Panagiotis in THE SAME cafe a couple of months later, as Panagiotis accidentally overheard our conversation and found it highly interesting. Alexandros is a friend of Paris, so while searching for an extra software engineer, Alexandros stood out from all the people we knew, matched their ambitions and joined the team.

Thus:

2 of our 4 members are currently developing our app/product, 2 other members are operating the other business side of startup.

We have run multiple surveys among people & charities, collecting important validation on the issue we will attempt to solve and the market fit of our app. We ran a survey among 18 greek charities; 94% of them told us that they face an unbalanced (in terms of food product items & types) surplus of donations during the holidays and 83% lack food donations during the rest year. Also, comparing that survey with one we ran among 630+ people, we saw a big gap between the types of food products people donate and the actual needs of charities. In the people survey, 86.7% of answerers told us they would be interested in a product donation platform which includes charities' needs, and 79.6% believe such a platform would increase their donation frequency. Last but not least. We collected statistics about the amounts & product volume people donate to charities, which are helpful for our projections. Currently, we have another crucial survey underway, with a primary focus on validating some of our more extensive assumptions.

We also have a small community of 150+ people on our social media pages and a waiting list ready to use our app and provide feedback when our MVP is launched.

Carexchange is a revolution in the donation world. Donations become easier (simple app & procedure), faster (with Smartpick, they can be completed in 1-2 minutes), more efficient (based on the actual needs) and more transparent (donors can track EVERY step of the donation). Our only purely technological innovation is the SmartPick algorithm. Real innovation exists in our business model. We found a new sustainable way to connect the 3 main "players" of the donation procedure: Donors, Charities & Suppliers, creating an efficient Win-Win-Win system for them.
At the same time, we can make revenue without charging extra to either the donor or the charity. With carexchange, the donation is becoming pure & transparent. Our vision is to strongly embrace the philanthropy experience and eliminate difficulties that prevent people from getting it. There are no other competitors worldwide that bring the same values to donors as we do. There is no platform yet where you can donate products to charity instead of money. Also, real needs are something most other platforms throw in the shadow. The philanthropy experience is limited to the donation time, and donors usually do not get any feedback on their donation's impact. We save time from people who physically donate products to charities, while they can also buy and give supplies charities actually need (dairy, meat etc.).

We are going to partially achieve this in the first 3 years by:

• Creating awareness about the issue of the ineffective current donation system

• Dominating the Greek market

• Building a recognizable brand and loyal customers

• Expanding strategically internationally

After that, we aim to continue growing in Europe, Latin America and the US.

We are motivated as we can’t stand the problems charities face and the inefficiency of the system. We are inspired by social entrepreneurship, and our young age pushes us to bring change into the world.

Our main product is an app and it is based mainly on React Native, but we also use NodeJS, Javascript, PostgreSQL, Python. We are also building a charity interface using React, NodeJS, PostgreSQL and host it using AWS, that makes easier to communicate with the charities and learn in real-time about thei needs.

The Market Size was calculated for USA, India, Canada & Europe:

• Total Available Market: 13.6B €, 

• Total Addressable Market: 10.6B €, 

• Total Obtainable Market: 2.3B €, 

Greek Market Size: 9,000,000€. 

What is interesting is that the market is also growing as a sector. More specifically:

• Overall giving worldwide grew 4.1% over the past year, the 6th consecutive year of growth. 

• Online giving grew by 12.1% over the past year.

• Revenue from individual online gifts grew by 19% over the past year. 

• Online monthly giving revenue grew by 40% as recurring donation options became increasingly popular with online donors.

As the world becomes more globalized, people care more about helping people in need, especially in crucial times such as emergencies, disasters and catastrophes. Online giving makes it easier for them to donate, and with our app, they can select the charities that are in real need and donate products they actually want.

A barrier we have already seen is closing a deal with a supplier. We found it hard to get in touch with them, and getting them to make a deal is going to be even more challenging. Thus, we are offering a free pilot partnership on our MVP testing and a free trial at the start of the deal, opting to prove to them in practice the benefits of joining carexchange.
Another risk we will probably face is people's negative perception of our profitable business model. We aim to manage it by focusing on the charity-user relationship, as we want carexchange to be the platform for donations. At the same time, we ensure that the user's main experience is directly connected to the charities.

We are in touch with 18 greek charities.

We have partnered with 5 of them in order to run our MVP. We provide them the charity interface and are in constant communication via a mutual channel.

We are currently in touch with the suppliers too.

Market targeting

Our market includes all people that donate regularly or occasionally to charity causes, while one of our main goals is to motivate people who don’t give to charity to try it. Also, we aim to increase the frequency of people donating by giving people the opportunity to experience philanthropy. We believe a similar segmentation is adjustable to all potential markets, but in any case, we aim to do an extensive market analysis for every future market. 

After doing small neuroscience research online to see if giving is an activity structured in human neurological behaviour, we found some very intriguing facts:

Utilizing MRIs, The latest neuroscience reveals that doing something “good” – whether it be an act of kindness, volunteering or donating – floods the body and brain with dopamine - contributing to feelings of pleasure and satisfaction, and oxytocin - nicknamed the love hormone, which helps us connect to others socially, helps alleviate pain, and makes us feel good.

This effect has been nicknamed The Helpers High. It is very real and very powerful, it leads some people to dedicate their whole lives to supporting and helping others.

(https://www.coasydney.org/news...)

Studies of adults determined that regularly giving to charity made as much of a difference in happiness as a doubled income.  The fact that this effect could be found around the world.

fMRI imaging reveals that when you give to others, structures in your brain associated with reward, such as the striatum, become activated. Scientists can measure how good an activity feels by looking at this activity, which involves the “pleasure” neurochemical dopamine. It is a fascinating discovery that the same structures that are activated when you win the lottery or do drugs are similarly switched on by giving to others. It seems puzzling because giving money away to others means personal financial sacrifice. 

(https://changedonations.com/blog/neuroscienceofgiving)

Thus, we proceed into market targeting and segmentation

We opt to operate in two different customer models. First and foremost, for the B2C model, users are segmented into 3 categories:

• Regular donors

• Occasional donors

• Non-donors,

whereas occasional donors are classified as low-value and high-value donors. 

We have a different penetrating strategy for each category.

• Regular donors are difficult to approach, so we plan to reach them through promotion by  partnered charities and targeted advertisement.

• Occasional donors are easier to approach, and we will reach them via social media and promotion by charities. At the same time, we will focus on consistency with low-value donors and gaining trust from high-value donors.

• Non-donors are probably the most difficult to be approached. Thus we will reach them via repeatable media advertisement and word-of-mouth, focusing on the social impact carexchange has.

We are also considering expanding to a B2B model that covers Small, Medium, and Big(Corporate) Companies to cover their CSR and ESG needs. 

Finally, we are currently talking with some of our customers through our website and social media

Main product (Technical Specifications)

Our main product is an app, and it is based mainly on React Native, but we also use NodeJS, Javascript, PostgreSQL, and Python. We are also building a charity interface using React, NodeJS, and PostgreSQL and hosting it using AWS, which makes it easier to communicate with the charities and learn in real time about their needs.

We have already designed our mobile app's UX/UI Design of our mobile app, and the coding part is ready. You can view this here, and also a quick video with the walkthrough of our app is shown next:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ygQOQf2rhP8.

At the same time, a charity interface is necessary for our functionality. Through this interface, charities can set up their product needs, communicate with their donors and track their ongoing donations. We have also designed and finished the MVP for this interface.

Real innovation exists in our business model. We found a new sustainable way to connect the 3 main "players" of the donation procedure: Donors, Charities & Suppliers, creating an efficient Win-Win-Win system for them.

As a social enterprise, we combine a regular business model with social impact. Our basic revenue model comes from an agreement with the supplier, whereas we take a  monthly commission(6-8%) on their generated revenue via our app. In the future, we plan on partnering with independent product brands, while adding new product categories to our platform (pharmacy, clothes, school materials etc.).

Taking a quick look at our app, our revenue model gets “activated” when the user selects the products given to charity, and confirms the donation. The order is then sent directly to the supplier, and we get our revenue with the method described earlier.