What year did you graduate from Pitt Social Work? Which degree/certificates?
I graduated in 2019 with a Master’s Degree in Social Work (MSW), specializing in macro practice (Community, Organization, and Social Action - COSA).
What is your current position?
I’m currently the Founder of PennyLoafer, a charitable giving platform that creates ongoing giving strategies around select causes like climate change and mental health.
I started PennyLoafer after reflecting on my own giving habits. They felt disjointed and often reactive. I would donate when crises happened, or requests came my way. I considered what a giving strategy might look like: what did I care about most? And how could I do more about it strategically and on an ongoing basis?
Despite our best intentions, a lot of things get in the way of our giving. Maybe we don’t know where to start, or we don’t have time to do the research. We’re busy with school, jobs, kids -- with life.
I wanted to create a way to make charitable giving simple and more strategic for individual donors, and enable people to put their beliefs and values into meaningful action each month.
How does PennyLoafer work?
It’s designed to be really simple. Donors select:
- A cause they care about (we currently feature four causes: Climate Change, Mental Health, Quality Education and Racial Justice);
- A monthly donation amount (as little as $5/month).
PennyLoafer researches nonprofits working across the country in each cause area, with a particular focus on smaller charities. Every month, all donations to a cause are combined and sent to a different, vetted nonprofit. Donors stay updated on their impact via an informative, monthly newsletter.
The goal is to get more people donating regularly to causes they care about, feeling impactful and learning along the way with our monthly newsletters.
What are you currently working on?
As a solo founder, I wear a lot of hats, from carrying out day to day tasks (like researching and vetting nonprofits and writing the monthly newsletters), to handling marketing and business development strategies to help grow the platform. I’ve also been learning some basic coding skills to be able to work on the website.
How did your Pitt Social Work education prepare you for this position?
Pitt's School of Social Work started my career in the nonprofit / public sector. It was through my school internships that I got to work at the Birmingham Foundation, and the Department of Human Services (which would be my first job out of the program). One class in particular that influenced me was Dr. John Wallace's course on Social Entrepreneurship. Through that class, I developed skills such as creating a Business Model Canvas (versus writing a full business plan), launching with the "minimal viable product" and creating customer personas. During the course, we got to create, build and pitch a social enterprise and it helped me think through creating a sustainable business model in the social good space.
What projects do you have coming up in the next year?
My focus over the next year is growing the number of donors we serve on PennyLoafer, and tweaking the service based on donor feedback. I have a lot of ideas for how the platform can evolve to serve more nonprofits and causes as it grows and am excited to see where it goes!
How do you stay connected to Pitt School of Social Work?
I stay connected to several classmates and professors from the program, and am a member of several Facebook groups tied to the MSW program. I also enjoy reading updates from the alumni e-newsletters.