Felton Cards

Example of "Guest" checking in
Landing page demo
Clothing store Felton Bucks demo
New guest registration demo
Guest service usage demo
Mock dashboard for analytics

Inspiration

The Community Day Center of Waltham (CDCW) provides life-saving care, but relies on fragmented data like staff memory and paper logs. Traditional data systems (IDs, digital intake) are incompatible with CDCW's low-barrier model, where privacy and trust are paramount. Without reliable metrics, the center struggles to compete for large grants or track long-term guest outcomes. We wanted to build a solution that captures essential data without compromising guest anonymity while staying straightforward enough for untrained staff to use.

What it does

Felton Cards is a privacy-first infrastructure that uses pseudo-anonymous NFC IDs to track service use. Guests receive a card that, when tapped to a provided device, allows for instant recording of service use like meals, showers, laundry, and hygiene kits. It also includes a "FeltonBucks" system for managing a clothing store. All data syncs to a Google Sheets backend, providing a real-time analytics dashboard that quantifies service demand and reach. We chose Google Sheets specifically for its ease of use, so that volunteers/staff need no technical background to read and understand it.

How we built it

We built a mobile application using React Native to handle the NFC card interactions and front-end interface. The backend is powered by Google Sheets, utilizing its API to serve as a cost-effective, accessible database for staff. We implemented an offline-first local cache to ensure the system remains functional even during connectivity gaps, and used pseudo-anonymous identifiers to ensure data privacy by design.

Challenges we ran into

One of the primary hurdles was balancing the need for detailed data with the "low-barrier" mission of the CDCW; we had to ensure that the onboarding process was fast and didn't require any intrusive personal info. We first approached the pain points with tech-forward solutions but ended up redrawing our plan to make sure that our primary goal was to help CDCW provide the best care and service possible without overengineering a solution for the sake of engineering. Much of our AI/ML integrations are built into the Google Sheet but will not be activated until we have had more discussion with CDCW regarding their needs.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of creating a functional, end-to-end system that transforms informal "staff memory" into professional, actionable data. Successfully implementing the "FeltonBucks" economy within the app to help manage the clothing store inventory and guest credits was a major win. Most importantly, we developed a tool that empowers a non-profit to prove its impact to donors without changing its compassionate culture.

What we learned

We all learned a bit about Google Sheet analytics and AI integrations as much of this was new to us. Away from technical aspects we learned the importance of "Privacy by Design" when working with vulnerable populations. As this was our first DeisHacks, we learned much about collaboration with non-profit organizations as well.

What's next for Felton Cards

Future plans for Felton Cards include working with CDCW on implementing our solution seamlessly as well as discussing what potential changes/additions we could make to our solution to best serve their needs.