Celebrating one year of now-u!

Lizzie, as a co-founder, how do you feel on now-u’s one year anniversary?

To be honest, I can’t believe it’s been a whole year! I’m incredibly proud of the team and all we’ve accomplished. We’ve run over 20 campaigns, working with more than 30 amazing charities and social enterprises, and with users taking over 1,000 actions on the app. There have certainly been challenges along the way, but we’ve done a lot of great work and we can’t wait to see what we can do in Year 2!

What is your favourite memory or moment from this complicated year?

It was always a worry that we wouldn’t be able to create a proper team during the pandemic, but it has been amazing to see the team form and thrive in the strangest of circumstances. Despite always working remotely, we’ve formed an incredible team of over 100 current and former volunteers from around the world who work really well together. I know many volunteers (myself included) have also made some great friends within the team, and I’m really looking forward to meeting up with everyone in person when it’s finally allowed!

It is impressive that so many people offer their time and skills to build such a young project. What is your message for the volunteers?

Firstly, I want to say a huge thank you to all of our incredible volunteers. I’ve really been overwhelmed by how many people have wanted to volunteer their time with us, and the standard of work the team consistently produces is fantastic. It’s amazing to see so many people coming together to make a difference.

What do you think is the biggest accomplishment of the organisation?

The ability of the now-u community to change people’s attitudes towards some of today's most pressing issues is so important. Through the now-u platform, we’ve been able to raise the profile of many small high-impact charities doing amazing work across the world. Helping to raise awareness of their work and encouraging members of our community to support these charities in shaping a better world is at the heart of what we do.

What are your plans for now-u for the next year?

We have a lot of really exciting things planned. Most importantly, we are planning to launch version 2 of our app! We’ve been working hard over the past few months to test what works well on our current app and what needs improving, and the new designs will incorporate many exciting new features. A major shift will be moving to a system of causes. We’ve heard from our users and partners that they want us to focus on particular charitable causes long-term, rather than switching between campaigns targeting different issues. In response to this, we will soon be announcing now-u’s six causes. We have a lot of ideas for how we can keep improving now-u, but we would love to hear from you about what we can do better - so if you have any suggestions, please send them our way!