Natalia Vodianova is a Russian supermodel, philanthropist, entrepreneur, and public speaker. In addition to setting up the Naked Heart Foundation, she launched Elbi, an iPhone app that lets people donate small amounts of money to good causes and interact with the people and charities who receive the money. The name stands for "Little Big" (LB), and the philosophy behind it is that you can make a big difference through little actions.
With a vision to democratize philanthropy, Elbi makes it more accessible to donate to charities. Each contribution also opens up another type of reward. Each donated dollar converts to a LoveCoin, which users can use in the shop to get exclusive goods in the ‘LoveShop’ from the likes of Fendi, Beats by Dre, H&M Conscious, Givenchy, and others.
Like most social networks these days, Elbi presents various charitable causes in the form of short videos that you can swipe through left and right. You get to hear directly from people who work in the charity or those affected by the problems those charities are trying to solve: Mamie from Congo who needs school supplies in order to go to school, Ceyda from the UK who has cerebral palsy and needs a special joystick in order to use a computer, or Jessie the dog who was recently rewarded a home thanks to Elbi’s support of the National Animal Welfare Trust.
Working closely with users, brands, charities and Natalia, the team conducted a deep UX and business assessment to identify opportunities for change and acceleration in efforts to better highlight charities, deliver a more intuitive and delightful experience and define a strategic roadmap for design, technology and partnership growth over the next 24 months. Elbi has been Apple’s App of the Day and featured in: The New York Times, Vogue, TechCrunch and Sky News.
