Critique my App Idea
An app that exactly replicates VENMO except instead of receiving/sending payments to another users' bank account it, it donates the money to that users charity(s) of choice.
I thought of this app when I made a $5 bet with a friend on how large Central Park in NYC was. I won but felt weird asking them to actually Venmo/pay me $5. Instead I asked them to donate it but highly doubt it happened since its "less convenient" than just Venmo'ing someone.
Also would act like a social media platform like Venmo showing which payments where sent & what for. You could get to show off the total you've donated too and which charities you stand behind!
Any feedback helps!
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I play charity poker online with friends sometimes where you if you go out you donate $5 to a charity. Honestly, I couldn’t see us using this app. We just trust each other to donate. I’m not convinced the friction of installing a new app would be much less than going to a website and making a quick donation via credit card. If you can whip an MVP quickly and test it out then go for it, but I’d imagine there’s some decent complexity here (both technical and legal). Don’t mean to be discouraging, just wanted to give you some honest feedback.
Appreciate your feedback! Im in the process of trying to figure out a game plan for getting an MVP going. As far as your reference to charity poker goes, I did not intent for the concept to solely revolve around betting for donations. That was the example I used which lead me to coming up with the idea! What I have in mind is a bit of a broader definition of the idea itself. An app that creates a convenient and social platform for people to donate to the charities they stand behind. Yes I totally get it that you can just go to the charity's website and donate but this would be a 1 stop shop for that and it would add the "contemporary socialization" that our generation revolves around to it.
Its actually not that difficult for an app like this to be developed and scaled from a donation stand point. The development of the IOS App itself is a different story but I was in contact of the founders of the app "GiveTide" which acts like Acorns where your bank rounds every purchase to the dollar and donates the difference instead of adds it to a savings account.
Once they built their app and implemented a platform for linking your bank account to it & tracking all your transactions, it was fairly easy to add different charities to their list of places to donate.
Hi Corben,
This sounds like a cool idea.
Pieter Levels' https://gofuckingdoit.com/ had some traction. It was a way to keep people accountable to their goals. If they didn't do the goal, they had to donate to charity. Maybe your idea could be the payment system for projects like that?
Also, Nubix.ca is doing documentary projects for charities to encourage donations. Maybe you could be the payment engine for something like that?
https://www.nubix.ca/case-studies/vgood
There are also companies like https://www.benevity.com/ that help corporate employees donate to charities. This might be a big opportunity if you can reduce some of that friction.
I do some charity projects as well so something like this seems interesting. I'll definitely follow your progress to see how this develops.
I hope that helps.
John
Wow thanks so much for introducing me to these different outlets to consider! A lot of valuable info.
I appreciate your response and feedback. Do you have any advice on where to start with an idea such as this? I picture it being an app almost identical to Venmo but obviously marketed in a different way and maybe a few changes to its features to make it unique.
It doesnt strike me as an idea that necessarily solves a painful problem like Venmo did for people without a way to create money transactions. It strikes me as more of introducing a new convenient way of donating and even increasing the likelihood of people donating.
Hi Corben,
I agree that it's not Venmo, but I think the charity niche would make it stand out, particularly if transaction costs were low.
I like the GoFuckingDoIt goal focus. Something like that is creative enough that it could get some publicity and traction with the right outreach. This would be something akin to the bet solution you mentioned in your post. It would be cool if you could coin a phrase that would get associated with "betting friends with donations to charity". That would be a great brand for the company. :-)
Another idea off the top of my head is to focus on smaller grassroots charities. There are many thousands of charities that will never be mainstream. Helping to bring attention and donations to these organizations could be a valuable service. I don't think this will be a big moneymaker, but it could do a lot of good. It would be more of a directory and information service. I think the Nubix VGood project is along those lines.
In terms of profits, the corporate donation model of Benevity probably has the largest potential. That is more about reducing administrative hassles and tracking what employees are doing and not necessarily making the transaction itself. Dashboards of total donations and volunteer hours are good PR for the companies, so they have an incentive to use platforms like this.
I hope that helps.
John
Perfect! Again thank you so much for your insight. It really helps a lot. Would you recommend I look into creating the app first and start on developing the MVP?
It would definitely save time using Venmo as a reference for developers without having to completely reinvent the wheel.
However I genuinely believe that this would be a very popular & trendy app that would catch on with people who want to have a fun way of feeling good about giving back. I've never created an application before nor do I have experience in these types of start ups so I am not sure even where to begin!
It depends on which focus you were to do. The goal-focused one would be the easiest to build. GoFuckingDoIt is a simple site. The charity directory one would likely need a solid directory first with lots of charity outreach. The corporate focus would definitely have the longest sales cycle so I'm guessing an MVP is less helpful in testing the idea.
Making a secure financial processing app doesn't sound like a trivial task, though. Good luck!
It’s not like Venmo but you may be able to use every.org for this
Looks great! Seems more like a social media platform for your contributions. I was aiming more towards adding more of the convenience factor to the way you donate. Social media is a cool addition to Venmo however rarely do people use the app for that part alone.