Giving Digitized: From Coats to Careers
By: Dan Stein
Tags: Nonprofit, Founder Interviews, Startup Life, Entrepreneurship, Startup

Interview with Shazia Peeran, Founder of Giving Digitized

Photo by Riccardo Annandale on Unsplash

Tell us about your business. What do you do?

We connect needs in the community to those who are able to give at this time, through virtual drives — so many nonprofits are struggling to meet client needs. We are here to serve, in the time we have, and leaving the world a bit better than when we came into it.

This year has been tough on nonprofits to get the supplies they generally receive. As you might have heard, school supplies drives were down significantly this year compared to prior years. Nonprofits are using it to obtain resources from their donors and the community. To see the success of the drives, each entitled group — nonprofit, donor group, and community — all have a different view of the application with success reporting etc. I realize that getting resources to those in need isn’t sufficient. The next phase of the application is to get individuals from coats to careers — more to come on that next year.

What is your startup’s origin story?

Giving Digitized started, to ensure our community continues to be served during the COVID crisis, by leading the digitization of campaigns for nonprofits.

We took a massive action and built this application cause I saw a compelling reason — I anticipated that nonprofits I support — were going to hurt for getting in-kind donations during a pandemic environment — and wanted to solve for it and open it up to all nonprofits.

Giving Digitized is dedicated to uplifting the community through our service & helping organizations and individuals succeed. We bring the best user experience through innovative software services. Giving Digitized is a catalyst for change, and this year, we have created a SaaS, Software-as-a-service, that will increase community impact through our stakeholders — organizations and community partners. Our platform will give the community an avenue to continue participating in established programs, that they may not have been able to do otherwise — either restrictions due to being at high-risk for COVID, having moved to another state or not knowing which organizations are running community giving campaigns, at a given time. We are providing digital operations for online giving through managed campaigns. Non-Profit engagement for in-kind donations exists in a high-touch environment and has been severely impacted with the onset of COVID. We created a transparent and streamlined end-to-end workflow — from request origination to delivery, of gifts and in-kind donations, for those in need.

Had you been involved in the industry before this startup? What is your background?

I’ve been dedicate to serving our community from a young age & have established recurring monthly and yearly programs. This year was when I was going to increase the impact to the community through partnerships with companies. When covid happened, I didn’t let that deter the plan & found a way to making virtual giving happen for nonprofits.

What’s unique about your company? What are the key differentiators between you and other players?

We solved a need in the nonprofit space that hadn’t been solved for yet. There are other great players out there that solved for fundraising and hasn’t solved for the in-kind donation space.

Take us through a day in your life. What does the typical day look like?

Early to bed and early to rise — gets you energized for life! I start and end my day with Giving Digitized and punctuate it with driving strategy goals on the business side of Chase.

My day starts around 4am. After some early morning meditation and exercise, I spend a few hours working on Giving Digitized. It’s always great to get in a half day — that leads to being even more productive for the rest of the day. Around 8am I log in — my career at Chase has been fantastic and I couldn’t ask for a better group of people to work with. After work, I spend some time on an activity — either row or go for a run — before spending a few more hours on Giving Digitized before turning in for the night.

What has been the most challenging part of growing your company?

The most important part was creating a strategy and then being in the mindset of ‘finding a way or making a way’ to reach the goal. That mindset has lead me to finesse numerous skills — each experience has been uniquely challenging and fulfilling — as it brought the goal one step closer.

What has been your best marketing channel? What are some channels you are looking to explore next?

We are concentrated on direct communication with nonprofits and their news letters have been the best marketing channels. In the future, when we scale, social and ads will be part of the marketing equation.

What apps do you use that you would recommend to others?

We are an application. So I’d recommend using us for nonprofit in-kind donations such as coats, toys, shelter baskets etc.

Do you have a book, podcast, or Youtube channel you would recommend to other Entrepreneurs?

Tony Robbins Unlimited Power

If you could go back in time to the day you founded your company, what advice would you give yourself?

Believe, be fearless and trust in the outcome

What’s something you’ve learned from building your business that someone else can learn from?

Solve a problem in the world- find a way or make a way to make the goal a reality