NGO initiatives and technology

We have been recently approached by a couple of civic, non-government and non-profit organizations to advise with their technology initiatives.

These organizations focus on issues like the water quality, the Everglades ecosystem, global warming, public housing etc. Their business model is obviously different than commercial entities and their sources of funding are generally based on grands, community contributions or individuals contributions.

Nonetheless their projects are remarkable and they always rely on technology as an inexpensive, hard hitting way to advertise and operate.

This particular local Miami based non-profit group for example is very active in the Everglades arena and it is currently pursuing a project that deals with the water quality. Pollution, pesticides, fertilizers, household chemicals, herbicides etc. are all bad for our grand water systems and these people are ready to do something about this!

They advertise a lot of their events on Facebook. They maintain an e-mail list with about two hundred contacts. They have a website and a database. In the past it did work for them and they did not feel the need to implement extra technology.

However over the last year they grew unexpectedly in terms of number of members and initiatives. With support from some local communities, universities and individuals they started to go after bigger projects and actually started some of their own bigger size projects.

They now feel the need to design a niche proprietary social media platform targeted to their initiatives. As the groups grows, communication through their old e-mail list becomes confusing and the Facebook Events are too generic for what they need. Advertising on Facebook to acquire new members did not produce good results for them either and Google PPC (or even Google SEO) is over their current budget.

We had immediately proposed designing a niche social media platform for them. This platform would be open source, open platform, friendly and easy to use, nice quality of graphics and condensed targeted info and tools. A membership id would be implemented. Straight forward, water quality related, communication mechanisms would be implemented. Organizing and promoting customized online and offline events would be possible. Posting business related pictures, updates on projects and notifications would be a breeze. Sharing content, ideas and collaborating on projects would be easy. Sending a message to the whole group and having the responses clearly structured and displayed would be a major feature. Communicating with other online platforms (such as G+, Meetup.com etc.) would be implemented as well.

Keep an eye on this project as you may hear about it in the news!

Another non profit organization that approached us has initiatives in optimizing and increasing the efficiency of local government operations. In particular they have a great idea on creating a mobile app to locate and book the closest parking spot from wherever you are.

Imagine how many times you were in a busy area in South Beach or Mid Beach and you could not find a parking spot for a while: I had times when I had to drive around for up to 15 min. until I found a spot!

We have heard this idea before coming from some private entities who were trying to work out projects with shopping Malls but coming from a non-profit is even more remarkable. Their approach on developing the app is different as well: I cannot get a lot into details right now but their approach is very creative and it is the most cost effective approach I've seen so far.

Keep an eye open on this project as well!

Make it a great day!

Adrian Corbuleanu
Miami Beach, FL
http://wittymobilespps.weebly.com