The website allows users to coordinate support for people who endure difficult life situations, including medical crises, natural disasters and loss of loved ones.

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When receiving a pre-invested investment of a total of $ 1.5 million, Give InKind is ready to help people who experience difficult life events during these holidays and beyond. The beta version of the online site was released in September 2016, but the social platform was opened to the public in January this year.

“Give InKind is a social platform for coordinating support through what we call ‘life disruptions’,” says Laura Malcolm, CEO and founder of Give InKind. “That’s all from having a new baby to an acute medical situation, cancer diagnosis, loss of a loved one, etc.”

Many people feel helpless when they look at loved ones going through a crisis, but Give InKind gives people a place to help for free. Users can easily sign up, create a page, share and receive help.

Competing websites only solve parts of the problem, such as Meal Training that helps coordinate meal delivery, but Give InKind offers help to all media.

“The core service of Give InKind is people who create a page – a campaign. You can think in the same way as a GoFundMe page, except that instead of just for financial donations, a Give InKind page allows people to create a care calendar get things like meal delivery, childcare, pet care, drive to the doctor – all the things people want to sign up to help, “Malcolm said.

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In addition to a care calendar, the site also has a native wish list where people can post things such as gift vouchers or deliver groceries. People can also connect their PayPal or GoFundMe account to coordinate fundraising, Malcolm said.

“We saw a community in Appleton, Wisconsin, use Give InKind to coordinate 45-day meals for a grieving fire department; three meals a day for 45 days, and they had signed up around a hundred different people to feed the fire department,” Malcolm said.

Give On the site, Give InKind offers specific editorials focused on the cause that help people support their loved ones. “If you have set up a Give InKind page for a sick child, you will get really specific content on how to (help) siblings of sick children or how to support a mother with a baby in the NICU,” said Malcolm . “And that is all very different from a family that has lost a teenager through suicide, or when you support a military family through commitment. We think it helps to ease the conversation for people – it’s hard to be in that position. ”

The inspiration behind Give InKind

Malcolm said the idea for Give InKind came to her husband after enduring her own tragedy.

“My husband and I lost our first baby when I was eight months pregnant. It was very unexpected,” Malcolm said. “We lived in LA, my family was in Seattle, and his family was in New York. They all wanted to help, and they tried to use one of these meal registration sites. Then they tried to figure out what restaurants we wanted to pick up? How could they deliver us groceries? How could they get us a home cleaner? ”

Everyone wanted to help her, but nobody knew how to get from far. Malcolm saw this disconnection and realized that she could create a centralized place for people to do that.

What started as a solution to a problem is now a website with 30,000 monthly users, a number that has increased by 20% since the site was released in January, Malcolm said.

Although tragedies take place throughout the year, Give InKind can be particularly useful during the holidays. While families and friends come together to celebrate the holidays, people have the opportunity to have much needed conversations, Malcolm said.

“Someone in our circle can probably use extra support at a certain meeting,” Malcolm said. “Someone is having a baby, someone is getting older, etc. It’s time for conversations with families about:” How are we going to think about the next year? What are we going to do for the next one until we are together? ” again?'”

“I think the time we are with family is really a great time to have conversations around the things that Give InKind is trying to resolve,” Malcolm said.

Give InKind is another example of the positive ways in which technology can be used and will be used.

For more information, travel for the holidays? Avoid these 5 technical errors on TechRepublic.

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