Hello everyone, and welcome to the blog for $0$. My name is Elliott “Tug” Brice, and I am one of the co-founders of the project. My job is to be the public face on the charity side of things. I’ll mostly be the one writing these posts, and telling you the stories of the people we have helped. Today I’m going to tell you exactly what $0$ is and what it is about.
$0$ is a user focused, data driven approach to helping others. That is some serious marketing speak, so let me break it down.
User focused means that we believe that everyone is capable of changing lives, because small things can have big effects. The person you help today may be the person who helps you tomorrow. We believe that anyone can help anyone else, because it doesn’t take much to make a difference. Because of that, we put the person FIRST. Many organizations are built around, or have to accomodate all sorts of cumbersome systems and regulations. We don’t. We intentionally designed $0$ to be as simple for you, the person who needs help or wants to help someone else, as possible. It also means that we keep the end goal, helping others, in mind at all times. Because we put people first in everything, we make sure to get every bit of help we possibly can for our users, and to make the help our donors give us count as much as we can.
What does data driven mean? It means that we don’t make any assumptions about anything. Everyone’s experiences are different. Everyone’s needs are different. So we ask questions. We do research. We find out FROM YOU what needs to be done, and then we do it. This means that you get what you actually need, rather than what we think you need. It also means that we can take a lot of the hard work out of getting help. When you give us your information, we can compare it to existing aid programs in your area to find out if you qualify, so that you don’t waste time going through form after form or website after website. In some cases, we may even be able to submit the forms for you automatically. You give us your information once and we take a lot of the heavy lifting out of getting help.
Poverty is a hole that is hard to get out of. There are so many things stacked against those in poverty that it can feel nearly impossible to climb out sometimes. It can make you feel like less than a person. They say money can’t buy happiness, but a lack of it can sure create misery by the truckful. At $0$, we understand that, and are focused on using data to help individuals get back on their feet. We want to help people feel like people again, and help people help others.
