5 Virtual Social Platform for you to contribute to the Pandemic
By: Muhammad Aditya Ardiansyah
Tags: Social Issues, Volunteering, Change Org, Kitabisa, Social Platform

Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash

We faced many problems during the pandemic, starting from our health system, economy, education, and we could not create a collaboration offline. Before the pandemic, this problem already exists within every country in this world, but as soon as the pandemic spread out, the issues are rising and have to be solved or tackled as soon as possible. But because of the pandemic, we are also limited to several options to contribute. We can’t create a meet-up project or an offline social project event that many volunteers worldwide will join.

Photo by Roman Synkevych on Unsplash

Because of the pandemic, we are forced to move and start to transition to a digital platform. Everything is digital starts from the study, working until contributing to social issues like the issues mentioned above. Actually, contributing to the issues virtually is not something new for some people because the platform has already existed way back before the pandemic.

Still, I believe that not everyone would use the platform or know what kind of platform we could use during this post-pandemic. Knowing this information, I would like to give you five recommendations for a virtual platform to consider contributing to the social issues during the pandemic. This platform could be locally (means only works in Indonesia) and some platform is a global platform (means global citizen could use the platform). So let's check it out!

Homepage Kitabisa.com in a Desktop (Browser: Microsoft Edge)

Kitabisa.com is an Indonesian donation platform that Indonesian citizens could use to help some social issues in Indonesia or overseas (because some donation is transferred overseas, such as to help Palestine and many more). Kitabisa.com brings many types of social issues that you could contribute by donating to the organizer of the one created in the Kita Bisa. Aside from Donation, you could also be participating in crowdsourcing, donating for the one who gets an impact on COVID — 19 in the Saling Jaga section or maybe if you are a Muslim, you could also do some Zakat starts from Zakat Fitrah, Mal and Zakat Profesi. Kitabisa.com is available on Playstore, Appstore, and on a desktop (Like the screenshot above!). Maybe if you want to contribute to the social issues but don’t have enough time to be a volunteer but have some money that you could spend to donate, this app might be a perfect fit for you.

Kitabisa.com and Donation Pages (Operating System: Android 10)

2. Campaign #ForChange by Campaign.com

Campaign.com landing page

Campaign #ForChange is a social app tracker from a social enterprises/startup called Campaign.com. Campaign #ForChange mainly is an app that allows you to contribute and participate in any Campaign in four different issues category, Kesetaraan (Equality), Kesehatan (Health), Pendidikan (Education) and Lingkungan (Environment). Inside the Campaign, there were challenges and activities that you will participate in if you are going to make some donation without any money.

By participating in the Challenge, you will be asked to finish the action inside the Challenge. If you have finished all the action, your action will be converted to a donation and sent to the organizer who creates the challenge and will be used to help and tackle the social issues explained in the challenge. Campaign #ForChange also won the Best App for Good in 2020 by Google Play Store. Campaign #ForChange is available on PlayStore and App Store. You have to try and make yourself useful during the post-pandemic.

Campaign #ForChange App UI on Android

3. Change.org

Change.org Landing Page

Change.org is a different type of platform compared to others in term of the Social Issues App. Change.org offers the user or society a petition that you could sign on to participate in the campaign and action. The petition that Change.org has on the website is made from the organizer, community or Non-Government Organisation who feels that they need to solve the issues together by creating the petition so the stakeholder or the higher-ups would try to listen and consider the action that we have already take. Every petition has a different number of a minimum of the petition before they could send the petition to the higher-ups, and that’s why it is great for us to be able to participate, share our thoughts about the issue and sign the petition to help solve the issues.

4. GoFundMe

GoFundMe Landing Page

One of the other International platforms that you could consider for donation is GoFundMe. GoFundMe offers the user to donate to some social issues that happen globally. Basically, GoFundMe is similar to the previous recommendation called Kitabisa.com. The difference is on the scale of issues that they were trying to get. While Kitabisa.com focuses on targeting more local users in Indonesia, GoFundMe takes more to global citizens and more International issues or crowdfunding. GoFundMe also offers its services on a smartphone app in Playstore and Appstore. Still, it’s limited to several phones or maybe the country we live in. (because the writer could not install the GoFundMe app on my Android phone, hehe). One Crowdfunding that I knew this year was the crowdfunding held by Stephen Park, The CEO and Founder of Asian Boss, who’s struggling to run Asian Boss in the middle of the pandemic.

Some User Interface from GoFundMe

5. Indorelawan.org

Indorelawan.org Landing Page

Indorelawan could be one of the platforms you could consider if you are looking to contribute to the social issues by becoming a volunteer or joining some workshop or Campaign. Indorelawan offers a lot of information related to volunteer recruitment, Workshop, or any campaign that happens in Indonesia made by the Community, Non — Government Organisations, etc. Indorelawana targets their user in Indonesia and makes sure that every youth or someone with socially-minded could find information about volunteering or any social workshop much easier by creating that platform. For me personally, It is a great platform because I usually try to open Indorelawan first for looking for new opportunities to become a volunteer in Indonesia or maybe other events such as a social conference or social project program. Aside from their website, they also have big followers on social media, especially on Instagram.

Indorelawan on Instagram

All the recommendation that I have mentioned before was the platform that I have ever used, and I believe that there are many virtual platforms that the same or maybe a better program for contributing to the social issues. Don’t forget to remember that :

“Even the smallest social action that you took, will make an impact to change this world to be a better living place.” “We can’t change the world alone, even someone who socially minded still need a partner and friends to accomplish their mission”

So, Which platform that you have ever used to contribute during the pandemic. Please let me know in the comment!