Bayanihan spirit alive on the Internet

"Giving" has entered the Internet age with Pasagoods, an online giving platform developed by the Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU) in partnership with Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart). Pasagoods (www.pasagoods.com) allows its users to select from a list of screened charity programs and donate money via credit card or Smart Money. Donors can also share their donation activity via popular social networks and track their donations through updates from the charity organization. Originally called Smart Goods, Pasagoods is AdMU’s grand prize winner at the 5th SWEEP Innovation and Excellence Awards, Smart’s annual search for the best wireless applications developed by student-faculty teams from its partner schools under the Smart Wireless Engineering Education Program (SWEEP). Smart worked with AdMU, particularly the Infini Technology Partners of the Ateneo Innovation Center, to develop the online giving platform. Team members Daniel Jeffrey Lagazo, Marc Ericson Santos and Jason Paul Cruz were able to activate Pasagoods last November, in time for Christmas gift-giving, initially to beneficiaries of projects of accredited AdMU organizations. Featured projects on the site include the Wishlist Program of Speed, which helps in the development of persons with special needs; the Book Drive of Kaingin, which hopes to provide books to support a reading program for marginalized public school children in Kaingin Dos, Balara, Quezon City and Marikina Heights, Marikina City and an outreach program for the Mangyan Community, which is a work in progress to feed the Indigenous People’s tribe via the community store of Hapinoy in Calapan, Mindoro. Engr. Rod Michael Coronel of AdMU says they piloted Pasagoods among accredited AdMU organizations to better manage whatever issues or concerns might arise. The vision for Pasagoods, however, is to be the online and mobile donation platform of choice for any non-profit organization and disaster response group, he adds. Pasagoods seeks to assure donors that their donations reach the intended recipients by enabling partner organizations to give them updates on the activity or initiative or cause that they supported. “Originally, Pasagoods was meant for disaster response. However, disasters don't happen everyday - not that we want them to happen at all - so we tried to make the project scope larger by covering non-profit projects so that it can be a continuing effort." Coronel says that plans include partnering with companies, like those that provide bottled water, canned goods and medicines, so that Pasagoods can provide these goods at a lower cost to organizations or disaster relief operations that need them. Non-profit organizations with a proven track record that are interested in using the online facility for fund-raising can email them at partners@pasagoods.com, he adds. Pasagoods is a work in progress, with the team bent on making the site more interactive. For instance, users of Pasagoods can now make a pledge to donate in cash or in kind to their selected charity – a feature that was not in the original project scope but which the team accommodated after receiving feedback from site visitors. The team is also working with Smart to enable subscribers to donate cash using their airtime load via SMS. What the team seeks to achieve with Pasagoods is to encourage not only those who have the money or the time and the energy to get involved in charity. Pasagoods emphasizes that small individual contributions can actually add up to address particular needs in a community. Pasagoods is the epitome of Bayanihan 2.0 -- networked individuals making positive changes happen. “The social networking aspect makes it easier for the projects to be promoted by its supporters. So even if you don't have the means to donate, you can support the project by sharing it through Facebook and/or clicking the tweet button," Coronel says. (Press Release)