PennyLoafer
The simplest way to donate to causes you care about
In September, I "officially" launched PennyLoafer after having received some initial feedback from my beta group.
The launch involved posting on instagram, fb, twitter, and linkedin. As well as sending emails out to people who had been interested in the project. It was a bit nerve wracking to put it out there, but I was also excited and proud of it.
I had to find a 501c3 charity partner so that all donations through the platform would be tax deductible. I spent several months meeting with different potential partners, building out the website, and researching/vetting nonprofits.
Once I found my charity partner, it was just a matter of figuring out the payment gateway, as I would have both tips to the platform and donations coming in and needed to keep them separate. This took some time to understand the best way to do it, and I ended up having to outsource a developer.
I learned how to clearly communicate what I needed to potential developers. And hired someone on Upwork for the first time!
When the MVP was good to go, I soft launched it to some friends and family and got my first paying customers.
Over the next several months, I started researching the charitable giving space and understanding what companies / tech were working in the space.
My husband and I came up with the name PennyLoafer (penny loafers - the shoes - were designed to hold 2 pennies in case you needed to make an emergency call at the payphone. PennyLoafer, the giving platform, helps you put your spare change towards present day emergencies like climate change and the mental health crisis) and mocked up a website (luckily, he knows how to code!).
In the summer of 2020, amidst the global pandemic and racial justice movement, I started reflecting on my own giving habits. They felt very disjointed. Almost a direct reflection of events happening in the world, or requests that came my way.
I considered what it meant to have a giving strategy: what did I care about most? Why wasn't I doing more about it strategically and on an ongoing basis?
Many of my friends felt similarly.
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