Saturday, December 2, 2017
Becoming Better... Final Project 1pm
By: Madison Bickerstaff, Megan Wilson, and Sakshi Sata.
Becoming Better... is driven by single goal; to do our part in making Memphis a better place for all. Our website is strictly a database search engine for people to get involved in the community, donate to the local non-profit organizations throughout Memphis, and share their experiences with volunteering.
Website link: Becoming Better...
Powerpoint Presentation Link: Powerpoint
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Your idea to help the world become a better place is really good! I love that your website is a one-stop shop where I can look at a quick blurb for different non-profit organizations and donate to them. In addition, it's easy to find volunteering opportunities through your volunteer tab and the posts from your social media. Overall, the interface for the website is beautiful and easy to explore.
One tweak for the website to change which non-profit organizations appear first on the page. The smaller organizations need more manpower and money than the bigger organizations since they do not have a huge recruitment power and fundraising capabilities. I see you already did that, but you should move the Humane Society downward as well since that's a nationwide non-profit organization. I really enjoyed your presentation and can see how much hard work you put into this!
I thought Dr. J brought up a very interesting point about the "dark-side" of volunteering, basically people using volunteering for their own gain whether it be social, spiritual, or educational. When I went to high-school I hated having required service hours. Whenever I gave the volunteer coordinator the "proof of service" signature sheet I felt like they immediately thought I was only there for the signature. I hated that feeling; it was so self-serving, which is ironic at a volunteer opportunity meant to help others. In order to help keep your volunteering website on the "light-side" I recommend a user agreement for the forum. The user agreement should have restrictions on the posts where people can only talk about how their volunteer experience helped the community, not themselves bragging about their service.
Dr. J also brought up another important point: money is more valuable than time to these organizations, especially the small ones. I'm glad you guys put the smaller organizations at the top of the page so people would be more likely to focus on those ones first. Incentivizing the fundraising would be a quick way to raise money, but would take away from the community-focus. Perhaps asking for pro-bono advertisement spots on local websites like Choose 901 and Crosstown Concourse would help earn money faster and still foster the community-focused attitude your website desires.
I think the project was very successful in regards to allowing volunteers multiple avenues to provide help to organizations, as well as keeping the aid locally-focused. The added benefit of the social media components means keeping site users in-touch with the ongoing events and goals of the different organizations, so being an active giver (of time or money) becomes even easier. Because this project is so effective, my only comments are suggestions for how the site could grow larger.
As we briefly discussed in class, I believe that the donation i.e. "Race to Raise" function would be more successful with a deadline. I know the team mentioned how they leaned away from that so as to not awkwardly have organizations meet their goal midyear, or the organizations that may not receive substantial donations in a year. However, I think this would be a valuable addition to the site users, and admins, for a couple reasons. In the scenario where donors reach the goal before the yearly deadline, the site can maximize the number of organizations that receive donations (or meet the yearly goal). If for instance you planned to donate $100 to Dorothy Day House every month of 2017, but that organization reached it's goal before then, donors could move to other organizations. (This is assuming that there is a substantial pool of donors with a lot to give, but as Sakshi mentioned, maybe Bill Gates will find BecomingBetter... and feel generous). For the other scenario, wherein certain organizations don't receive adequate funds in a year, this can be useful for the administrators to know. The weekly or monthly social media focus on a certain organization can be reimagined to focus on underrepresented service projects. Thus the site is working not only on the current needs of the community service sites, but their longevity as well. Overall though, a very compelling project!
I really enjoyed this project! I loved that this idea came from such a sentimental place in all three of the group members.
In class, it was mentioned that this would be a beneficial tool for students looking for service hours. I think this is an idea that this website should run with. Obviously, getting an entire city behind volunteerism would be great. However, as we also mentioned in class, people can often use volunteerism in a negative way. If this website targets students looking to build their resumes or fill a class requirement, I think it would have a lot of success. Not only would organizations get the help they needed, but the youth of the city would have the opportunity to build community relationships with students from other schools, organization leaders, and city professionals. Targeting this specific audience benefits people on both sides of the volunteer spectrum: those who benefit from the work of volunteers as well as those volunteering. However, this idea also plays into what I mentioned earlier: people using volunteerism in a negative way. While I think this is a good idea for the website, it could also lead to ineffective volunteerism. Individual might join the initiative solely for themselves instead of for the idea of helping others.
In conclusion, as depressing as it is, I agree with Dr. J and her skepticism of volunteerism. However, I do not think this is not something that this group could have solved. The project itself was great and it was obvious how much time and effort was put into the idea. I really enjoyed this project! I loved that this idea came from such a sentimental place in all three of the group members.
Becoming Better is a great example of how the world is going to start becoming a better place! During the presentation I remembered how I was looking for a website EXACTLY like this! But I could never find one! This is awesome! I love how this is a convenient place to make donations to different organizations! Also I love how you have links for organizations volunteering opportunities. I think this is perfect for people in school who need volunteer hours or for those who just want to give their time, but may not have money to donate.
A small thing I think needs to be added is a link to the organizations page under the read more section. This is for incase a person wants to view the organization’s website and read about them more. I absolutely love the number of organizations you have though! One thing I would suggest, which I think you have already done, is finding more smaller organizations and keep finding new ones to add to the website!
Something cool to add to this website might be a small business or organization page. For example, businesses who are new and who are trying to send out a positive message (for instance, if a business donated most of their profits to a charity or a bakery gives their left over food to the homeless), to create a tab where it states the business, gives a little information about them, and then their link. This could be a good way to get people to explore and buy from those businesses, but at the same time not creating a donation page for them. It could be a “Hey, look at these awesome and generous businesses! Go support them today!” kind of thing.
Also something cool would be links to popular local blogs, like Healthy Women 901 or Dr. J’s awesome blog! This could help those bloggers grow and also give more information to the public. Either way, this project is an amazing idea! It is so useful for people of all ages. The website itself is simple, beautiful, and easy to use!
For starters I think it was a great idea that you all created this organization as a local thing for Memphis. There really are a great number of organizations out there in Memphis that are all trying to make a difference, and I think this is a great way to tie them all together. I remember that when I went to the 901 Expose event earlier in the semester, I saw so many organizations that I had never knew existed. This could also be a great way to promote those organizations whether they smaller or just starting out. For the volunteering aspect, I think it would be a great idea to reach out to schools as students are always looking for service hours. This could be used as a helpful resource for them and a great way to also promote the organizations. Schools could also pair up with these organizations for fundraising and then promotion for the organizations.
Post a Comment