With as much time as you spend on your phone per day playing games or searching social media, don’t you wish some of that time could be more beneficial?
Thanks to Capital alumna Madison Mikhail, you can now use your phone for good.
Since seventh grade, she has had an idea to create a place to make doing charity work easier, and, recently, she has begun to make that dream a reality.
POINT, originally named ONELIFE, is a concept app that will focus on making donating to charity easier and more convenient by offering information on a number of different charities, including ways to get involved and support them.
The POINT team consists of Capital alumnus Tony Macioce, the director of finance, and current Capital student Sarah Gifford, the office administrator, along with several others. POINT also has chapters at Cedarville University, Ohio State University, and Michigan State University.
Initially, ONELIFE was designed as a website, but, despite receiving some donations, the idea was not gaining as much momentum as Mikhail and the team would have liked.
“Our HQ team realized we didn’t even frequent the site because [it wasn’t] interactive, personal, or social,” Mikhail said. “We had to ask ourselves ‘What’s the best way to reach our generation?’ We looked around the world and said ‘through our phones.'”
Then came the concept for the app, and, with it, the rebranding of the name to POINT.
“ONELIFE wasn’t a social media name—users couldn’t say ‘I ONELIFE-ed that,’ but [they] could say ‘I POINT-ed that,’” Mikhail said.
In 2013, Mikhail gave a presentation at TEDx Columbus highlighting the need for the app and its expected features. Despite throwing her phone in a bowl of water and having “speech block” for a long time, she loved the experience.
“It was one of those moments when I realized, ‘This is exactly what I should be doing,'” Mikhail said.
In her talk, Mikhail said, “If I want to know the world’s needs, I have to search for that information,” which is something that most people would not be willing to take the time to do. But, thanks to POINT, all of that information will be compiled into one app, easily accessible by the tap of your finger.
The app will not only include ways to serve, but will also have news articles, videos, and photo sharing.
To develop the app, the team needed resources, and along came the idea to use IndieGoGo, an online fundraising website, to help with the creation. On the site, users can donate any amount they wish. When they give a certain amount, such as $5, they are rewarded with gifts like a personalized “thank you” note, a POINT vinyl sticker, or a POINT USB charger, among many other things.
Between Nov. 3 and Jan. 2, IndieGoGo users donated $20,002, therefore reaching the goal set by the team.
Now that they have raised the money, Mikhail said the next step is to build.
The POINT team is looking for iOS developers but has not decided if they want to “develop the app internally or contract the work out,” Mikhail said.
All of the design is currently just prototype—nothing official has been created.
“We are working on building not only the app, but our team, brand, future user base, and corporate relationships,” Mikhail said.
The app is expected to release in 2016. In the meantime, there will be opportunities for people to sign up in 2015 to test the app.
To learn more about POINT, follow them on Twitter, @pointapp, or connect with them on their website, pointapp.org.
