Share At Door Step: This Bengaluru Startup Makes Donation Easier While Reducing Carbon Emissions

All of us believe in working towards making the world a better place. There are several ways in which we stand up for the less fortunate. Donating old items is one of them. Several organisations work tirelessly to help underprivileged communities in the best way possible. While there are numerous options, this medium is a tedious one. Most of the time, no one is sure which organisation one has to connect with for donation.

In light of this, a Bengaluru-based startup is working to mitigate this problem. Called 'Share At Door Step', it makes the donation process more accessible with its door-to-door pickup service and taking it to the NGO nearby, depending on the current needs.

Stemmed From Childhood Experiences

For Anushka Jain, the idea of starting this initiative came from her childhood memories. "My mother used to donate clothes and toys on my birthday to an NGO. I always wondered why we did it only once a year, and I thought she was lazy. However, she had no idea where to donate them all, and she was unsure which NGO suited for which items. This made me realise how much of a disconnect is there between the items and the place of donation," she tells The Logical Indian.

Working with Accenture at that time, she made up her mind to mitigate this problem. She decided to develop a website where the public can schedule the pickup for the items. Initially, she did the pickups on her own.

Jain explains her first stint, "I had gone for my first pickup with my colleague just before work. I lived in a locality called Koramangala, and the destination was in Marathahalli. We reached the donor's residence without knowing how to carry the items with us. We did not realise how big the collection was. Fortunately, she paid for the cab that helped us eventually."

Philanthropic Endeavour

Slowly and steadily, she pulled off 150 pickups on her own. Jain juggled this philanthropic endeavour with her corporate life effortlessly. Every experience gave her an insight into the people's motivation to donate their items. Not just clothes and toys, the list of items donated were interesting. She wanted to experience it firsthand to know what challenges might come up while operating it on a day to day basis.

"We received specific items such as treadmills, and they went to NGOs that helped people with disabilities. Earlier, I would have never thought about something like it being donated. Other things included phones, especially the older ones that could be used by people coming from very humble backgrounds. Some even donated semi-automatic washing machines, which we gave to an elderly woman who had two children and washed clothes with her own bare hands," Jain adds while speaking with The Logical Indian.

Being a 'profit with purpose' company, the startup serves two purposes with donations- social impact and reducing carbon emissions. "Each time you donate an item, its life is increased by 1-2 years that reduces carbon emissions considerably. We are connected with 120 NGOs around India and work closely with them. 'Share At Door Step' also follows a Sustainable Business Model as they work closely with several brands and the public interested in donating the items whenever possible.

How Does 'Share At Door Step' Work?

An algorithm is created with which the appropriate NGO is chosen for specific items. She explains, "The whole process is tech-driven. There is no manual intervention. We have an NGO-matching algorithm that matches their requirements in real-time. We have a list of the same organisations we are partnered with, and they are updated from time to time." During COVID-19, the startup helped with delivering the essentials to the needy, ranging from food to sanitary pads and other necessary items.

Once the person schedules the donation, it matches the NGO nearby with the requirement. They are available on apps such as 'MyGate' and 'PhonePe', where they can categorise the items depending on how much they weigh. Along with that, a list of organisations is also provided to anyone who wishes to drop the items off.

'Share At Door Step' is currently operations in 11 major cities with full operations and 600+ cities with limited operations. "We recently started the "pickup via courier" option to fulfil the requests we receive from cities like Coimbatore, Bhopal, Agra, etc," Jain concludes. Their ultimate aim is to expand their services further and make sure every reusable item reaches someone in need and doesn't end up in landfills.

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