CitizenApp – Donate with Purpose

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  Donor app

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  Beneficiary application

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  Store app

Inspiration

In Brazil, it's common to be approached on the streets by people asking for help. But most people don’t carry cash anymore — and many hesitate to donate out of fear it might be misused. At the same time, many vulnerable people, including those from the middle class in temporary crisis, are overlooked by government aid. This inspired me to create a transparent, tech-enabled solution that makes giving both easy and purposeful.

What it does

CitizenApp connects donors and people in need (TS – Social Passersby) through QR codes. Each beneficiary has a profile showing their verified needs and current balance for specific goals, like food, health, education, or hygiene. Donors can pay via Pix, credit card, or internal wallet, but funds are locked to their intended category and can only be used at verified partner stores. There’s also an AI assistant to guide beneficiaries on jobs, education, and life planning.

How we built it

CitizenApp was built entirely with Bolt, split into three lightweight apps:

• A donor app
• A recipient (TS) app
• A partner store app
  Bolt allowed fast deployment of QR code scanning, wallet tracking, and category-based restrictions. We used Bolt’s visual flows to keep the user experience intuitive for low-literacy users.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge was simplifying a complex social idea into something usable by people with minimal tech skills. We also faced technical constraints when building features like geolocation and donation categorization, which had to be broken down into separate Bolt projects due to prompt size. We worked around this by modularizing the system into three clean apps that integrate conceptually.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• We transformed a complex humanitarian concept into three simple, intuitive apps — all built with Bolt.
• We ensured full transparency for donors, recipients, and merchants — every transaction is traceable and purpose-driven.
• We built an accessible system that empowers even people without smartphones to receive support with dignity.
• We included an AI assistant to help beneficiaries ask life-changing questions about education, work, and family planning.
• We created a scalable, global solution that can be adapted for any country where people want to help — but don’t know how.

What we learned

We learned how to design with empathy, how to scope social impact projects inside no-code platforms, and how powerful tools like Bolt can bring real-world humanitarian ideas to life. Most importantly, we learned that accessibility and dignity must be at the core of tech made for the people who need it most.

What's next for CitizenApp – Donate with Purpose

We plan to partner with NGOs and expand CitizenApp beyond Brazil, adapting it for any country where digital giving can meet human needs directly. Our vision is to build a platform that turns generosity into action — with transparency, traceability, and trust.

Built With

• bolt