5 Apps and Websites Making the World a Better Place These companies make social giving and volunteering easy.
By Zach Cutler Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Our smartphones help us find the best subway route, order food, pay back friends and locate the nearest coffee shop. For every small task, there's an app for that. But our phones can also help us help others.
Apps and websites make social giving and volunteering easy. Use these apps and websites to make a difference from your smartphone:
1. GlobalGiving
Grassroots projects from around the world use GlobalGiving to raise money for their diverse causes. Projects on the site range from building wells in Nigeria for clean drinking water, earthquake relief efforts in Nepal to food assistance in Guatemala.
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Users select the specific project that interests them, make a donation and then receive email updates to see how their contribution is making a difference. Since 2002, GlobalGiving has raised more than $175 million from nearly half a million donors who have supported 12,176 projects.
2. One Today
Donating to charities can take time and a lot of research. Is the organization legit? How will the money be used? Google's app One Today aims to take the guesswork out of giving. The app curates causes so users can easily find the projects that they are interested in.
Users give $1 every day to nonprofits they can feel good about. The app matches users to charities based on their interests and their activity on the platform. They can then share their activity on social media to encourage their friends and family to get involved. The app also allows users to match their friends' donations to make a greater impact.
3. Be My Eyes
The Be My Eyes app pairs blind people with seeing volunteers to help them find something in their house, read labels, navigate an unfamiliar train station or whatever else they might need.
Volunteers download the app and receive a notification when a blind person needs assistance. If they are available to help out, the blind person gives them a call. Through live video chat, the helper can see what the blind user can't and answer their questions.
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The app is global and matches users who speak the same language.
4. Pulse Point
Although 57 percent of U.S. adults report that they have had CPR training, only 11 percent have actually performed CPR in an emergency, according to Pulse Point's website. The app aims to leverage the CPR training of adults who can help nearby victims until the EMS team arrives at the scene.
After the dispatch has been sent to paramedics, the app alerts trained bystanders of cardiac emergency events that may require CPR. App users are then directed to the victim and the nearest automated external defibrillator to provide life-saving aid until paramedics arrive. The sooner victims receive CPR, the greater their chance of survival in a major cardiac event.
5. Leadership Initiatives
Leadership Initiatives approaches the problems of underdevelopment by empowering communities to address their needs. The program finds leaders in impoverished and developing communities around the world and provides them with training to develop businesses ideas, help them find investors, and open their businesses to create sustainable solutions to existing community problems. In the long term, it hopes to develop a resourceful generation of leaders.
Volunteers help to provide mentorship, training and education, fundraising and more. Virtual volunteering allows individuals to participate in projects and help create websites for new organizations at their convenience without leaving their homes.
What apps do you use to give back? Let us know in the comments section below.
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