In line with World Kindness Day, social impact enterprise, Kind Citizen, has officially launched a new marketplace platform in Aisa. Kind Citzen provides an avenue for contributors to pay it forward with holistic and essential gifts to a broader range of beneficiaries with its wide range of merchant partners in Asia.
Built in alignment with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal, the tech-for-good enterprise is the result of two years of development and establishing partnerships with community groups, government and merchants, integrating them into a single platform to deliver lasting social impact.
The platform is a first-of-its-kind social impact marketplace rooted in the concept of paying it forward with holistic gifts beyond the basic needs, including essential lifestyle services, for beneficiaries at a time that is most needed for the individual. The platform aims to be all-inclusive by having a broader range of beneficiaries than the usual charity, such as frontline workers, mental health support staff, caregiver supporters, special needs individuals, single parents and ex-offenders. The platform hopes to be able to comprehensively support social inclusion, and motivate people to live well again in a timely way.
How Kind Citizen Platform Works
Already boasting a strong line up of community partners and retail merchants including Singtel, ComfortDelGro, Ez-link, Grab, merchants can list their food, lifestyle and essential items on the platform for contributors to purchase and pay it forward. Following which, community partners perform due diligence, managing the beneficiaries directly and according to the support they need.
Users can select the contributions they wish to make from their favourite merchants, or based on the top needed list on the marketplace app. They can then complete their orders similar to how they would any other e-commerce site, in addition to leaving their personalised kindness message. Subsequently, they will be notified when their Kind contribution is received.
Through its platform, Kind Citizen enables anyone to extend help in an easy, practical and transparent manner, and to demonstrate kindness to the invisible struggles of others. By providing accessible and timely help to often unseen groups of people (such as caregivers of elderly), Kind Citizen facilitates greater social inclusion to those who may have fallen through the cracks, especially in tough times during the pandemic.
To ensure transparency and the appropriate allocation of resources, Kind Citizen works with community partners including grassroots community development, local social enterprises, non-profit organisations, social service agencies and ground-up community projects. Through the consolidated efforts, any wastage or mismatch of resources is minimised, ensuring that contributions are well handled and accessible to beneficiaries who need them the most.
Kind Citizen is supported by the Infocomm Media Development Authority’s (IMDA) Our Singapore Fund for Digital Readiness, and is also affiliated with a number of notable partners, including Singapore Management University’s Business Innovations Generator, its startup incubator. In addition, Kind Citizen is backed by venture capital firm, Quest Ventures, which focuses on digital commerce in early-stage marketplaces.
“ComfortDelGro is happy to be able to participate in Kind Citizen’s pay-it-forward initiative and we hope that point-to-point transport will be made easier for all who are in need, whether it is for their medical appointments or social outings.”
– Jackson Chia, CEO, ComfortDelGro Private Mobility Group
“EZ-Link is delighted to partner Kind Citizen to power the growth of social giving in Singapore. At EZ-Link, we strongly believe in building an inclusive society. Our EZ-Link Wallet credits enable consumers to make purchases conveniently for meals at hawker centres or make top-ups to their EZ-Link cards for their daily transport needs.”
– Nicholas Lee, CEO, EZ-Link
Leading up to its timely launch this World Kindness Day, Kind Citizen, started by Founder and CEO, Bernice Tan, has been in the works for two years. The platform was developed closely alongside the UN’s SDG 17 goals, combining the need for strong partnerships between multiple stakeholders to aid in sustainable development, with the concept of paying it forward. Having been the beneficiary herself of generous contributors, Ms Tan aims to drive social impact with the use of technology through Kind Citizen’s digital channel.
“I believe that the spirit of helpfulness and unity has always been evident in Singaporeans. Kind Citizen aims to enhance the way Singaporeans can do holistic giving by providing the flexibility on a transparent platform that connects merchants, community groups and contributors. It is my hope that this will help people to see the good in everyone and provide companies with practical ways to advance their social responsibilities.”
– Bernice Tan, Founder and CEO, Kind Citizen
Kind Citizen has more than 100 merchants on its platform to date, including Flash Coffee, Love Bonito, Huggs Coffee and Swensens, to aid a pool of over 3000 beneficiaries.
