BlankFiller

This concept is the result of a Better Giving Studio month-long collaborative sprint focusing on Equitable Curation which you can learn more about in this article. You can read the brief for more context and to see who was on the team.

Why BGS is Excited

Curation shows up in many forms – from the list order on donation platforms to the choice of which nonprofit is highlighted at the supermarket check-out stand. In each case it involves making decisions around which organizations to include or disinclude – a moment of advantage and power. The below concept was developed to help reduce inequities in giving sector curation which you can learn more about in the NCRP Equity in Philanthropy Guide and Lessons from GiveList.

• It’s a very tangible way to redistribute the workload away from charitable organizations.
• If built and supported properly, it could significantly help nonprofits without a lot of tech experience.
• It allows organizations to decide and share how they define goals, impact, and success.
• It disrupts the feedback loop where the most funded nonprofits (which are also majority white-led) are the ones with the most capacity to create fundraising profiles.

The Opportunity

There are scores of giving platforms out there that organizations can partner with to connect with and collect from prospective donors. Obviously, the more platforms your organization supports, the fewer donors will slip through the cracks when it’s time to click “donate.” But signing up with each one is an administrative burden. BlankFiller allows organizations to enter their data once, then choose to export their profile to the giving platforms that make the most sense for their audience.

The Concept

BlankFiller starts with giving platforms of all types and sizes implementing their single sign on services. Then, charitable organizations enter their information into the BlankFiller interface one time. They can add their profile to any partner giving platform instantly. They can also easily remove their profile from a platform that isn’t performing for them. For organizations looking to expand their fundraising options, BlankFiller suggests giving platforms that might work well from all the platforms which have BlankFiller on their sites.

This technology has the potential to enable more equitable approaches to measurement. By allowing organizations to share goals, milestones, achievements and other self-defined attributes, giving platforms could learn more about how organizations want to talk about themselves rather than dictating a specific mold for all organizations to fit into.

BlankFiller can also empower organizations to curate their presence on giving platforms. The profile information they share can include specifics about exactly how the organization wants to be featured.

By gathering more platforms and nonprofits under one umbrella, the giving space can create a shared taxonomy. This could help organizations and platforms better understand each other, leading to more impactful curation. 

BlankFiller reduces the burden on nonprofits and allows the smallest organizations (which are often BIPOC-led) to show up on as many platforms as the largest, most funded and often white-led organizations.

What Do You Think?

Are you working on something similar? Have feedback to give us or insights that we should know about related to this exploratory concept? Did you test out this idea, and how did it go? We’d love to hear from you! Please write us a note at [email protected]