Tech For Homeless
Ever since San Francisco-based HandUp won 1776’s Challenge Cup competition earlier this month, founder Rose Broome has been on the road at tech shows. We finally caught up with her to hear more about how its technology allows people to donate money directly to a homeless or at-risk person. During HandUp’s pilot with two nonprofits in San Francisco, over 1,000 donors contributed, 100 homeless people participated, and eight people moved into housing. The venture-backed company works with nonprofits to get homeless people registered with the site, build a profile page, and get donation request cards to hand out. Once the goal is met, the nonprofit works with the homeless person to use the money.
With the $150k won through Challenge Cup, HandUp will expand to 15 Bay Area nonprofits by the end of the year and eventually spread to major urban hubs in the US and abroad. The company’s revenue model is to let donors decide if they want to pay a fee to the company for using the service. Rose says over 80% opt in. Nonprofits all over the country and abroad are interested in using the service, despite a perception sometimes that tech people think they can swoop in and solve a community problem. Rose says HandUp had early conversations with homeless people and nonprofits to make sure they understood HandUp was a partner in trying to solve one piece of the homelessness puzzle.
