Giving Connection

In the United States, 37.9 million people live in poverty. The poverty rate has remained largely unchanged at 12 % for the last fifty years. This issue is compounded within the criminal justice system, where 80% of individuals are impoverished and struggle not only with legal challenges, but also with accessing basic necessities like food, shelter, and mental health support. The vast network of 1.8 million nonprofits designed to support these individuals often fails to reach them effectively due to the difficulty in locating and accessing the right type of aid. The daunting challenge of connecting people to help is often left to those in public servant positions like social workers, teachers, police officers, emergency responders, healthcare workers, and others dealing with individuals in crisis. Public defenders must also undertake the role of connecting clients with social services, despite being overwhelmed by caseloads that are ten times what is manageable and not adequately resourced.

Giving Connection is a two-sided marketplace that connects people with nonprofits using a search tool that harnesses the power of local communities and puts people first. Our platform is designed to democratize access to human services organizations, making it as easy to locate help for essential needs as it is to find a local pizza shop near you. Our platform employs an intuitive, interactive map that functions much like Google Maps, but for social good—allowing users to quickly and seamlessly connect with nonprofits that provide food, shelter, healthcare, and more. Users can quickly find local nonprofits by entering keywords, causes, or service needs, instantly linking them to available resources. This technology puts the power of search in the hands of the community so they can proactively seek help and lift themselves out of poverty. Our platform is now scalable with geolocation capabilities that enable expansion to new cities, ensuring that no matter where users are, they can find help. The platform is designed to be universally accessible, including to those with disabilities, making it a critical tool in bridging the gap between technology and compassion.

Giving Connection redefines how we support the most vulnerable, those at the crossroads of poverty and dire need for basic services, such as low-income families, those struggling with homelessness, and individuals involved in the criminal justice system. These individuals often navigate a labyrinth of uncoordinated services, where the act of finding help is not only daunting but disheartening. Our platform simplifies this process profoundly: by centralizing access to necessary services on an easy-to-use, interactive map. We remove the logistical and informational barriers that exacerbate their struggles. Users can swiftly locate essential resources like food pantries, legal aid, or shelter through a streamlined interface that promotes informed decision-making, integrates community feedback, and adapts responsively to changing needs. We aim for community integration and empowerment, transforming the search for help from a burdensome task into a dignified, supportive experience that strengthens the social fabric and challenges systemic neglect.

Our team at Giving Connection is uniquely positioned to deliver this solution because we are not just developers and strategists; we are members of the communities we serve. Led by a former Nashville Assistant Public Defender, our team's firsthand experiences with the challenges faced by the underserved—struggling with poverty, navigating the criminal justice system, and the relentless search for basic services—fuel our commitment and inform our approach. This personal connection ensures our platform is crafted with genuine understanding and sensitivity to the problems it aims to solve. 

We continuously engage with community members in Nashville, TN to integrate their feedback directly into the platform's development and ensure it truly meets their needs. This collaborative approach not only refines our service offerings but also ensures that the platform evolves in alignment with the community's changing dynamics and priorities. Our solution is not just a tool, but a community-driven initiative that stands as a testament to the power of technology used for social good.

Our President and Founder, Stephanie Morrison, is from Cape May, NJ, which is why we chose Atlantic City as our next launch city. She is meeting with community members, neighbors, family, and friends to craft an approach that is responsive and reflective of South Jersey's needs. 

We have successfully developed and launched Giving Connection in two cities, Nashville, TN and Atlantic City, NJ. We currently have 153 nonprofit partners with over 700 nonprofit listings services ranging from food banks to legal aid. In the last year, our platform has served 3,600 active users with over 6,800 website visits. Throughout our development, we have conducted multiple testing phases, consistently integrating feedback from both nonprofit service providers and community member users to refine functionality and user experience. This iterative approach ensures our platform is responsive and adaptive to community needs, proving its efficacy and laying a solid foundation for future expansion to broaden our reach and impact.

We are applying to Solve to increase visibility, network with a vibrant community of innovators, integrate with complementary technologies, receive expert mentorship, and develop sustainable funding models to enhance our platform with advanced features.  Financially, we seek to develop sustainable funding models to scale without sacrificing free access, which Solve's network could provide critical guidance. Technically, we aim to enhance our platform with advanced features like a community need dashboard and service chatbot, areas where Solve's expertise could be invaluable. Legally, we face the challenge of adhering to diverse regional regulations, and Solve’s legal resources could ensure our operations remain compliant and secure. Culturally, we strive to adapt our service to meet the varied needs of the communities we serve, benefiting from the cultural insights that Solve’s global community offers. Joining Solve would not only help advance our solution but also allow us to contribute to and thrive within a community dedicated to innovative, impactful solutions to pressing global challenges. Solve’s resources and guidance will be pivotal in scaling our services and expanding our impact within the communities we serve.

Our solution introduces a novel approach to solving the pervasive issue of resource delivery for the underserved by leveraging technology in a way that is uniquely human-centered. Unlike traditional search tools that prioritize commercial consumerism, our platform reimagines these technologies with a focus on compassion and accessibility. By utilizing an interactive map similar to those found in consumer navigation apps, Giving Connection allows users to find essential services—such as housing, healthcare, and food assistance—with the same ease as locating a local restaurant. This design philosophy enhances the user experience and democratizes access to critical resources, making it a powerful tool for inclusion.

What truly sets our solution apart is its potential to catalyze broader impacts within the nonprofit and social services sectors. By demonstrating the effectiveness of our approach, we encourage other organizations to rethink how they interact with technology to serve their communities. This can lead to a paradigm shift in how services are delivered, prioritizing efficiency and accessibility to potentially change the market landscape by setting new standards for user engagement. The ripple effects of our innovation could transform the entire ecosystem, prompting a wave of new developments that adopt our ethos of technology designed with empathy and humanity at its core.

Our theory of change is rooted in the simple yet powerful premise that making essential services more accessible through technology can improve the lives of the underserved. Giving Connection leverages an intuitive, interactive mapping system to connect individuals directly with local nonprofits providing necessary services. By reducing the complexity and time typically required to access these services, our platform enables individuals to quickly meet their immediate needs, which enhances their stability and ability to engage with their communities. This direct connection has immediate benefits in terms of increased engagement and reduced stress for users, while also promoting longer-term outcomes by fostering relationships between service providers and beneficiaries. The impact of our solution is supported by feedback from our initial user base and nonprofit partners, who report improved efficiency and satisfaction. Our approach aligns with findings from social service technology research, which suggest that reducing barriers to access can significantly increase service utilization and user empowerment, thereby supporting our envisioned change and amplifying our solution’s potential impact.

Our primary impact goal for Giving Connection is to substantially improve how underserved populations access essential services, thereby enhancing their quality of life. We measure our progress toward this goal using specific, well-defined metrics aligned with our objectives to increase access, awareness, connection, and giving while shortening the time to connection. For increasing access, we track the number of nonprofit profiles and community members, the percentage of verified profiles, and the completeness of those profiles. To gauge increased awareness, we monitor the number of website visits, discover page visits, and active users by target location. For enhancing connections, our metrics include the daily, weekly, and monthly active users, number of searches conducted, profile visits, and website clicks. In terms of fostering giving, we measure the number of connection actions taken, volunteer or donate actions initiated, and the count of Giving Connection donors. Lastly, to evaluate our success in shortening the time to connection, we look at the frequency of zeros (instances when no suitable options are found) and the average engagement time per session. These indicators help us track our effectiveness and guide ongoing improvements to our platform.

The core technology behind Giving Connection leverages a robust suite of development tools to ensure a seamless, effective, and secure user experience. Our platform is built using Ruby on Rails and JavaScript, supported by a foundation of HTML and CSS, ensuring dynamic, responsive, and intuitive interactions across www.givingconnection.org and its subdomains. Our staging environment is managed through Heroku, where we test new features before they go live, while the production environment is also maintained on Heroku, ensuring stable and scalable deployment. All our code is securely housed in a GitHub repository, which serves as the central hub for code management and team contributions. For error tracking and optimization, we use Rollbar, which helps monitor and resolve issues in both staging and production environments. Sensitive information such as the platform's "master.key" is securely shared using Dashlane. For project management, we utilize ClickUp to manage tasks and facilitate team collaboration, and Figma serves as our primary design tool, enabling us to create and iterate on the user interface and experience efficiently.

Our team is composed of dedicated individuals committed to driving social impact through technology, including 6 members of our Board of Trustees as well as our President and Founder, Stephanie Morrison, who works full-time to manage core development, operations, and strategic planning. Our 2024 Summer Intern Program will have 4 dedicated students from Stanford University, UNC Chapel Hill, and Middle Tennessee State University who support various aspects of web management, community engagement, marketing and business development. We also work with a team of software engineers at Telos Labs who specialize in web development.

Our journey officially began in 2021 after our Founder moved home to New Jersey to care for her Aunt Fran who has Williams Syndrome. She had been dreaming of Giving Connection for over 10 years. After her time as a public defender, she understood more than ever why the time was now. Since its founding, our team has been relentlessly innovating and refining our platform to meet the dynamic needs of those we serve. This period has been crucial in shaping our approach, allowing us to test, learn, and grow alongside our community.

At Giving Connection, we embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion as cornerstones of our organizational ethos, understanding that our strength lies in the diversity of our team. Our female-led Board of Trustees is composed of individuals from a variety of cultural, social, and professional backgrounds, each bringing unique perspectives that enrich our collaborative environment. We are committed to actively minimizing barriers to opportunity by implementing equitable hiring practices, providing internship programs, and supporting professional development that caters to the diverse needs of our team. To foster an inclusive workplace, we ensure all team members feel respected, supported, and valued through open forums for feedback and transparent communication policies. We continually evaluate our strategies and make adjustments to enhance our practices, aiming to not only maintain but also deepen our commitment to creating an environment where diverse talents thrive and contribute to our mission’s success.

Our business model is rooted in a commitment to keeping our platform free for users while achieving financial sustainability through innovative funding strategies. Our essential services are also free to nonprofit organizations, thereby increasing the nonprofits' visibility and operational effectiveness. To fund these operations, we rely entirely on donations from individual donors which cover all programmatic and operational expenses. We are actively enhancing our fundraising efforts through targeted grant writing and seeking major gift opportunities to maintain and expand our service offerings. This dual approach allows us to serve our community effectively while securing the financial health necessary to continue our mission.

Our strategy for financial sustainability at Giving Connection is strategically designed around diversifying our revenue streams without compromising the free access at the core of our mission. We are investigating a multifaceted revenue model that includes a tiered membership system for nonprofits based on their annual revenues and a sliding scale "Pay As You Can" approach, which will cater to varying financial capabilities of different organizations. Additionally, we are pursuing corporate sponsorships and developing a social enterprise model that engages and highlights local businesses giving back. This blend of revenue sources is crafted not only to cover our operational costs and ensure scalability, but also to embed our services deeply within the community fabric. These financial strategies are complemented by our commitment to a mission-driven approach, ensuring that we continue to expand our impact effectively while remaining true to our principles of free and accessible service.