WeCare: Unlocking Human Finance

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

The global nonprofit industry is over $2 Trillion. This industry has changed the lives of hundreds of millions, especially these last few decades. Recent history, on the other hand, has shown that the industry has become prone to corruption. In addition, lack of transparency has also created the perception of corruption. The mistrust has created interconnected issues with every stake holder in the industry.

i) Non Profit agencies - Non profit agencies in Ethiopia have not yet adapted to th Due information age. Their primary method of doing business has limited their ability to raise funds. SUe to the lack of digital footprint of these agencies, scammers have been able to mascarade online as these companies and trick the populus to making digital payments This has created an environment where .Additionally, scammers have become rampant. Additionally, these companies have not yet been able to verify their authenticity online. 

i) Donors- People donate money with the goal of making a difference. Their motivation lies with knowing, without doubt, that their money has gone where it needs to be. In Ethiopia, despite the existence of a culture of giving, rampant scamming and the lack of transparency and perception of corruption disincentivizes the general public in giving.

ii) Recipients- The end users in this industry don't have a voice. Their power is mainly held by the middlemen, who are non profits. Hese corrupt non profits are more interested in scalping money rather than finding the right recipients. This enables social problems and issues to persist. This is especially rampant in Ethiopia where scams have been on the rise in recent years. This is amplified by lack of third party regulators, leaving the responsibility of regulating on the state. Since the states have limited resources to oversee the sector, their ability to control corruption is also limited. 

Our platform brings the power of the blockchain to the nonprofit industry. It enables donors to track their donations and recipients to verify their identity and authenticity.The immutability and transparency enabled by the Cardano blockchain will bring the Ethiopian non profit industry to the information age. The value proposition for the stakeholders is listed below.

i) Non Profit agencies Our platform will enable these agencies to leapfrog to the information age. We will verify the authenticity of these organizations and create a digital channel to access donors digitally. This will ease the method of receiving donations and enables organizations to focus on their mission. 

ii) Donors-  The current channels available do not enable donors to see or decide where their money was spent. On our platform, donors can not only track their donations, but also set conditions for how their donation is spent; enabled by smart contracts. This would empower donors to choose how exactly their money is spent; and thus boosting confidence in the system.  

iii) Recipients- Recipients will be fully empowered on our platform as well. They will give complete KYC and connect directly with donors, without the need of middle men. Additionally, their needs will be verified and authenticated.Recipents will also be able to leverage social media and allow donors to reach them at our onestop app.

How it works 

Donors deposit money into our platform using various payment gateways. There will be ETB, USD and crypto options. All payments will be converted to ETB. For every ETB deposited, a traceable ETB token (T-ETB) is minted.The minted token (T-ETB) would be used on our platform to track and trace donations. Our platform has 3 specific categories . 

• Direct Deposit- This side of our platform enables non-profit organizations to reach donors directly. Non profits would have their own profile on our platform, showing that they are certified by the government and verified on the blockchain. - Donors can deposit money directly into the accounts of the specific nonprofit. This channel will enable nonprofits to sell by connecting to donors that donate to other nonprofits.
• 
  
• Campaigns- People trying to raise funds will go through full KYC and run a campaign. This will enable recipients to connect directly with donors. Subsequently, donors can use the smart contract feature, which enables self governing campaigns. This feature will allow donors to pre-set conditions for their specific donations to be made.
• 
  
• Crisis Response- This channel will enable donors the platform to collaborate with the government to respond to crisis situations. They can directly purchase aid products such as food and medical goods and services to be sent directly to aid workers in the crisis hit area. Our platform pulls together financial resources to ensure the right resources reach the right people.

ONce donations have been made, the donated amount will be deposited into the accounts of the nonprofits in direct deposits. For campigns and crisis response, recipents will be required to provide invoices for payments. Wecare will deposit the raised fund into the verified accounts on the invoice.

The T-ETB token will be burned once the payment is made. Once donors have donated, they can follow where their money is going on our platform. They will also have the ability to share directly on their social media pages as well. 

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

The word “Cryptocurrency” has been used excessively as buzzwords for “get-rich-quick” schemes. The market's instability and volatility has created the perception that the blockchain, in association with cryptocurrencies, is untrustworthy. Furthermore, the oncoming bear market will amplify the existing misconception.In Order to change this perception, blockchain solutions have to be used to solve existing problems. An example of this is IOHK’s deal with the Ethiopian Ministry of Education.This deal will legitimize and standardize the quality of the educational system. Solutions such as these will bring undenyable confidence in the system.

Our platform provides a corresponding blockchain solution to the non-profit industry.By providing transparency and traceability,WeCare offers a secure channel that will bring confidence into the system. This will leapfrog the industry and transform the perception people have ofthe blockchain, by providing a solution for a pre-existing pain point in the society. Mass adoption will go hand in ganf with confidence and access.Out platform will encourage the adoption of ADA by providing zero transaction fee. Additionally, we will be working with FairWay to get the Atala prism verified credential for KYC and Emurgo for the traceability solution..

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

Lack of education- Ethiopia is relatively new to the digital age and still adjusting to using and trusting the solutions it provides. Blockchain, an even newer concept, is a topic the general public knows very little about, outside its association with cryptocurrency.Due to these reasons, the public has not yet built confidence around the blockchain, yet alone trusting the solutions Caradano’s blockchain provides. 

Solution; We intend to address this issue by educating the public. A significant amount of the funds will be dedicated to that purpose. Before launching our product, we will run educational campaigns via social media through different languages and directly by setting up meetups at educational institutions.Since a significant amount of the population still does not have access to smartphones, we have dedicated hotline to connect directly with the public and disseminate the correct information.

Trust- The Ethiopian social media space is littered with scams. Since the digital age is new, most of the population is not able to verify the authenticity of recipients.This has changed in recent years, as the state has been cracking down on such fraudulent activities,but with minimal success.This has made the general public lose trust in not only digital donations,but also digital payments.. 

Solution- Our initial product, Direct Deposit, will address this issue. In addition to our educational campaigns and hotline,our platform will partner with established and reputable non-profits to create digital payments channel. We will also connect with existing and trusted donors to ease their method of payment. The certified agencies and the existing donors will be incorporated into our social media campaigns, increasing our legitimacy.This strategy will not only give credibility to our system, but also the cardano blockchain.

Compliance- The non profit industry is full of successful scammers masquerading as certified non profits. This is will be challenge because there isn't digital methods of verifying the agencies. Furthermore, the existing method of doing business is primarily paper based, making it prone to forgery.

Solution- In order to verify authenticity, we will work with the certifying body to have our own database to insure authenticity, Additionally, all donation deposits will have to go to the certified bank accounts of the nonprofits.In fundraising and crisis response, the same standard will be kept for the business that provide the goods and services.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

TBD

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

Mearaf Tadewos is a Software Engineer with 6 years of experience working with several scope of projects and tech companies including blockchain base companies.

Currently helping two Cardano funded start-ups with DAO architecture, Software development and advisory as well as Researching. Mearaf has an experience developing smart contracts on block chains like Ethereum and Cardano.

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

Out goal is to use the funding we get to bring this project to fruition. WIth our requested budget and timeline, we believe that we will start to sustain ourselves by the end of month 9.  

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

One of the Initial aspects that we want to work on is assuring that the public is familiarized with the blockchain. This includes understanding its benefits within our platform . As mentioned above, this will be done through continuous and meticulous educational campaigns. Social media is our primary means of doing this. Platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and Facebook will be utilized. We will assess the reception of the public through amount of views and number of subscription and respond to most asked questions. This will give us an overall understanding of the public's initial response. 

Once we are confident with the social media campaign, we will progress to educational institutes where we will specifically target the high-school and higher level education students. This demographic is the most technologically well versed. We will induct introduction and training sessions of 1 to 2 hours. Each session will be concluded by taking feedback from attendees and inducting surveys. Based on responses, adjustments will be made to the system to make it as user friendly as possible.

Another major aspect we will look at is the NGO's that will be listed within our platform for direct donations. Starting with an initial 5 reputable NGO's, we will follow the number and frequency of donations. These numbers will help us determine the level of trust the public has on the system. 

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

WeCare was established with a strong mission. Making donations, funds and humanitarian responses accessible to all that need it and trustworthy to all that want to help. Success for us is creating a platform that the majority of the public can easily understand and utilize. We aspire to be the largest for profit donations and funding platform in Africa. By utilizing the blockchain and partnering with numerous NGO's, both local and international, we plan on being the leading trusted system for online donations. Reports suggest that charities have lost nearly 300 billion dollars in donations due to misuse and misallocation within the past 5 years alone. If successful, WeCare will be able to be the solution needed for donations of this scale to be accounted for.

[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

This project is entirely new to Poejct Catalyst. The idea of this project has been theoried and idiated for about 6 months amongst the proposers.