NectarCares

“We need a better way to manage and assign donated items to families in need”

Overview

Problem Statement

Non-profit organization needs a system in place to streamline item donations to the families that need them

Role

Designed, prototyped & developed end to end application

Outcome

Web app enabling non-profit case managers to request for items on behalf of a family, allowing their network of donors to make donations directly on the app.

Pain Points

Our Solution

Users

Our target users were the case managers and employees at non profit organizations, who would be filling out item requests on behalf of families in need.

On the other hand, the other section of our users were the donors who would manage and make their donations on the app

Process

Before diving into development and implementation, I started with a simple testable prototype consisting of a google form linked to a google sheet.

Our initial prototype consisted of a google form linked to a google sheet on the backend

Once we had a system in place for making item requests and storing them, we needed to build a way for donors to fulfill those requests.

We setup a simple front end that allowed us to make donations and test out the complete flow.

Flowchart highlighting our system for making requests, storing them, and fulfilling them

Our app would display item requests from all non-profit orgs partnered with us, on our homepage.

Community members/donors from various organizations could visit the home page and easily donate items to families in need. This way, we could leverage the combined communities of all the non-profit orgs, and help support the people in need.

Development

Frontend: React JS, Material UI

Backend: Node JS

User Authentication: Auth0 (To authenticate non profit admins & donors)

Email Notifications: MailChimp (Notifying donors about their donation)

Final Outcome

Using QR codes to Simplify the Process

The representative receiving the donated items at the non-profit could easily scan the QR code to match the items to the respective family as well as update the donation status for the donor to view.

The donors receive email updates at every stage of the donation process