The Giving Effect: New Website Connects Donors and Nonprofits

Spring cleaning doesn’t have to be a chore this year. A new website, the Giving Effect, makes it easier to donate unnecessary items to your choice of more than 1,000 organizations. With a few clicks, you browse the site and connect with nonprofit causes both locally and around the country. After connecting with a group, you can arrange to have your things picked up, dropped off, or mailed.

But the donations' effects don’t stop there. Each time someone donates something to a cause, the site creates a page about the donation so that anyone browsing the web can search for the organization or the donor. Social-media sites like Facebook and Twitter then help bring attention to nonprofits that don't typically get a lot of publicity.

Jared Nissim, co-founder of the Giving Effect, said, “Organizations that are working in the trenches of towns and local communities don’t really have a way to expand their voice beyond their own immediate sphere of influence. We’re helping them connect to a wider donor base that they wouldn’t necessarily hear about.”

So don't let that stuff pile up. Instead, find a good home for it on the Giving Effect.

--Shirley Mak