A new waiter’s uniform allowed a homeless man to get a job and move out of a shelter. Welding gear led a single dad to pursue a skilled trade. Clothes and school supplies helped a 20-year-old provide for her little sisters while their mother was in jail. 

Community connections that fill small gaps can make big differences. Related Links

“Knight Foundation and Fisher Family fund Nonprofit Startup, Benevolent” on Techli.com

“Benevolent’s approach to crowdfunding lifts low-income Americans out of poverty” on VentureBeat.com

“Can Silicon Valley Beat Poverty with Crowdfunding?” on SocialTimes.com

This is the idea behind Benevolent, a crowdfunding website that lets anyone make donations to help low-income individuals get past their most immediate challenges. The project was successfully piloted in Chicago, Ill. and is now being expanded to Detroit, Mich., Charlotte, N.C. and San Jose, Calif. with $285,000 in funding from Knight Foundation and the Marjorie S. Fisher Fund of the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan.

Benevolent, the brainchild of clinical social worker, Megan Kashner, partners with various nonprofits to help lift low-income Americans out of poverty. Through these nonprofit partners the service connects with people in need. Their stories along with videos and photos are then posted on the Benevolent website. People are able to visit individual profile pages to browse stories and donate to those that resonate.

The site is a great example of the power of technology to build positive community interactions. Fundamentally, it also reveals the importance of engagement in developing social capital, so that citizens can support one another productively and grow strong networks.

The Saguaro Seminar an initiative of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, which focuses on the study of social capital, reveals that:

“Communities with higher levels of social capital are likely to have higher educational achievement, better performing governmental institutions, faster economic growth, and less crime and violence.”

The reason: when people are more socially connected they are better able to tackle community problems like high unemployment, poverty and lack of social support.

Through Benevolent‘s expansion, three new communities will now benefit from this investment in social capital. They will develop a network of people who help each other overcome unforeseen hurdles like getting a car or computer fixed, pursuing job training and even paying for proper healthcare. And they will get to see impact beyond these immediate benefits by applying practical solutions to community challenges that affect everyone.

In this way, Benevolent is developing a culture that builds community by addressing problems together. By neighbors helping neighbors the social fabric of the community becomes stronger and more resilient one person at a time.

By Damian Thorman, national program director at Knight Foundation