The Good Coin

Give change. Bring change.

Comment

Inspiration

What do our spending habits tell us? There are numerous apps that tell us how much we're spending for food, apps and what not. What about how our spending is impacting the world around us?

For instance, think about your spend on Amazon. The boxes that get shipped, the number of times you get deliveries - all factor in ways where there is a carbon footprint. While Amazon has innovated with charitable shopping here to offset and drive meaningful purchases, what if you could offset your footprint by engaging, funding & assisting impactful work?

The Good Coin sparked from the idea that nonprofits and citizens (+ brands!) are connected via local-to-global challenges. These connections show up in one of most conscious choices we make everyday - our purchases! The Good Coin catalyzes personalized engagement to drive meaningful action - be it a donation, social media posts, alternative shopping and more!

What it does

The Citizen Experience

The Good Coin allows citizens to engage with nonprofits based on their spending habits & trends in one of 3 ways:

  • donate rounded-up change from purchases / spend in categories that negatively impact the world & issues around us (e.g. Travel purchases negatively impact the environment)
  • relevantly engage / join a movement (e.g. supporting humanitarian social media pledges)
  • buy from an "impact store" (e.g. buying from minority sellers in the same category)
  1. You simply connect your spending account (debit card / bank), and The Good Coin will analyze categorical trends (we're adding more granularity to go merchant specific for more tailored experience!).
  2. Next, you pick issues you care about. You can also pick a specific NGO, whose focus jives with what you care about.
  3. Each month you review how your spending is affecting those issues and take action - donate rounded-up $$, engage on social media or shop smarter!

The Nonprofit Experience

The Good Coin platform works with 4-star NGOs via the Charity Navigator integration.

However, a challenge nonprofits face is increasing the _ lifetime donation value _ from donors who might not be able to make substantial one-time gifts. The Good Coin platform enables an engagement layer to tap into repetitive behavior (spending) and drive more financially palatable chunks (rounded-up change!) via simple automated behavior loops.

How? Nonprofits can set up "Smart Profiles" in The Good Coin platform to further specify how to connect with citizens in a more personalized way. We believe this allows them to build on their brand value and engagement.

  1. They select from a list of 7 general spending categories (https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/567670/88123592-d48d9880-cb90-11ea-97d6-1adafb9e2e18.png) that negatively impact their initiatives. For instance, "Taxis" might impact an environmental NGO, so they can select a generic category of "Travel"!
  2. They provide the type of engagement (Donation, Social Media or Marketplace) to nudge citizens for the selected categories.
  3. In the future, we plan to provide to push out relevant blog posts to draw more engagement in smaller chunks.

Thankful to...

  • The AWS team for their help and resources.
  • Team Charity Navigator for customizing the API to accommodate a key feature in our use case.

What's next for The Good Coin

  • Auto-donate setting: Allow citizens to set automatic donations.
  • Deeper integrations into additional financial habits: merchant-specific impact (how does Dunkin Donuts compare to Starbucks for environmental issues)/
  • Allow for companies to analyze their expenses.
  • Expand to investment products (what is the impact of my investment portfolio).
  • User Experience: allow for monthly summaries from tracked NGOs (blogs and updates) and more!
Share this project:

Updates