VolunUp

How might we help organizations leverage technology to connect willing volunteers to foster community-sustaining relationships, all while combating the challenge of volunteer shortages?

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Inspiration

Our inspiration for this app derives from the pandemic's aftermath, coupled with the end of government aid and the effects of inflation, which has resulted in a critical shortage of volunteers for organizations in need. With the ongoing decrease in volunteer participation, we are inspired to create a platform that empowers users to channel their focus and skills toward positive social change. Moreover, we recognize the importance of community-sustainable relationships with the ultimate goal of maximizing the impact of volunteers in their local communities.

What it does

Our app VolunUp tackles the recent issue of volunteer shortage around the U.S as well as the lack of participation among younger generation. With features such as an advanced filter system through users' skills and interests, activities page, and a tracking system for volunteer hours that motivates users with in-app badges, our app seeks to bridge the gap between individuals and their surrounding communities. Additionally, it also breaks down barriers of differences and distances within local communities by offering people opportunities to maintain and create new relationships with our messaging feature while diverting users from excessive screen time to generate positive social change.

How we built it

Our team utilized Google Docs to brainstorm/collect research and Figma to design our app from start to finish.

Challenges we ran into

We were struggling to develop features that differentiate our design from the existing solutions.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • We created a high fidelity prototype under the constraint of 24 hours
  • We implemented all the features we discussed for our project
  • We created a visually pleasing interface with customized color themes
  • We came up with a new filter idea to tailor users' skills and interests to volunteer opportunities

What we learned

  • We learned that we should include competitor analysis before designing our own prototype so that we can help ourselves stand out but also learn from their design mistakes
  • We learned that brainstorming ideas is the most important as well as the most time-consuming part of the project, meaning we should allocate more time next time to fully brainstorm specific details

What's next for VolunUp

  • Create a separate interface for organizations
    • Consider integrating with other platforms/services such as schools districts & social media to expose users to more volunteer opportunities
    • Explore artificial intelligence & machine learning to provide personalized recommendations for volunteer opportunities based on a user's past activities & preferences

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