What we do
We’re passionate about collaborative giving and taking care of our communities together. We want to make it easy for anyone to pool money as a group and give to those in need around them.
The Common Change platform provides an easy way for groups (made up of friends, families, colleagues, or whoever you want in your group) to pool funds for giving. Everyone in the group can see how much is in the shared fund and can post a request for funds for a need in their community at any time. The group members then get to discuss the request, make suggestions of how best to help, and vote on it using the app or website. If the request passes the group vote, the Common Change team sorts out all the admin and pays out the funds to meet the need.
Through this simple, empowering, and transparent process we want to help encourage a more generous society and eliminate economic isolation.
How it works
Why we do it
Few people in the world experience the big discrepancies between the haves and the have-nots than those of us that call South Africa home. Our country’s deep and complicated history of inequality and continued acts of injustice have left many citizens and their families without their basic human needs met.
South Africans are very generous, but many of us feel ill-equipped to help those who are in need within arms’ reach. We often feel like we don’t have enough to help enough or don’t know how to give well given every individual’s circumstances. The close to 400 000 NGO’s and NPO’s in our country do amazing work, but also can’t reach everyone or deal with the small nuances of giving well on a micro-level. Common Change wants to help resolve these issues by providing the financial backing of a shared fund, and the accountability and wisdom of a group of givers giving together.
We believe that an understanding of personal circumstances, a commitment to longevity and proactive giving, and the wisdom of a group can be pivotal in helping to eliminate personal economic isolation and shows real humanity and care.
