Social Good Start-Up Jarous Inspires People and Businesses to Give Back to San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- What if every time you do something good for yourself you could also help your community? Today, Jarous, a new goal-setting platform that fosters the economy and environment of social giving, makes it possible for individuals to give back to their community every time he or she does something good for him or herself. Jarous is available for free in the Apple App store. Jarous is the place to support and organize campaigns that use fundraising to solve some of the toughest issues facing San Francisco. Anyone can make a big impact for the causes they care about, then connect with other passionate friends, leaders within the community so they can work together and affect change.

Current campaigns running on the platform include Compass Family Services, helping homeless and at-risk families become stably housed, Mobilize Love, a city-wide mobile outreach that deploys trucks to give underprivileged families access to basic human services, The San Francisco Arts Education Project which enriches the lives of children by facilitating hands-on participation in the visual and performing arts, Ecology Center which focuses on improving the health and the environmental impacts of urban residents and Pet Nation that implements dog therapy on high school campuses during stressful times like midterms and finals. To learn more about these campaigns, donate or start your own campaign download the Jarous app in the Apple App Store.

"At Jarous, our mission is to transform the way social giving is thought of and prove that with a little you can do a lot," said Charlene Chen, co-founder of Jarous. "The way philanthropy is set up now, most of us only think to give once a year during tax season or when there's an emergency or tragedy. All of these are good things and we should continue doing so - but - imagine the impact we could make together within communities if giving were tied to our personal goals, and done on an incremental and consistent basis. Not only would we better ourselves but we'd also be able to improve our communities."

75 % of Jarous Users Prefer Incremental Giving.
Earlier this year Jarous conducted a private beta which included campaigns ranging from helping homeless families to victims of natural disasters. One campaign helped a woman with terminal cancer realize her dream to visit Alaska. Seventy five percent of the participants in the beta said they preferred giving incrementally versus once a year.

Here's how Jarous works to foster the economy and environment for social giving:
Choose an activity or habit to improve.  
The idea is simple: Make change to give change. Identify a habit or ritual you'd like to improve. It could be anything from cooking more meals at home, to limiting screen time, to riding your bike to work instead of taking your car, to ordering a smaller cup of coffee. The app comes pre-populated with some habit-changing ideas, but fans are free to add their own. With each activity, a set amount of money can be added into your Jarous Jar on the app and linked to your bank or credit card account via Stripe. There are virtually no minimums or maximums to give. Each completed activity is logged and tracked in the app. The user is rewarded by watching their Jarous jar fill up with every successful activity. You can also invite friends and family to your Jarous Jar for support to cheer you on as you work towards your goals.

Activities are a meaningful and fun way to attach a monetary value to an activity you wish to accomplish or change. Activities aim to provide Jarous users with a way to incentivize themselves for improving their lives with actions, small or big. While accomplishing their goals, Jarous fans will see the amounts that can be accumulated and given to their cause. Jarous users are also encouraged to reflect on the impact their efforts are making to themselves and the community with a feature called "Reflection Time." Reflections are recorded to show the correlation your personal improvement and altruism.

Connect with a Local Cause, Campaign or Event. 
Jarous users can select from a multitude of local causes, campaigns and events within the community to which they would like to donate from their Jarous Jar. Whether it's the school teacher looking to provide supplies for her class or the foundation helping to provide shelter and resources for the homeless or even the marathon runner supporting cancer research, Jarous creates a level playing field for anyone who wants to try and make a positive impact. Just as you can see improvements in yourself, you can see firsthand the dollars you donated benefiting the causes that mean the most to you in the community.

100% of Proceeds Go to Support the Causes.
Unlike other platforms that take a certain percentage and process a transaction fee from donors, all proceeds raised go directly to the causes selected. Should a Jarous user like to to support the platform, they can do so by selecting an amount to tip. Tipping is entirely voluntary and not required to join or participate.

Starting a Fundraising Event on Jarous.
Anyone can start a fundraising event. All that's needed is a brief description of your event or cause, the start and end date for your campaign, a financial goal and an image. All the funds raised go to the cause - even if the goal is not met.

Jarous Benefits Enterprises, Charities and Organizations too.
Jarous also aims to help organizations, businesses and charities manage their existing fundraising events, increase engagement with existing donors, attract new audiences all from a free, simple to use dashboard. The Jarous dashboard is mobile-first and integrates seamlessly with existing systems and processes so nothing is interrupted. Jarous guarantees a minimum good faith donation of $2.00 for every event a Jarous community member joins on the platform. Jarous offers a free trial to any enterprise, charity or organization to manage up to two events the first time they sign up for the platform.

Get Sponsored for Doing Good.
As an additional incentive brands and businesses can leverage the Jarous platform to sponsor both personal goal activities or campaigns to provide even more incentive or financial reward. Through this model, a local gym could choose to support an individual's personal goal to lose weight or a bike share service could sponsor someone's goal to ride their bike to work with access to a free bike. The possibilities for sponsorship are endless and another way Jarous seeks foster the economy of social giving for better communities.

A San Franciscan Approach to San Francisco Problems.
Jarous is founded by native San Franciscans Charlene Chen and William Quach who are passionate about enhancing the lives of their fellow San Franciscans with a bottom to top approach to philanthropy that is people first. With so many San Franciscans feeling overwhelmed and powerless to address the many challenges facing 'The City' today, Chen and Quach took a people-first approach to try and do something about it and Jarous was born.

Serial inventors and entrepreneurs, Chen and Quach hold two patents and hope Jarous will shape the future of giving in San Francisco and beyond. Jarous will roll out to additional communities throughout 2020. Fundraisers, nonprofits and other organizations looking to bring Jarous to their community can visit www.jarous.com for more information.

About Jarous
Founded in 2019, Jarous provides people with the platform and tools that can help make our communities better. The app is available to download for free in the Apple iTunes App Store. The company is self-funded and headquartered in San Francisco, Calif. For the latest news and updates on Jarous follow @jarousapp on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

SOURCE Jarous

Related Links

https://www.jarous.com