Grand Rapids innovators develop online ‘helping hand’

By: Deborah Johnson Wood

The idea came to Rick DeVos while he listened to church leaders describe how they were going to use email to help people get involved in church activities.

“It seemed like a nightmare of useless emails filling up everyone’s mailboxes, and an administrative nightmare,” DeVos says. The more he thought about it, the more he realized there was no online tool to help organizations connect people in need with the people who could help.

So DeVos talked to Ben Gott and the two created TheCommon.org, an online site that helps people lend a helping hand.

For just $1 per user per month, churches and organizations authorize interested members to list their needs, such as a ride to work, car repairs, or home repairs. Members with the abilities to meet those needs receive notices through the web site and can choose to offer their services. Once the need is met, the messages disappear from the members’ queue.

“There’s a high level of security, integrity and accountability,” says Gott. “Everything is done through an administrator assigned by the organization, everyone attends an activation event and brings a photo ID, and community leaders have to okay your membership.”

Members list their abilities, which are matched with different needs as the needs come online. In addition to connecting individuals, the site also can connect organizations.

Ada Bible Church launched TheCommon.org in February.

“We’re using it to match abilities and needs within our congregation because it’s so large,” says spokesperson Janet Conzelmann of the 5,000-member church. Some 350 members have signed up, so far. “People are actually meeting each other. One elderly gentleman needed a ride to work and a young man is meeting that need. They might not have met otherwise.”

Source: Rick DeVos, Ben Gott, Kyle Zwiep, TheCommon.org; Janet Conzelmann, Ada Bible Church

Deborah Johnson Wood is the development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].