Greater change
Directly giving to rough sleepers in an ever-growing cashless society.
- Client: Greater Change
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Services:
App for iOS & Android
Brand Identity
Marketing Website
UX & UI design
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Funded by:
Oxford University Innovation CrowdFunding
Global Initiative Social Fund
Greater Change is an app and website to help donate directly to rough sleepers in an ever-growing cashless society. It was funded by our Social Digital Support Fund, Oxford University Innovations, and crowdfunding. The Greater Change app is a collection of campaigns that describe individuals' situations, goals, and financial targets. Through contactless payments, the public is able to help provide rent deposits, skills courses, and identification documents for those in need.
Founder wins Prime Minister's "Point of Light" Award
As seen on the BBC, The Guardian, The Telegraph, and WIRED
- Money can go missing or stolen
- We live in an ever-growing cashless society
- Giving first hand just helps with day-to-day needs
- Don’t know where the donated money is going
Solutions
Greater Change is an app and website to help users donate directly to rough sleepers in a cashless society, ensuring responsible spending and helping escape from homelessness. Through contactless payments, we are able to provide rent deposits, skills courses, and identification documents for those in need.
- Money is kept safe for the individual
- Donate straight from your mobile phone using a QR code
- Providing long term support to help the individual get back on their feet
- See exactly where your money is going
Our approach
Naturally, the topic of rough-sleeping and direct public donations can provoke strong sentiments. We were sensitive to the risk that we could actually cause harm to those most in need if we were to enter this project without due consideration of the needs of every single stakeholder. So, we started on the assumption that we didn't know the topic well enough and should rely on the advice of specialist support agencies.
Alex came to us with an idea
A University of Oxford undergraduate, Alex McCallion, approached us directly with the concept of a tool to allow the public to donate to an individual digitally, using only their phone. To overcome the challenge of ensuring responsible spending, he envisioned a shared bank account, with each donation tagged to the individual. Some of this would be immediately available to the beneficiary with the rest put in a longer-term account to help build up a reserve to go towards long-term housing.At the time, there was interest from a couple of banks in providing the account facilities, but beyond that, there were no funds and no specification. This was a perfect project for our Social Digital Support Fund to help with. We took the decision to kick off with a brand identity, design and user story sprint, in order that he could go on to crowdfund for the full project.
Oxford University Innovations were invaluable in their support in setting up and running the crowdfunding campaign, which raised very successfully.
Enabling someone to get back on their feet, save money and rebuild their life
As well as direct giving on the street, the website also provides campaigns for individuals to describe their situation, goals and financial targets. All beneficiaries are vetted for authenticity and often supported by a number of local agencies.
Our process
Making conversation
The first step is to understand the real needs of each an every kind of stakeholder; the rough-sleepers, the giving public, the agencies giving ancillary support, to get their take on the best ways to do sustainable good.
Researching the field
Not unsurprisingly, there are a growing number of innovations and initiatives to tackle the same problems throughout the country. It's vital to understand where solutions are working and failing so we can limit our time in the discovery phase.
Collaborations with charities
The real knowledge comes from those who work in the sector day on day. We ended up spending a lot of time in workshops with several local charities and agencies who had more practical experience in programme design.
Wireframing to test the concept
The website and app serve different purposes, so in this case we had to build two separate clickable wireframes. The mobile wireframe was used to demonstrate the concept to raise funds through an ultimately successful crowdfunding campaign managed by Oxford University Innovations.
How it works
1Choose either an individual or a cause
Choose to donate to either an individual in need of support or a general cause such as sleeping bags, food or shelter.
2Get to know who you are supporting
Each individual has a bio about them with why they need your help, so you can get to know them before you donate.
3You have control over how much you donate
You can choose how much you want to donate up to £200, knowing every penny is going to to that cause.
4Help reach their target
See how much the individual needs in order to reach their goal, whether thats for a deposit for rent, or to buy a suit for an interview
Validation
Global Initiative's immense support on this project has been invaluable, both in providing a significant proportion of the funding through their Social Fund, but also as gifted and driven technology partners.Alex McCallion, Founder, Greater Change
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