#210: New Platform Makes Donating Food As Easy As Giving Cash

January 29, 2015 - Read the full GoodCrowdinfo article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/1zAAOVh. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. Patrick O’Neill is completely changing the game in crowdfunding. By seeking to crowdsource goods rather money–with the ease of giving cash–Amp Your Good seeks to help nonprofits have more successful drives for goods like food, blankets and building materials. Patrick explains, “Each year people donate somewhere between $50B to $100B worth of goods to various kinds of physical collection charity drives (food drives, blanket drives, etc.). More than 33% of donated goods are never used by the non-profit organization that receives them. That’s a lot of wasted good intentions.” In contrast, Patrick says, “100% of the goods raised through our platform are used by the non-profit that receives them.” Patrick describes the difference this way, “Our platform eliminates some of the challenges faced by physical drives. We remove time and distance as barriers to participate which increases the amount of donations. We make donating goods as easy as donating money and enable people to better understand the impact of their donation more clearly than a monetary donation.” “We’re super motivated to change food drives. Our vision is to turn the billions of canned goods donated to food drives each year into billions of apples, oranges, sweet potatoes and other healthy food items,” Patrick says. Please consider whether a friend or colleague might benefit from this piece and, if so, share it.