How might we enhance the user experience to enable individuals to easily discover and recognize trustworthy local charities, ensuring they feel assured about the meaningful impact of their contributions?

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Problem Background

Ensuring the authenticity and transparency of charitable organizations is a pressing challenge in today's information-rich world. With the rise of online platforms, donors are overwhelmed with data that often lacks clarity and reliability. For example, 92% of Canadians are looking to donate clothes to local charities (Weber et al., 2023), and a University of Alberta study found that 55.4% directly donate their clothing to charitable organizations (Degenstein, 2021). However, many donors struggle to verify a charity's mission and the effective use of their contributions, leading to confusion and mistrust.

Consumer research, including surveys and interviews with 7 participants, shows that 66% care about where their donations go but find it challenging to access clear, trustworthy information. One participant noted, "I find it difficult to discover whether its mission statement is genuine." This feedback reflects a broader issue where potential donors struggle to verify charity missions, leading to hesitation and a lack of trust.

Second Life is a web application that simplifies finding charities accepting specific items and matching personal values, streamlining the donation process.

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User Pain Points & Research Insights

We conducted 6 surveys and 3 user interviews. Through our research, we narrowed down the following pain points when it comes to the process of finding charitable organizations and donating:

Research is challenging
Finding charitable organizations based on location and value alignment are important
Donors want to feel good about their contribution

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Supporting Data

Research is challenging

66% struggle to find reliable information about charities.
“all their sites suck” – said one participant

Finding charitable organizations based on location and value alignment are important

83% of participants said the charities’ mission was the most important when selecting a charity
66% of participants said that location was important when selecting a charity

Donors want to feel good about their contribution

66% of participants said that they care about where their donation goes
83% of participants donate because they want their items to go to someone else who can love them

Feedback

While there is a strong preference to donate clothes, our research confirmed a disconnect between existing charity information and where people search for it. This highlights the need for a streamlined, simple process to guide users from research to donation. A comprehensive platform that offers clear, reliable information about charities, aligns with personal values, and facilitates easy donations can bridge this gap, making charitable giving more accessible and trustworthy.

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Landing on the Solution

Based on the pain points of our target users, we knew we wanted to work on the following features:

Redesigned web user experience that provides quick and clear insights
Data should be sufficient, but not excessive – just enough for the user to feel confident about their decisionsome text
1. This could include data like mission & vision, location, quick financial stats, services provided, communities served, and items accepted for donation.
Interact with users to find a charitable organization closest to them that aligns with their values

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Solution Explanation

Second Life is a web-based (but not limited to web) platform designed to enhance the user experience when it comes to finding charities that accept their specific items, and align with their values, which help to streamline the journey from research to donation.

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The MVP will include:

Home Page:

Guide the user with simple statistics on how donations can be used
Feature charities that may not receive a lot of funding and resources

About Page:

Highlights the purpose of this platform and why donating is important vs. other methods of decluttering
Helpful tips for users to make the most out of their donation

Charities Search Page:

User can search by location (city or general city quadrant)
User can search by categories of serviced communities (ie - education, youth, health)

Single Charity Page:

Further about the charitable organization such as mission, location/contact information, accepted items, financial stats

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User Flows/Mockups

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Future Steps

As an engineer, I’d like to build this platform with the designs provided. This idea came from a previous Co.Lab Bootcamp that I was a part of and built the previous version with the PM and Designer. Now, I'd like to take my background as a more experienced engineer, with my new knowledge of product management, and make this a platform that people can find useful.

References

Weber et al, March 2023. Textile waste in Ontario, Canada: Opportunities for reuse and recycling‍
Degenstein et al., 2021. ‘What goes where’? Characterizing Edmonton’s municipal clothing waste stream and consumer clothing disposal

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Learnings

Product Manager Learnings:

Atina Chang

1. As a developer, I always want to find the solution. Putting on my PM hat made me step back and think deeply about the problem space

2. Framing questions is important for getting the types of answers you want - don't leave too many open-ended questions. Research should include demographics so you can further understand the problem space.

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Second Life

Problem Statement