Quiet: platform eases life in poverty

Gezin gaat samen dagje pretpark medemogelijk gemaakt door Stichting Quiet

Marketplace brings happiness to people in poverty

Freelance platform grows

1000% in a year

In the Netherlands, about 1.25 million people live in poverty. People who cannot afford a holiday, a meal out, or dental care, let alone a children's party. The Quiet Community is committed to alleviating poverty in the Netherlands. In 2015, Quiet took the first step toward an online platform, with the help of two Quote millionaires and Freshheads, which allows local businesses to make a difference for people in financial need simply by doing what they are good at.

English

interactive

Award

Industry

Non-profit

Phase

Validate, Develop, Grow

Solution

Multisided marketplace

Consult with Maud

Maud works with Quiet on the demand and supply platform.

Do you have questions, a challenge, or a good idea?

Email Maud

Challenge

Not future-proof

The Quiet Community started in Tilburg and in no time more than a hundred entrepreneurs were willing to offer dinners, haircuts, training sessions, beauty treatments, or even jobs. However, a marketplace only really takes off if you have demand as well as supply for services or products. Finding and connecting the right people to this supply was done via an Excel sheet. This process consumed too much time and energy due to rapid growth, and moreover, it was not future-proof. When both demand and supply start spiraling out of control, digitization is not a nice-to-have, but a must-have! Quiet asked us to develop a national marketplace to alleviate poverty.

Solution

A marketplace platform

We developed a demand and supply platform where based on personal preferences, the offers from local businesses are fairly (!) distributed among the members of the Quiet Community. Members receive a notification immediately when a suitable offer is ready for them. They can accept or decline it right away so the Quiet platform can offer it to another member.

Mobiele telefoons met Quiet communities app

Mobiele telefoon met Quiet communities app

Laptop met de mijn-omgeving van de Quiet webapp

Result

From local to national

We dare to say that the platform has proven itself as an effective tool to alleviate poverty. Currently, there are 15 cities actively participating in the Quiet Community. This has already resulted in over 180,000 moments of happiness; the times members have utilized the offerings of a local business.

Process

Under the microscope

To understand what poverty means in the Netherlands, we spoke with people living below or near the poverty line and spent time at the food bank. To achieve the perfect synergy between supply and demand, we also examined the supply side. We interviewed local entrepreneurs (sponsors) to map out their needs.

Jong meisje viert haar verjaardag met taart

8,287

connected members

1,542

15 active communities

Collaboration

A future-proof platform

We take Quiet's ambition to fight poverty in the Netherlands seriously. So seriously that we've been a sponsor since the start of this project. In this way, we can make an even greater contribution to the ambition of the Quiet Community. It's also important that Quiet is future-proof. By growing rapidly, the platform was workable for the communities. But now the task is to work from the growth phase to a mature platform. By engaging again with users and revising certain features and the design, the platform can be used for many more years to distribute offers as fairly as possible.

FOUNDATION QUIET

FOUNDATION QUIET

Challenge

Challenge

Challenge