givingful

givingful - gladly give and receive free items.

As a Giver, you experience the satisfaction of helping others and creating space. Collectors benefit from easy access to useful items. Both Givers and Collectors benefit from simple and reliable communication.

How did we come to this project?

In larger digital gifting communities like (Free Your Stuff Berlin - Facebook Group), many requests from Collectors for each item from a Giver have been observed.

This creates a core problem for both Givers and Collectors:
Inefficient, ineffective, and unreliable communication.

Why?
Many (vague in terms of location and time) requests per item overwhelm the Givers.
On the other hand, many Collectors miss out because they lack information about the availability of items.

View the problem pitch of givingful (English)

As a unique feature compared to established digital marketplaces (Kleinanzeigen in Germany, OLIO in the United Kingdom, Ricardo in Switzerland, willhaben in Austria), givingful offers:

Increased effectiveness, efficiency, and reliability -> Collectors send exclusive reservation proposals to Givers on the givingful web application.

What do exclusive reservation proposals ensure?

Collectors know exactly when an item is reserved for them personally.
Givers know which Collector will pick up which item and when.
This simplifies communication, saving time for both parties when passing items along.
Collectors and Givers can arrange the exact pickup and any additional details through their exclusive chat.

The simple reservation request on givingful makes exchanging free items easier overall, conserving resources through reuse.

givingful's Hypothesis:
Instead of new consumption, higher reuse of existing resources through effective passing on of free items.

The more efficiently items are passed between Givers and Collectors, the more items will be reused rather than newly purchased or produced (circular ownership).

And, breaking news, circles are continuous!
If you no longer want an item from givingful, feel free to pass it on to the next Collector!

Technical Implementation:
Thanks to the integration of technologies like Dart in Flutter via FlutterFlow and Google Firebase, users benefit from a scalable cross-platform software application (also release for Android & iOS possible).

Current Status:
A small but rapidly growing user base in Berlin is already gratefully testing givingful as a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).

Planned Expansions:
With the funding, we hope to

1) Collaborate with Givers and Collectors to fix bugs and improve features.
2) Foster sustainable growth of Givers and Collectors on givingful.

Still not entirely clear?
Feel free to visit the home page of givingful or contact us via LinkedIn.

Goal:
1. Purpose:
Our goal is to grow and establish our core values (dialogue, kindness, love, openness) sustainably among people in our connected world. Want to read more about our purpose? See purpose of givingful.

2. Sustainable Business Model:
As a social business, we are currently testing voluntary contributions. If that doesn't work, we have two other options. Interested in reading more? See our Business plan (English).

Who is the project for:
A) Givers:
Families or individuals with substantial wealth who wish to pass on their no longer needed items (electronics, furniture, or similar) to someone else.

B) Collectors:
Students, newcomers, people relocating, individuals with less wealth; people who want access to free items.

Future Plans, Expansion Strategy:

1) Short-term (Year 1&2), givingful aims for sustainable growth in Berlin and other German-speaking cities (Hamburg, Cologne & surrounding areas, Frankfurt region, Munich, Vienna, Zurich).

2) Long-term (Years 3-10+), givingful targets international expansion into highly dense urban areas (Mexico City, New York City, Paris, San Francisco, and Tokyo).

With international expansion, givingful would be accessible to a broader user base, further reducing wealth inequalities (typically found in cities).

IMPORTANT:
For reasons of sustainability and associated reuse, givingful is open to partnerships or mergers during expansion.

Partnerships or mergers with other organisations (GIFTD in Berlin, OLIO in the United Kingdom).

Because you want to make local and global giving even easier and more effective together with givingful's web application!

By supporting this project, you are not only contributing to a more connected and generous world but also making a personal contribution to sustainability and environmental protection.

Your participation helps reduce waste and fosters a sense of community and shared purpose. This gives you the good feeling of supporting an altruistic project.

Upon successful funding, we will reinvest for twelve months to enhance the user-friendliness of the givingful web application.

With the funds, we will enhance the application; making it even easier to give and collect items. Givers can meaningfully pass on surplus items, while Collectors benefit from simplified access.

The reinvestment will be carried out according to the following
Financial Plan (Google Drive).

Briefly summarized, the financial plan reinvests into the following four proposals:

• Apple App Store & Google Play Store release of the givingful web application, thanks to user and developer feedback during the "Tätigkeit als Gründerperson" (task as founder).
• Concept, strategy, and further development of givingful's design and user experience.
• Digital advertising (Facebook, Instagram; potentially influencers) & postal advertising (print).
• Legal and tax advice and support.

In addition to our four proposals, we are also very open to your suggestions!

Feel free to write on the wall here or via LinkedIn.