Solideer.Org: An Online Community that Connects Volunteers with Solidarity Work around the World
Imagine a world where at the push of a button, millions of
everyday individuals could create or search for customizable solidarity
projects (from a onetime act of kindness to a larger scale project over the
span of weeks or months). This will be possible through the Solideer App!
Solideer will take money, religion and political agendas out of the equation,
and make it possible for just about anyone to do good in this world by using
social technology to connect, organize and carry out Solideer projects.
Whether it's traveling half way across the world to deliver clothing collected from their community to an orphanage in China, or helping repair a veteran's home in their own home town on the weekends; Solideer will empower individuals to take action and change the world, one small act at a time.
Solideer wants to build a global community of active individuals who can put their time, resources and skills to work for a cause they deem worthy, and who wish to do so on their own time and under their directive, while still being able to work under the safety and cohesion of a larger group.
Solideer will target individuals ages 22-44 who are interested in solution oriented news, by partnering with ad services to introduce unique algorithms that will help these individuals find specific projects that provide a direct solution for the problem or tragedy the article covers.
Some of the features of the Solideer app include:
*Comprehensive communication platform with a user friendly interface that allows peer to peer communications, group messaging, group chat, etc., enabling the creation and execution of projects; which will cover an ever increasing spectrum as more users join the online community.
*Team building and networking features to enable peer to peer engagement and the systematic planning of specific solidarity missions, similar to LinkedIn, as well as the former Yelp achievement medals feature, which will unlock as the user successfully carries out projects or engages in existing projects.
*Streamlined fundraising features to enable individuals and organizations to quickly raise funds to fulfill immediate needs for Micro-Solidarity activities such as the purchase of needed aid, transportation of the aid to the place in need, travel expenses for volunteers, etc. Transparency and leanness will be a strong aspect of how fundraising is done, with customization features that make it possible for donors to assign funds to very specific uses within each campaign.
*Extensive user profile creation for individuals, "expeditions", grassroots groups and formal non-profits. Functions similar to those used by dating sites like Tinder and Match.com will help individuals connect within the community around specific missions and projects, collaborate and team up. A feature similar to LinkedIn will also enable users to connect with real-world users, build their reputation around solidarity work and interact.
*Customizable platforms for large organizations that would like to engage large groups of volunteers and rally them around specific causes.
Solideer will become the largest online community of solidarity oriented individuals looking to start or collaborate on Solidarity projects and connect with other like-minded individuals.
WHY?
Traditional public charities can often be cumbersome, inefficient and reactive by nature. A human crisis erupts somewhere in the world; they pass the hat for donations. Weeks or months later they send people to help and material aid, based on how much money they raised. Solideer will change the current status quo by putting the power of change and action in the hands of individuals, not large organizations and by taking money and politics out of the equation. This not only eliminates overhead (an appealing prospect for the every increasing population of jaded, tech savvy millennials interested in global change but frustrated by the inefficacy of large NGOs), but also empowers millions of people to do good on a casual basis. Imagine a world where millions of charitable deeds are done daily, without financial restraints and enabled by technology already available to us!
Solideer will shift the focus from pooling funds for charity into pooling human resources instead. By taking money almost completely out of the equation, solidarity work will be possible on a global scale.
To make Solideer a global Micro-Solidarity platform on the scale of other peer to peer apps such as Uber and Airbnb, we will need a startup company model made up of a team of 5 dedicated IT and administrative staff. Solideer is currently looking for technical co-founders.
The cheaper option is to build it ourselves from scratch, and I strongly believe that with the right team, we can achieve a first stage platform design with approximately $120,000 in seed funding .
