Subscribe
Sign in
PocketChange — Social media that makes things better.
Built to empower people & brands to take action, add perspective, & start a movement with anyone. Our tech uses AI for micro-donation from Instagram, Twitter, News etc. without ever leaving your screen. All donations 3x today, plus win $1000! See image 6.
36
Replies
@helloduane Hey Duane! Appreciate you hunting PocketChange! So we have a massive process to select a top one org for every cause area. (78 causes) We evaluate using programs like Guidestar and charity navigator based on 5 core criteria: Financial Efficiency, Sustainable Impact, Approach Diversity, Scaling Focus, and Total Transparency. Here is a link with more detail on how we evaluate each of these and the charities we have picked. https://pocketchange.social/cs/
Glad you asked about adding your own orgs! We just launched an embeddable version of our button for websites and to be shared as links. Here you can customize your cause with any registered 501c3. We are building local charities into the app this month as well so you can support any org you like!
@helloduane Hi Duane! 👋🏻 Head of Charity here! I wanted to second what Christian said-- thank you for hunting PocketChange! Your support means a lot. We are thrilled to have 78 top-vetted charities on our platform that users can trust. It is important to us that our selected charities are transparent in every way. While selecting a charity, we do a deep dive into what programs they offer, who it is offered to, if they are growing those programs or have a plan to do so, how much of your donation goes into programming, and much more. It is quite the process as we hold our charities to a high standard.
Selecting for our four COVID-19 charities was a very challenging process. We saw the devastation this virus was bringing at all levels. At the time of our selection process, there were not any brand new charities 100% dedicated to eradicating the coronavirus, so we had to get creative! As mentioned, we ended up selecting four COVID-19 charities due to the unprecidented need in areas such as food security, medical supplies, prevention and detection, and then just relief more generally. We poured hours and hours of research into this selection process and here is what we have:
- COVID-19 Food Security: World Central Kitchen
- COVID-19 Medical Supplies: Direct Relief
- COVID-19 Prevention and Detection: World Health Organization
- COVID-19 General Relief: Center for Disaster Philanthropy
Since we started, we have analyzed over 1 million charities to select our 78! Please let me know if you have any further questions!
Love this product! We need a new paradigm in social media - one that is used for good, not for creating more divisions or feelings of inadequacy.
This is a refreshing idea! The ability to tangibly impact change vs just reposting something on social media is the direction I hope all social goes. I like the Financial Efficiency portion as added transparency into where dollars are going.
Just a thought: It would be great if I could create my own annual charitable schedule when creating an account. Example: "I want to donate $500 this year", PocketChange will remind me or automatically to donate to my causes each month to reach that annual donation goal. I think having the user establish a donation goal at the beginning of the experience would encourage them to spend their already 'committed dollars'.
At the end of the year, I would love to see a dashboard or infographic of my donations, my tax write-off impact, and how my dollars were used at the underlying charities.
Excited to see where this goes!
@stormshow Love that idea! We are definitely looking to build out the personal finance side of the platform to help people more seamlessly build charitable action into your daily life. A reoccurring amount based on personal preferences seems like a great way to get people started even if its $5 a month. The impact graph would be awesome too! Looking to pull some inspiration from Spotify Year in Review on some creative ways to roll this out.
Appreciate the great feedback and support!
Hello Hunters! The team and I are so excited to officially launch PocketChange on Product Hunt and put on this challenge for you to win $1,000!
Please leave questions and feedback below, we'd love to hear your thoughts. In the meantime, here is a bit of our story below if you are interested. Cheers and happy Giving Tuesday!
The concept was born almost 4 years ago with a viral video on Facebook about a disaster. Everyone was responding with 'sad emojis' and leaving comments saying 'sending prayers!' or 'how can I help?' Simply put, there is a Like button, a Comment button, and a Share button... but where is the Take Action button???
Since then we hit the ground running. We started as freshmen in college working to reverse engineer the most idealistic and simple form of doing good for the world- clicking a button. We first developed a chrome extension to add a micro-donation button to Facebook. This evolved into a proprietary machine learning algorithm to predict what causes a piece of content is talking about. People loved the idea of clicking a button to help, but wanted to be sure money was going to the right place- so we built a world-class charity selection process to vet top charities actually solving world problems at the root. Then we realized everyone uses their phones (🤦♂️)- so we built the first ever way to instantly take action from apps like Instagram, Twitter, News etc. without ever leaving your screen. But donating wasn't enough- people care about people. So we built our own social platform to connect, share, discuss, and build the cause identity you want in this world. And here we are!
We continued to work through countless, and I mean countless failures, bumps in the road, and iterations to get where we are today. We set out to build the platform we believe can truly change the world. A platform that combines capitalism with altruism, finance with charity, identity with action. A place to connect people, brands & charity for a common goal. A place where your voice means tangible change. A platform built from the ground up to empower you, whoever you may be.
All love from the PocketChange team!
- Leo, Reese, Jay, Zu, Cole, JC, Milena, Sedak, Grace, Reyn, Dooley & the countless helping hands along the way 💙🤘
________
🏆PRODUCT HUNT GIVEAWAY CHALLENGE🏆
In honor of this day for generosity we are launching on Product Hunt with our giving Tuesday Giveaway!
Win $1,000 just by getting 5 followers on PocketChange.
-$500 to a charity of your choice
-$500 cash for you
To secure your entry, hop on our app and do the following...
- gain 5 followers= 1 Entry
- gain 7 followers= 2 Entries
- gain 20 followers= 5 entries
Giving Tuesday Bonus: 3X all donations you make today!
Leave a comment or message us directly and we will verify your entry. Make sure to invite your friends to follow you and make some PocketChanges while you’re at it!
________
(This challenge will last 72 hours from 12:00 PST 12/1/20 to 12:00 PST 12/4/20. We will announce the winner on Instagram live and contact you. You will have 48 hours to reply before we select another winner.)
It's intersting that despite the exponential growth and worldwide explosion of social media in the past decade, the model has yet to be systematically used to empower positive change.
Imagine if every time someone liked a photo on Instagram it donated a few cents to a local charity. Or if every photo shared on Facebook inspired others to give... Social media has certainly been harnessed to cause positive change, but there's never been a platform built on the foundation of empowering change. Until now!
I love imagining how tech can make the world better, and it's hard to find an app that does a better job than PocketChange.
@carter_fite Wow, this is so well said Carter - that's exactly the vision. Thank you for posting.
This is dope! Let's activists and people who care make a big difference rather than the 1% needing to donate money to organizations for tax write-offs. The past few years have proven that everyday folks can and are willing to give just as much and this will allow them to "vet top charities actually solving world problems at the root." Nice work!
@jasmind_thomas Thank you for your enthusiasm! We believe that everyone can make a difference in this world-- you, me, your neighbor, etc. By empowering every individual to make change, the moment they feel inspired to do so, we think that authentic change will transpire!
@jasmind_thomas Totally agree! Making action accessible as well as a fun experience is a great way to put your voice in and get more people involved. And with the mindset change of bringing that self empowerment to the forefront can hopefully spark all sorts of positive ripples in your daily life beyond just giving.
So excited to be launching on product hunt! Happy to answer all questions, let's do some good today!
I've been an early user of PocketChange and absolutely love the concept. There is a human need to 'do good' but charitable giving is usually only done a couple times a year, at best. This app changes that behavior, by making it super easy to support any cause in the moment, for just a quarter or a few bucks. Highly recommend checking it out!
@jalster Thanks so much Jared! Totally agree, it's all about that consistent behavior change :)
I'm beyond hyped to see the product that we got on the making for the last year on such a product launch. The app feels so good and the content in it is actually the best part. Empower everyone!
It’s incredible to imagine what the world could look like if everyone took part in micro donations. But the way PocketChange has been explained to me goes beyond a compilation of small actions. The app is also able to empower the individual user. If giving to a cause is this simple, then it begs the question: what other ways in our lives can we make a difference, specifically ways that are easier than we presume? That’ll get you thinking.
I also love the aspect of building community and dialogue through the app. Honestly that’s something the world could use more of. They have an amazing product which I expect will continue to grow.
@bryantanigawa Thank you Bryan - the community piece is my favorite too. What's the quote: if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far go together. That's exactly what it is for me.
This is a great product. I use it daily and my life is better because of it. Every new addition makes it that much stronger... let's all reach out to a dozen people we know and get this amazing community into the air where it belongs!
Over the years, I've gotten pretty sick of how toxic social media has become. Bragging wars, highly curated lifestyle portrayals, & very polarizing opinions. I'm glad to have found a platform that uses all the strengths of social media for something innately good. The ability to connect with friends, maintain relationships and also contribute/share my social causes Is a no-brainer.
@noah_binstock This is great to hear Noah! You nailed my favorite thing about PocketChange, which is hosting my identity. Tbh I used to use insta stories, but it just didn't feel like I was doing anything, and since we built PC I honestly have fixed that issue for myself. Glad to see others see it
This is awesome! I have had the incredible pleasure to watch PC from early on, and to see how far it has come it just a testament of the dedication of an outstanding team that truly cares about giving everybody the chance to make a differences on so many issues.
This year alone has shown why PocketChange is so important for the future. People not only need to feel like they can contribute to change but also have the ability to, and seeing the functionality of this new app and how easy it is to understand the suggested charities, PocketChange has almost made it way too easy to give!
I’m so proud to have known some of those involved, and am looking forward to seeing where this goes!
I LOVE PocketChange because every single time I read a news article or watch a video and feel like I need to, want to DO something, I can!!! Quick, easy, and I feel like I'm participating in helping the world!!!
@marcia_zina_mager Glad to hear it! I totally agree that it shifts the way we all just 'consume' content into truly 'engaging' in content in a beneficial way. :)
Huge fan of what the PocketChange app is doing to change the way we donate. Tiny incremental change over an extended time period can seriously make an impact. Tech should make doing good things easier, and PocketChange is helping to make that happen.
Neocities