Causebridge: Building a Charity Discovery Platform

My Journey Building Causebridge

This project emerged from a personal frustration with the charity discovery process. As someone who wanted to make a meaningful impact but felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of organisations and causes, I saw an opportunity to create something that would bridge the gap between good intentions and meaningful action.

The Problem

Finding the right charity to support can be overwhelming. There are thousands of organisations, each with their own mission, impact metrics, and ways to get involved. Many people want to help but don’t know where to start, whilst smaller charities struggle to get discovered amongst the noise of larger, better-funded organisations.

I wanted to create a platform that would:

• Help people discover charities that genuinely match their interests and values
• Surface smaller, local organisations that often get overlooked
• Provide clear, actionable next steps for getting involved
• Make the process feel personal and approachable, not corporate

First Steps

I began by researching the charity landscape and identifying the core pain points in the discovery process. I spent time understanding how people currently find charities: through word of mouth, Google searches, or major platforms, and what was missing from these approaches.

My design inspiration came from:

• Modern, clean interfaces that prioritise clarity over complexity
• Platforms that guide users through personalised experiences
• Tools that feel helpful rather than overwhelming
• Communities that emphasise human connection over transactional relationships

I started with a simple prototype that focused on the core matching experience, testing different approaches to understanding user preferences and presenting charity recommendations.

The Stack

I chose React and TypeScript for the frontend, paired with Tailwind CSS for rapid, responsive design. EmailJS handles the email delivery system, allowing users to receive their personalised charity recommendations directly in their inbox. This stack let me focus on the user experience whilst keeping the technical complexity manageable.

Building the Matching Engine

The heart of Causebridge is its matching algorithm, which considers multiple factors to provide personalised recommendations:

Multi-Dimensional Matching

Users first select their preferred involvement types: whether they want to donate money, volunteer in person, raise awareness, share skills, work on hands-on projects, or provide care support. This helps filter charities based on how they can actually get involved.

Cause-Based Filtering

The platform organises charities across eight major cause areas:

• Environmental Protection
• Social Justice
• Education Access
• Healthcare & Wellness
• Economic Mobility
• Animal Welfare
• Mental Health
• Youth Development

Each cause contains multiple subcategories, allowing for granular matching based on specific interests.

Efficient Data Collection with Perplexity

Building a comprehensive charity database required extensive research, but I discovered a powerful approach using Perplexity AI to streamline the process. Rather than manually searching through countless websites and directories, I used Perplexity to efficiently search the web for verified charities across different cause areas and geographic regions.

The process involved:

• Targeted searches for specific charity types and locations across the UK
• Structured queries that returned charity names, descriptions, and website links
• JSON format requests that provided data in a format I could easily process and integrate
• Verification workflows where I reviewed each charity’s legitimacy and impact before inclusion

This approach allowed me to build a substantial database of verified charities in a fraction of the time it would have taken through traditional research methods. I was able to discover both well-known national organisations and smaller local charities that might otherwise have been overlooked.

However, efficiency didn’t compromise quality. I personally reviewed every single charity before publishing the website, ensuring that each recommendation met high standards for transparency, impact, and legitimacy.

Real-World Challenges: Data, UX, and Email Delivery

As the project evolved, I encountered several challenges that pushed me to refine the platform:

Curating Quality Charity Data

One of the biggest challenges was building a comprehensive yet curated database of charities. I needed to:

• Research and verify each organisation’s legitimacy and impact
• Write clear, accessible descriptions that avoid jargon
• Ensure geographic diversity across the UK
• Balance between well-known charities and smaller, local organisations
• Keep the data current and accurate

This process taught me the importance of quality over quantity: better to have fewer, well-vetted recommendations than a large database of questionable organisations.

Designing an Intuitive Matching Flow

Creating a matching experience that felt both comprehensive and approachable was challenging. I experimented with different approaches:

• Single-step vs. multi-step flows
• Different ways of presenting cause categories
• Various methods for collecting user preferences
• Different approaches to displaying results

The final design uses a 5-step guided flow that feels conversational rather than interrogative, with clear progress indicators and the ability to go back and modify selections.

Email Delivery and User Experience

Implementing reliable email delivery whilst maintaining a polished user experience required careful consideration of:

• Email template design that works across different clients
• Handling email delivery failures gracefully
• Providing clear feedback to users about the sending process
• Ensuring the email content is actionable and well-formatted

I chose EmailJS for its simplicity and reliability, but had to implement custom error handling and user feedback systems to ensure a smooth experience.

Technical Architecture

Component-Based Design

The platform is built around reusable components that can be easily maintained and extended:

• CauseMatcher: The core matching experience
• CharityLogo: Consistent logo display with fallbacks
• Various UI components for consistent styling

State Management

The matching flow uses React’s built-in state management, with careful attention to:

• Preserving user selections across steps
• Handling edge cases in the matching logic
• Providing smooth transitions between steps
• Managing the email sending process

Data Organisation

The charity data is organised into modular files by cause and phase, making it easy to:

• Add new charities without affecting existing ones
• Maintain consistency across the database
• Update specific categories independently
• Scale the platform as new causes are added

Lessons Learned

• Quality over quantity: Better to have fewer, well-vetted recommendations than a large database of questionable organisations
• User experience is everything: The matching flow needs to feel helpful, not overwhelming
• Email delivery matters: Users need reliable, well-formatted emails they can actually use
• Local focus helps: Smaller, local charities often provide more meaningful connection opportunities
• Clear communication: Avoid jargon and make everything accessible to people new to charitable giving

What’s Next?

Causebridge is already helping people discover charities that match their values, but there’s always room to grow:

• Expanding the database: Adding more charities across all cause areas
• Geographic expansion: Extending beyond the UK to other regions
• Enhanced matching: Incorporating more sophisticated algorithms based on user feedback
• Community features: Allowing users to share their experiences and recommendations
• Analytics and insights: Helping charities understand their audience better

Final Thoughts

Building Causebridge has been a deeply rewarding experience. It’s taught me that the best solutions often come from personal frustration: when you experience a problem yourself, you understand it in ways that external research can’t capture.

Most importantly, I’ve learned that technology can be a bridge between good intentions and meaningful action. By focusing on the human experience and making the process of charitable giving more approachable, we can help more people make a positive impact in their communities.

The platform continues to evolve based on user feedback and the changing needs of both donors and charities. Every new feature is designed with the same core principle: making it easier for caring people to find organisations that genuinely need their support.

If you’re interested in learning more or want to collaborate, feel free to reach out!